Electric Brake Controllers

I have an old Jordan controller that has a cable that attaches to the brake pedal and goes to the electronic controller. The harder I push on the brake the more current goes to the brakes. It works great, but the company went out of business. Too simple I guess.

Other than a wire connected to the brake switch wire, all current units are electronic. (That I'm aware of, anyway)

There's two main styles; the cheaper ones that supply a constant current which is adjustable by the driver, and the more expensive smart controllers that vary the current based on vehicle angle & deceleration. All styles have a method to set sensitivity for each application & load, and have some sort of control for manual braking.

I had an older style "smart" controller in my pickup years ago; it had a small internal pendulum that sensed angle and decel. A small lever on the side set the initial angle and a dial (pot) to adjust the sensitivity. This unit was nice overall, except when in rougher terrain, the pendulum would swing wildly.... resulting in jerking brakes. It was perfect on smooth & moderately smooth asphalt & concrete.

Early brake controllers actually tapped into the brake lines... but any vehicle warranty would be voided, but more importantly, I would think the anti-lock brakes on today's vehicles would make such an application nearly impossible.

A good quality decel/angle sensitive electronic controller serves well in the vast majority of applications. Most fairly recent model pickups & vans/cut-away chassis has either a factory connector or pigtail leads for a brake controller.