2011 Cruise Control, mod to keep it "on"?

I have three old vintage cars, that I have installed Cruise Control on. Most aftermarket CC systems have a mechanical switch on the actuator, that I leave in the "ON" position all the time. Has anyone figured out how to alter the system to keep the Taco's Cruise Control "ON" all the time? Thanks...

 

Nobody? No one else thinks this is a pain in the @zz to turn on the CC every time you get in the truck? I remember the the mod found here that I used to make the 12V receptacle "hot" all the time, I thought surely someone had figured out how to do this too. No one?

 

Pain in the @zz to push that little button before setting cruise speed? I guess I've never really thought about it, or found it to be a hassle.

 

Well I guess I am just a Cruise Control Guy. Over the years, I have installed Cruise in my '63 Ranchero, my '65 Thunderbird, my '85 S-10 (sold to buy the Taco). My current stable that I have installed Cruise in is my '72 Datsun 510, my '40 Ford Coupe, & my '67 Sunbeam Tiger. These six vehicles all have different Cruise units, but not one of them requires me to turn them "ON", every time I get behind the wheel, so yes it is kind of a pain in @zz, that this "newer" truck full of gizmos & technology is built this way. I am sure the reason 'Yota does this is because some body got hurt when they "forgot" the Cruise was on, so they had to make it idiot-proof. Again, I expected that someone on the Forum had already figured out how to do this, as everyone has been so helpful on the other mods I have done to make the Taco more fun to drive.

 

I'm willing to bet it is a 'safety feature' to cover Toyota, as you mentioned. I use cruise a lot too and I'd definitely do a mod to keep it on all the time if it is something fairly easy.

 

It's just like the reason why the 12V receptacle had to used with the ignition on, because the car makers think that we not smart enough to use it wisely, to the point of not killing the battery. The 12V mod was actually easy, but not something that I would have figured out on my own. So I am hoping that there is someone out there in that big wide world that got tired of turning the Cruise on every time to use it, & can share that with the rest of us.

 

That kind of a modification isn't as trivial as connecting two wires together (like 12v always on).
The problem is that the button isn't a switch, its a momentary signal to tell the ECU that it can load the CC software into RAM and accept inputs from the other CC buttons and inputs.
I think there is a light that comes on the dashboard when the cruise control is loaded, not just when a speed is set, right? So what you would have to do, is tap into that light to know if the cruise control is loaded or not, and activate the signal when it isn't.

Best option would be to buy something like an A* 32U4 micro : http://www.canadarobotix.com/arduino-compatible/1252-pololu-a-star-32u4-micro
You plug your accessory car power into VIN and GND, use one of the GPIO pins as an input from the cruise "on" light, and another GPIO pin as an output to signal the ECU.
For the input, you'll need to make sure that the voltage from the LED is appropriate/safe input for the 32U4. If its too high of a voltage, you'll need a voltage divider (costs about 5 cents in resistors to make one).
For the output, the 32U4 may not output enough voltage to trigger the ECU's input, so you may need a FET to feed it higher voltage.
And of course, you'll need to write some software to tell it what to do.
Logical outline,

Code:

while ( true ){
    if (!input_is_high()){
        set_output_high();
        sleep(1);
        set_output_low();
    }
    sleep(10);
}

In other words, you have an infinite loop, which first checks if the cruise control light is turned OFF. If it is OFF, then it sends a 1-second signal to the ECU to turn the cruise control ON.
It then sleeps for 10 seconds and starts over.

 

Never found a need to have the CC on all the time. When needed I just push the button in to turn it ON then set the desired speed. Very easy and uncomplicated.

 

Wow! You know lots more than I do about this stuff! I guess I'll just keep on hitting that "on" button, Thanks!

 

The 12V mod that I found here on the Forum was not simply connecting two wires together, it was removing several panels / covers to loosen & push out of the way the fuse box, to expose the correct relay, & disable it. I was hoping it would have been something simple like that, never dreamed it would be so hard to modify. Thanks for the reply...

 

Have you met us?

 

Regardless of how much stuff they dig through, it boils down to connecting the wires together.
The relay is a switch that will connect or disconnect the circuit.
They yank the relay and jump the two sides together.

 

Who is "us"?
The problem is that they don't dumb it down for the "advanced" owner. They don't even dumb it down for the "normal" owner. They dumb it down for the "special" ones.

 

Most people only use Cruise when they are on the Interstate & that's fine. Some people never use Cruise.

Even when I take cross-country drives (like 1500 miles to Kansas City last month), I never take an Interstate, but I drive with Cruise as soon as I leave my driveway. Every time I get into the truck, right after I buckle up, I turn on the Cruise, lots of things to look out for while driving, but watching an incorrectly calibrated (see my other thread) Speedometer doesn't have to be one of them....

 

Yes, of course you are correct. I was referring to some other ideas on the Forum of just adding another 12V receptacle under the dash, which is fine, but the two that came in the dash were enough for me. Again, thanks for setting me straight how involved it is to modify the Cruise system.

 

us as in TW, as in a joke...

 

It will break the other buttons if you do that. See the resistor network? Only one button can be recognized at a time.

 

Right on the "before the resistor network", wrong on the "not have an affect", the on/off switch will have a resistance of 0 ohms. So how will the ECU read a resistance of more than 0 ohms from any of the other switches?