Why are Switch Pro so expensive

I’d strongly suggest against a Raspberry PI for this use case. They are exceptionally fragile in how they operate, you can “harden” them, but that takes a ton of OS work and knoladge, and even then it’s still not the best solution for many reasons I won’t go into. Something like an Arduino is far more suitable from the mainstream devices, but even then there are better options. Anything ESP 32 based is a perfect option you can even buy boards with a load of relays build in, so no need to design the hardware. You also get ADC input on esp boards (unlike pi) so you can read analog input (like steering wheel controls), ie voltage & resistance as well as digital input. You also don’t need to run them in the engine bay, all the wiring I wanted to tie into was inside, but an ESP based device will be far more stable in the temp situation you are referring too than a PI.
If you want the device in the engine bay, then you can run the device in the cab and run very low voltage wiring to the relays that live in the engine bay.

 

Appreciate the info. I'm going to learn up on ESP32 and see where that takes me.

I wanted to have the relay unit (for lack of a better term, think a Bussmann RTMR but you turn things on and off via data vs analog) in the engine bay so I could just run one wire through the firewall to communicate data to and from the relay and command units. I can still run several wires through, but having the one data cable makes it trivial to add more accessories later so long as I have the space at the relay unit.

 

That is literally every product ever made. That’s how our entire world works man. Why get so bent out of shape about it? It’s worth whatever people will pay.

 

Was I getting bent out of shape? No. Just stating that most brand name products come with a premium in part do to dollars spent on sponsor ships. Part of my post was just stating that there are huge margins built into that retail price. And no our whole world does not work that way. Plenty of options out there at lower prices from many MFG's that are not household name brands and significant savings can be found. Are those products identical? Probably not but may meet the needs of plenty.

 

How do you wire up the SWC (steering wheel control buttons) to do auxiliary relay/light control?

I've always wanted to use certain SWC buttons for lights because that's the best place for certain kinds of lighting I want to activate in higher-speed off-road conditions where I want both hands on the steering wheel at all times.