Audiovox Cruise Control Stopped Working, any help?

[TriggerT]

My Audiovox Cruise Control had been working fine up until this morning. In fact I used it on and off yesterday far about an hour and a half.

This morning on the ride in to work the unit will power on, but as soon as I press either the set or resume keys it turns off. I tried it several times, but always the same thing.

Does anyone have any idea what would cause the unit to power off when the set / resume / accelerate key is pressed?

Thanks.

 

[Bustanut joker]

When we hooked up Design Flaws earlier this year we had a similar issue.

His turned out to be vacuum related and the installation of a canister solved it, however I don't see that as the deal here :blink:

Ion or one of the other electrical guru's should be along shortly.

 

[TriggerT]

I have to believe it is an electrical issue, since it went from working fine yesterday to not working today.

The same thing happened about 2 weeks ago (I think) but it only happened once, so I thought I had accidentally hit the off button instead of the set button, since I had my bulky winter gloves on.

 

[BkrK12]

Check all the electrical connections first. If you find nothing wrong there, then you can start tearing into it some more. As you know, gronding can be an issue here.

Dan

 

[Joe2Lmaker]

How waterproof is your key pad?

The AVCC control pad must be waterproofed. The servo unit is very water resistant.

About the pad.

kaitsdad seals the pad.

ionbeam seals the pad.

I wrote to Audiovox and asked them how waterproof the servo was and got back a very cryptic Chinglish response that wasn't very informative so I took the sucker apart. The front half, from which the servo cable exits has no water susceptible parts, the back half is pretty well sealed with the exception of the wire bundle exit hole. Outside of the wire opening the servo should take everything up to total immersion in water. When I finished setting the DIP switchs and routing the wires out the back I filled the wire exit with RTV. My AVCC servo has lived on my rear swing arm for 33k miles and never had a problem.

 

[TriggerT]

Well, Smitty sealed it with what I believe was some shoe goo. I did ride through some good rain the other day, but the unit worked after the rain storm. I wonder if it is a waterproof issue if the unit will start to work again as it dries out?

Good thought Joe.

 

[ionbeam]

BikerGeek99's AVCC quit working and he correctly diagnosed the problem as being the control pad. BG sent me his dead control pad which I took apart expecting to repair it. The damage to both sides of the circuit board was extensive enough that it was written off as a loss.

Who ever sealed this key pad (not BG, it was used) did not use a copper compliant RTV and it greatly contributed to the death of the circuit, complete down to burned out LED 3. With dirt, water, time and the wrong RTV you can see the corrosion on the circuit traces. The corrosion also leached under the gold plated switch contacts and got to the underlying copper there too.

The black dots are impregnated(!) with carbon. When you press on the 'button' the black dot shorts the interlaced gold fingers completing the circuit. This is how your TV/DVD controllers work too.

 

[Bustanut joker]

I helped it along.. Yeah I peed on the darn thing because Andy gave me altitude sickness.

Hope ya washed your hands Alan :lol:

 

[TriggerT]

Another thing to check. Would it result in the unit turning itself off in the manor it is? I suppose that is almost impossible to answer, since corrosion like that could make the thing do just about anything.

 

[TriggerT]

Since it is slow as hell at work today, with about 50% of the people having taken the day off, I decided to open up the face of the unit to look at the circuit board. The thing looks like new, not a single spec of corrosion, and no dirt had made it past the outer keypad. So since I know the circuit board is good, I suppose it is time to start chasing wires, but that will have to wait until I get home.

 

[Bungie]

Mine has gone intermittent as well. Everything test fine, except it it seems I have a voltage leak where I pulled the switched power off my taillights. Something like .5V which apparently is enough to keep it from setting. I'm gonna give the suspected lead a good check and, failing that, I'll put a relay in the circuit to electrically isolate the feed to the CC.

 

[TriggerT]

I looked things over briefly, but didn't see anything obvious. The cruise worked perfectly for the 100 miles I rode home from work this afternoon. I will have to investigate further when time allows.

 

[Bustanut joker]

Sounds like an electrical issue Bad connection someplace..

 

[Rollie]

TriggerT, now might be a good time to be rid of the control pad altogether

Some of us have gone to a toggle switch which pretty well eliminates the waterproof issue.

 

[TriggerT]

The control pad is in perfect condition, it is somewhere else in the system, but I will keep the toggle switch in mind for when it does go one of these days.

 

[Bungie]

Just on the off chance, check to make sure your rear brake pedal is returning all the way. Sometimes they gum up and will keep your brake light on (and your CC off).

 

[TriggerT]

Another good thing to check. THANKS!

 

[wfooshee]

Mine went intermittent on me bout 6 months after initial installation, and I redid all the connection where I tapped the bike's wiring, like the blue taillight wire for 12 volts, the brake light switch connections, all of that. I just cut them out and redid them, soldered connections under heat-shrink tubing, and it's been perfect for nearly 4 years since.

When you say it turns off, you mean the power LED in the pad turns off, indicating no power? That may be a short in the wiring leading to the control pad. Check the connectors involved, including the big plug at the control unit, and look for loose wire strands across the connections.