Saturday, April 08, 2006

Last of RoadToad's Wiring

Was a rainy day today, which made the Easter egg hunt @ RPC an indoor event. The kids all still had fun though, singing, dancing, doing crafts, and of course searching for candy-filled eggs. My only responsibility was to get the music videos used for singing up and running. Afterwards, I headed home. The rain held up long enough for me to complete the last phase of the EvenBrake install - wiring the monitor/sending unit and testing.
The install was simple, just used the fuse tap that was included to get power to the unit, and attach the ground wire. The fuse had to be one that was "hot" even when RoadToad was off - and I found the perfect fuse for this - the one that controls the power locks. Only issue is that in the Honda there are three fuse boxes, under the hood, in panels by the driver & passenger doors. All the fuses that are "hot" when the car is off were located in the passenger fuse area, so I had to work the wires under the dash, and splice in a piece to stretch all the way over.
Once this done, tucked everthing away, cleaned up, everything connected - now time to test!
Since RoadAbode is in storage, I plugged the receiving unit into our Town & Country. EvenBrake needs this to function properly. It continually is doing self-diagnostic testing, automatic low battery and brake protection, and constant braking information and system status for extra safety. I followed the connection procedure for the EvenBrake itself. The arm that presses against the brake pedal is driven by an air compressor, which was quite loud as it pressured up. I kept walking back and forth between RoadToad and the van to check what messages were being sent. First message was a self-diagnostic test, then it requested that the usual manual test be run, so I pressed the test button. The arm jolted to life and pressed against the pedal 2 or 3 times - and I got a green light!
Checked the readout in the van - Everything reads Ready! Pretty Cool. Celebrated with a Mountain Dew!
Next up - Adding the 4 prong wiring connector to RoadAbode's 7 Blade connector.

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