OK did some searching and I am having an issue with my Brakesmart controller.

OK every day when I hook up to my trailer I do the whole reset then calibrate however no matter what I do short from going under the hood and unplugging the sensor then plugging it back in I cant get the thing to go off the starting PSI so basically no matter how hard I push my pedal it will always state 68psi that is until I pop the hood unplug the sensor then plug it back in then its fine?? Im not sure what the issue is and going to call them up tomorrow and see whats going on also.

My one other concern is how long it takes for the controller to read that the trailer has been disconnected, I can pull up drop the trailer at my lot pull away and THEN it will start beeping stating trailer not connected I even push the brake just to make sure im activating the controller?? I mean you would think it would work instantly considering if your trailer unplugs that means no lights and even worse no brakes and thats something you should no right away, with my old controller (Prodigy) it would show "nc" as soon as the trailer was unplugged.

Any help is much appreciated thanks!

 

The thing should read application of the brake pedal immediately. Since messing with the plug will fix it, I think you may have a bad connection or bad harness? Maybe even a bad sensor?

Mine also takes a bit to read that the trailer is unhooked. If I understand how it operates, it sends a small pulse through the brakes (too small to activate anything) and it reads the impedence. It uses that to tell if a magnet disconnected, if something shorted, or if the trailer is disconnected. It only does this every minute or two.

I wish it had a constant indicator of whether the brakes were connected, too.

 

Thanks for the reply, I think I found out what my problem was for the first time I DIDNT push and reset the unit just held the manual button down till it was calibrated and everything was fine, I thought that I had read you have to reset it then push down the manual button but I guess I was wrong just hook it up hold down the manual button ands thats it...

OK so then im not the only one that it takes a minute or so to detect a disconnect that makes me feel better as well...lol

 

The Brakesmart unit uses the check pulse to do several things, looking for a short, looking for a trailer, looking at resistance in the magnets etc. It does this on a regular timed cycles. The Prodigy may do continuous monitoring, I don't know. That my explain the difference.

 

I just wish when it gave a message about a short detected or trailer unhooked or whatever, that the message stayed on the display until you manually cleared it (as opposed to clearing when you next press the brake pedal).

I think a lot of folks turn off the audible alarm when not towing (so as not to get the distracting tone when the thing goes into power saving mode), and although I try to remember to turn the alarm back on when towing I often forget.

Actually, I'm not sure why they made it give a tone when shutting down when the audible tone is turned on. The thing comes back on instantly when you touch the brake or the manual control anyway.

 

If you don't want to worry about turning the audible warning on and off, just increase the time required for the unit to go to sleep to a couple hours.

 

Yeah, but if I recall correctly the maximum is 2 hours...

 

I was thinking six, but I'll have to check. Even at two, most people can't drive two hours without touching the brake and each time you do, it starts the count down to sleep timer again.