steering wheel controls without a SWI!

[Vu_]

hey

I'm trying to figure out this way of hooking my steering wheel controls to my new head unit. i'm in the process of trying it and if it works could save alot of money on a SWI .
for the record i have a pioneer DEH-P800BT and a VU commodore ute S.

i read on another post that it was possible to rewire the steering wheel controls with pioneer head units, althought i cant see why this wouldnt work with other head units with a wired remote option.

what i read sounds good in theory. the idea is that a steering wheel interface(like the CAT X) , is just a device that can assign different resistances to the existing buttons to match the resistances that are required by the head unit.

if i can remove the steering wheel buttons and install new resistors at values required by the head unit, theoretically, they should work.. and without a expensive SWI .....? right??

so in terms of the right values i have this chart: Pioneer wired remote controls HACK/DIY

this page refers to the wired remote as being a 3.5mm stereo jack on the back of the head unit. i've read elsewhere that the brown wire is the signal from the steering wheel controls. i'm just a little unsure how to wire the jack. my guess is take a + 12v to the 'tip' and the brown to the 'sleeve' of the jack? is this right??? then plug into the head unit of course

so thats the head unit end done. presumably.

next the steering wheel end. this end isnt as thought out.

there are plenty of threads on how to remove the air bag and this will gain acess to be able to remove the steering wheel controls. from there the plan is to just try and pull them apart and replace the resistors...
then put it all back together and all going well should have steering wheel controls.


any tips would be much appreciated.

[sleepa]

I was working on something similar but using the remote instead. I have soldered wires onto the remote for volume, mute, source, etc. And attached an IR LED on a long piece of wire, directly facing the IR reader on the head unit which is also attached to the remote.

The plan was to hide the remote under the dash somewhere then attach the wires coming out of it to the corresponding switches on the steering wheel, but I haven't got around to that part yet.

If you do manage to find an easy way to take apart the buttons write it up so I can steal it

[Vu_]

no worries will do... i'm still stuck on that 3.5 mm plug though... i've got the brown wire to put in but i dont know what else i need. as i said i think it could be +12v or even ground???

[2LOUD2OLD]

umm why not just buy a PAC unit off ebay? i got mine for $60 delivered, that's hardly espensive and a hell of a lot easier

[anarklov3r]

I did this in my car (VXII and Pioneer DEH-7250SD) with hard wired input. I opened up my steering wheel controls, de-soldered all the old surface mount resistors, attatched appropriate resistors to the legs of each switch, and connected the other end of resistor to the red (brown) wire. Reason for this is that in factory configuration, all 6 buttons are daisy chained, so pressing mute will use resistors from mute, track down, track up and mode to create an overall resistance. This is ok for holden because each button uses a resistance higher than the previous. If you work out the resistance the pioneer headunit needs, it goes up and down. Theres no way to create a chain of resistors that will REDUCE resistance.

Then all i did was put a 3.5mm jack on the brown wire behind the headunit, ground it (no need to apply 12v, trust me)

this will work on all headunits with wired remotes apart from alpines. Alpines use digital signals (not simple resistance)

[Vu_]

thanks anarklover. really helpfull. can you tell me whether the ground goes to the 'tip' or the 'sleeve' of the head phone jack. also can you recall the resistances you used by any chance? i'm not sure, but it doesnt look to me like you can keep the buttons corrasponding to the labels already existing on them?

[anarklov3r]

No, if you wanna do direct resistor replacement, you cant keep correct labels on wheel.

What i had to do was remove all old resistors, put new ones to the other leg of the buttons, put them all to the signal wire coming out of the swiches (connects to clockspring of car)

SOmething like this (i just drew it up off memory, so might be a bit wrong, but values are correct)



You can see the orange is old resistors that i desoldered and removed.

Basically, your going to need a multimeter. make a circuit so that whatever button you press, those resistances are at the two wires coming out of the module. there is no daisy chaining of resistors.

[cewing]

Sounds like alot of work to save $100.
Just remember if you change the resistors themselves and decide to sell the car, you wont be able to put the standard radio back in and have the correct functions.

[vr1uz-fe]

i just bought an eclipse 5030 and it has the abillty to be wired to wheel controls

and has blue tooth and the mic also can tune the equaliser automaticly

[Vu_]

ok so i've installed the head unit! and all seems good. i followed your diagram anarklov3r and hooked the brown to the 'tip' and then the 'sleeve' to ground. this was so simple i thought it couldnt be right, but it works cuz some of the buttons work ( differnt functions though: mode is volume up etc...) . pretty pleased im on the right track. next i 've gotta attack the steering wheel. in the diagram you drew is the wire under 'new' the brown at the stereo and the 'black' is ground i assume?

yea i guess ur right cewing, i probably will let the stereo go with the car if i sold it in the future. in terms of a lot of work, i know i havent done the steering wheel bit, but its been really simple. after the money and programing involved in the SWI's i'd say they're 6to1.

that eclipse 5030 sounds pretty sweet. so it can just plug into any steering wheel controls and be programed to work? sounds like the future of head decks scince most new cars have steering wheel controls.