Coastal Dave's Cruise Control EV Switch Quirks

Coastal Dave at Coastal E Tech is now selling a small circuit that will allow you to use your Cruise Control to access EV Mode.

The install is invisible and quite creative, IMO, on his part. Rich Evans in Orlando has posted his experience with a very early version of this CC switch made and installed by Coastal Dave several months ago. He found that there are some quirks and irregularities in the functionality compared to a standard EV Button.

Below are Rich's experiences. I'm going to forward this post to Coastal Dave to respond and will happily update the comments if anything has changed in the functionality. I do NOT wish to discourage anyone from buying this circuit from Dave. But I think it's important that you know what differences in functionality to expect from the information I've posted in the Knowledge Base and Files articles.



note: Rich's comments are paraphrased and slightly modified, but the content and information are not.

The cc switch is a cool place to get ev access from. I really like the ease of access and use.

1) The biggest surprise was that you lose cruise control function under 35 mph. <sometimes you get cc when you engage the switch, sometimes you get ev, sometimes neither.> I knew the switch wouldn't allow you to cancel cc under 35, but I was surprised that it prevented cruise engage as well. When I try to push down on the switch to engage cc at less than 35, nothing happens, cruise is not engaged. I'd recommend to Dave that the switch be tied into the cruise activation button so these two functions wouldn't clash between 25 and 34 MPH. To me it would be slick if the ev circuit would only be active when the cruise button is off and would be de-activated when cruise is on. Then all conflict between the two systems would be eliminated. <I still think this would be the slickest of all ev switches.>

2)CC works just fine at or above 35 MPH. However you get a new series of triple beeps when using cruise sometimes. It's the computer telling me I can't use ev. The beeps don't just occur when I pull the switch toward me to cancel cc, but also when I push down to engage cc. I was surprised by that. Because of the way I use cruise, I'm hearing that triple beeping a lot. It doesn't bother me, but I don't think it's a big hit with my lovely fiancée. Also tough to figure out is that the triple beeping is intermittent. It does not beep every time I use that switch in seemingly identical circumstances. Must be some intriguing stuff going on in the circuitry.

3)Finally, the biggest surprise, is that occasionally when I get into the car to start it up, I hear the single beep telling me I'm in ev mode right from the get go. It happens without me touching the switch, and without me having been in ev mode at the end of my last trip. I suspect it's something in the circuits stored from all those previous uses of the switch for cc purposes above 35 MPH during my last trip.

Hopefully Daniel will get his switch installed (suck it up and just do it Daniel) and let us know if his experiences are the same or not.

 

I got a response from Coastal Dave. Sounds like he solved most, if not all, the issues with the prototype/beta version of the CC EVb Rich Evans' reported on. Below is his response to my questions....

OK, about the EV. That was a beta tester freebie we did during our get
together. The unit I stuck in Rich's car was just a breadboard circuit. It
reacted very fast (about a few microseconds) to the inputs from the cruise.
As the cruise switch stalk gets a little use, the switch contacts tend to
arc when transitioning between functions. The original circuit could see
this noise as a "cancel" input and respond. There was also the overlap
between functions when the car was going slow and you were trying to use
cruise or EV and the voltages are not stable on the line (sometimes the
battery is charging and sometimes it is not). I addressed the noisy switch
and the rest of the complications with a different circuit and incorporated
a time delay to eliminate the cruise control overlap. Now, the cruise
control cancel feature works the same regardless of speed, and normal
operation of the switch does not trigger the EV mode. The only time the
added feature is apparent, is when the stalk is pulled into the cancel
position and held for around two seconds. Then, if all conditions are right
(speed, battery, temperature) EV mode is signaled. The same two second
motion turns the mode back off or it turns off by itself when the battery is
low, speed is too great, or the driver accelerates quickly. The unit is
still only one pin to insert and two wires to clip on (all on the same
plug). The operation of the circuit for the EV mode is the same as the
button.


With that assurance, and after Daniel get's out of his recliner and drives his car with the fresh new EV mode and gives his report I'll be the first to give a big "2-Thumbs Up" to the new and improved CC EV mode circuit.