Audiovox CCS-100 Cruise Control: We're 0-2!

The instructions state that the purple wire should show 12 volts when the brake is applied and 0 volts when it's not. It never hit me that it would have to see "absolute" 0 volts.
 
trek2120 said:
I plan to disconnect the purple wire tomorrow to prove/disprove the theory. I really hope that it's something that simple. As I've always stressed to my two sons, you learn far more from your failures than you do from your successes. If everything worked perfectly the first time around, you wouldn't learn nearly as much!
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Just disconnecting the purple wire won't help. It will need to be grounded.

Ray
 
I have a CCS 100 on my 05. Works great. I tried to install a taillight modulator and they both caused the other to not work correctly. I think the purple wire sees ground thru the tail light bulb in normal off break mode and then feels the 12v when the breaks are applied. With the brake light modulator on the tail lights the ground is removed from the purple wire... there is now solid state circuit btwn the purple wire and the light bulb/ground. What I did was added some homemade LEDs for the modulator to flash and left the stock brake light circuit intact.
Careful, if you ground the purple wire to prove the CC works or not... it wil not disengage if you apply the brakes...
 
See the diagram in post # 17 here.

As others have done, when I installed my modulator I kept the original brake light circuit in tack so it wouldn't affect the cruise control. I added the Turn Signal Conversion kit from Electrical Connection. It added LED bulbs into the turn signal portion of the tail light making the whole assembly a larger brake light.
 
Ok, now that it's been mentioned, I had forgotten that I recently modified my tail light setup. I have a GIVI Maxia trunk that I added eight rows of LEDs behind the red lenses. I incorporated a "Wig-Wag" tail light modulator to those lights.

Occasionally, I ride without the trunk and still wanted the wig-wag effect on the stock tail light, so I re-wired the tail so that the stock brake lights operated off of the modulator. I don't recall specifically when I did that, so I can't say that's what started the problem. It makes sense though.

As a person who tends to look into the future with most everything I do, I added connectors that would allow me to easily disconnect the stock brake lights from the modulator and connect them back to the original state in the event the modulator would happen to die. So, I'm going to first disconnect the stock brake lights from the modulator and see of the CC comes to life!

I'll report back shortly after I perform the experiment...

I guess that if this works, I'll have an extra Audiovox CCS-100 that I'll sell cheap!
 
trek2120 said:
<snip>
It sounds like the relay should be used to control the purple wire rather than the brake lights. It would make sense to connect the brake light wire to the coil on the relay and the purple wire to the switch portion of the relay so that the purple wire is completely disconnected from everything when the brake is not being applied.

Dang it! Now I'll have to wait until after work to try this!
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That's more or less what I did, but for a different reason. Have a look here for the schematic. For your purpose, one relay would do the job.

Marshal
 
If you think your headlight modulator will save you, your fooling yourself. I use to ride with them and after 3 cars pulled out of parking lots with near misses, I gave up on 'em. The 3rd near miss was the one that 'broke the camels back', as she waved at me as she was pulling out, as if she was thanking me for 'signaling' to her it was okay to pull out. I had to swerve in the other lane to avoid a rear end impact, fortunately there were no on coming cars, other wise I would have probably nailed her.
 
trek2120 said:
Snowmoer: How did you connect your relay?
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I did not read all the other posts yet, but the Dakota Digital one should be the one you are looking for. If not, here is the post on the Rostra CC and I have the info on how to hook the relay up at the bottom of my post. Rostra makes the Audiovox CC. It sounds like this will solve your problem. A real CC is the only way to go.

https://www.st-owners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9317
 
snowmoer said:
Rostra makes the Audiovox CC.
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[OT] Dan, I thought the same thing, I've even written words to that effect here in the forum. But once during a call to Rostra's Tech Support folks, I mentioned they make the CC for Audiovox. He told me they didn't, that it (CCS-100) is made overseas and is based on a (model?) Mark III CC they used to make. Now I'm curious about Audiovox's other CC, the all electronic version. From the pictures, it looks exactly like the Rostra 250-1223. I wished I had asked about it while I had him on the phone. Not that it matters, but I wonder who/where that one is made?

Matt
 
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Thanks for the update. The info I was using was posted here and from when I was looking at all the options for a CC three years ago. That is a long time in the manufacturing world!!
 
