Wiring & pinout
Wiring is the part the official manual spreads across many pages (pinout, MAP sensor, foot brake, switches, displays, speed output, selector connectors, mechatronic mods).
Start with the Pinout Explorer: every pin, filterable by layer (power, ground, CAN, selector, sensors, outputs, options), with its function and wire colour.
Core connections
- Power & ground: switched 12V and a solid chassis ground.
- CAN: transmission CAN to the gearbox, plus ECU CAN if integrating. CAN1 (pins 68 low / 69 high) is the gear-selector bus; CAN2 (pins 66 / 67) is the engine-ECU bus.
- Selector: the inputs for your chosen gear selector.
- Sensors: MAP sensor and foot brake where used.
Key analog input pins
The analog inputs A1-A12 map to fixed connector pins. The defaults in the base maps are:
| Input | Channel | Pin |
|---|---|---|
| TPS (throttle) | A4 | 6 |
| MAP sensor | A5 | 7 |
| Footbrake (+12V) | A7 | 11 |
| Handbrake (to ground) | A9 | 13 |
| Program switch (0-5V) | A10 | 15 |
| Shift up paddle | A11 | 36 |
| Shift down paddle | A12 | 37 |
The footbrake, and whether it can come over CAN
The TCU will not engage a gear without a brake signal. Get this right before the car moves.
The simple answer is a wire: pin 11 (A7), +12V from the brake-light circuit, which is
what Footbrake Signal Input ships set to (7 = analog A7). It always works, on any ECU.
It can also come over CAN. Footbrake Signal Input accepts 13 = CAN input, and there
is a Footbrake Automatic Detection flag that picks the brake up off the CAN stream. The
catch is that the stream has to actually carry a brake bit, and most do not:
| Your ECU CAN profile | Brake on CAN? |
|---|---|
TCU Standard 2 (Can2A = 7) | Yes, the stream carries it |
| OEM / donor ECU (BMW, Dodge, Audi…) | Yes, the donor carries it |
| TCU Standard 1 (6), Haltech I/O Expander (8), Ecumaster (1), Holley (11) | No brake bit |
If your ECU sits on a profile with no brake bit, you are not stuck with the wire. Can2B runs a second protocol in parallel on the same CAN2 bus, and it accepts TCU
Standard 2 (7). So you can keep your ECU on Can2A and add Can2B = 7 for the brake,
provided you can make the ECU transmit a matching frame.
This is how footbrake-over-CAN is done on a Haltech: the Haltech I/O Expander profile the TCU uses is send-only, and the Haltech’s own broadcast has no brake channel at all, so neither carries the brake by itself. Users run it over CAN anyway via the Can2B route. We have not published a known-good settings set yet, so treat the exact values as unconfirmed and keep the wire until you have proved it on your own car.
- Engine RPM (wired): signal on pin 65, signal ground on pin 43. Needs a high-resolution trigger (36-1 or 60-2, never under 20 teeth), with the tooth count set in Sensor Cal.
Outputs: Neutral on AUX11 (pin 56), Reverse on AUX12 (pin 57).
Footbrake: the brake only comes over CAN on a few ECU streams (the v2 stream, CAN standard 7, plus OEM donor profiles). Most standalones, including Haltech, do NOT carry the brake on CAN, so wire the footbrake to pin 11 (A7) off the brake-light +12V. See ECU CAN integration.
Double-check pin assignments against your exact harness before powering up.