[rnrdthefox]

Of all the wiring obstacles that I have to overcome to do what I want to do; the heated and cooled seats was one of the biggest. I couldn't simply take the standalone controllers out of the Silverado and use them with the existing Escalade harness. Without going into a bunch of details that most people don't want to hear, the simple issues are the Escalade uses what's called a GM Low Speed Lan (GMLS LAN) to control most of the non-safety critical systems (door locks, remote entry, heated and cooled seats, outside temperature reading on rearview mirror, etc.) and the standalone controllers use a different network called LIN (Local Interconnect Network) a more broadly accepted network protocol for the auto industry.

So, what does all this mumbo jumbo mean? Well, it means the easiest way to do what I want to do is with a microcontroller that understands both network protocols and program it to do what I want it to do, and then insert it into the harness out of sight. That's all easy enough, but, I don't like the programming part of it. I didn't like it in college, and I haven't developed a liking for it since. But I'm lucky my neighbor does both hardware and software design, and he offered up some of his time to do the integration of the microcontroller and most importantly, the programming. Yah Team!!!

The pictures below are the entire set of harness' out of the Escalade setup on my pool table along with the various ECUs, seats and other sensors that I need to be in place to get the seat controllers working. As far as the harness and electronics go, the system doesn't know it's not in the vehicle. As an example, I can use the key fob for remote entry where it unlocks the doors, even the lights come on. When I put the key in the ignition, everything comes alive just like if it were in the vehicle.