Well, we have a winner! I unplugged the stock brake lights from the modulator and plugged them back into the normal circuit, and the cruise control worked perfectly. I stopped at Radio Shack on the way home and picked up a relay. I'll install that this weekend. Once someone mentioned that the taillight modulator was interfering from the aspect of “ground” when the brakes are off as opposed to “12 volts” when the brakes are on, it all made sense. I had added the stock brake lights to the modulator setup and then it was several days before I tried the cruise control again. That’s why the two things didn’t click in my mind.

Anyway, thanks to all who have participated in this thread. This is what makes the forums such a fantastic place to hang out!
 
trek2120 said:
Well, we have a winner! I unplugged the stock brake lights from the modulator and plugged them back into the normal circuit, and the cruise control worked perfectly.
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Good job!

trek2120 said:
I stopped at Radio Shack on the way home and picked up a relay. I'll install that this weekend.
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Friendly suggestion: Seal the relay's edges w/ silicone, or better yet, buy a sealed relay to keep moisture from rusting out the innards.

Matt
 
Thanks st13fundred! I always seal and then encapsulate things like this in heat shrink tubing. It'll be up inside the fairing where the stock electronics are located.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by trek2120
I'd like to know their rationale for not using their unit on Honda vehicles...

No idea. Maybe the VSS on Hondas doesn't behave like everyone else's.

--Mark

I think this is correct. When I tried to measure my ST1300'a VSS PPM (pulse per mile) output it was much higher frequency than anything listed in the Audiovox set up guide. Maybe their cars are the same way.
 
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wjbertrand said:
When I tried to measure my ST1300'a VSS PPM (pulse per mile) output it was much higher frequency than anything listed in the Audiovox set up guide.
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Yep, Much higher. Several months ago in a conversation with pdfruth (inventor extraordinaire of the DIY GPI), I mentioned I was trying find the VSS specs and asked if he had any info. I was kind of thinking he might have found it in the service manual or on the web somewhere. A few hours later he sent me an email saying he strapped his O-scope to the ST13 VSS and went for a ride! This was December.. in Colorado, mind you!!. Waaay above the call of duty, I'd say. :bow1:

Pat has a Speedohealer, so his corrected speed is 6% below what a *regular* ST13 speedo would show. Here are his numbers:

Speed displayed on an uncorrected ST13 | Actual Speed (corrected by -6%) | VSS Pulses Per Mile
~10.6​
|
10​
|
15,000​
~42.4​
|
40​
|
60,000​
~65.72​
|
62​
|
85,715​

The CC manual shows various vehicle's PPM, which I believe are (implied to be) the number of pulses at 60 mph, therefore, I'd say you could probably be safe rounding the ST13's PPM to 80,000. I'm not sure why the last value above isn't linear with the other two? (a "speed sensor" is independent of any gear ratio, right?)

Matt

p.s. This PPM number agrees with Altexst1300's Rostra Cruise Installation instructions (that snowmoer linked above), which uses a purchased pulse divider circuit set to "divide-by-2" to match the Rostra's highest PPM capacity of 40,000 PPM.
 
trek2120 said:
Well, we have a winner! I unplugged the stock brake lights from the modulator and plugged them back into the normal circuit, and the cruise control worked perfectly. I stopped at Radio Shack on the way home and picked up a relay. I'll install that this weekend. Once someone mentioned that the taillight modulator was interfering from the aspect of ?ground? when the brakes are off as opposed to ?12 volts? when the brakes are on, it all made sense. I had added the stock brake lights to the modulator setup and then it was several days before I tried the cruise control again. That?s why the two things didn?t click in my mind.

Anyway, thanks to all who have participated in this thread. This is what makes the forums such a fantastic place to hang out!
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Trek,

Thanks for proving that. I have sometimes wondered about a modulator, but I am also very skeptical on their effectiveness. It all depends on the driver behind you. Not everyone reacts to those things the same way. Now that I know it would cause problems with my MUCH LOVED CCS-100, there is no way I would even consider it now. My CCS-100 has made long 300 mile stretches between gas stops so, so much more enjoyable. It has also helped me get the most out of gas mileage.

Texas
 
Texas: I'm thoroughly convinced that the tail light modulator, especially the "wig-wag" model that I have, is very effective. It definitely grabs your attention. I installed one on my older son's sport bike, and on my younger son's scooter.
 
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