Rob_Quads Posted March 25, 2007 Share Posted March 25, 2007 This guide is to utilise the steering wheel audio controls with an aftermarket head-unit. The key to the install is the PAC-Audio SWI-JACK interface. This interface can be used for a number of head units. For a full list refer to the PAC Audio web site. I purchased my SWI-JACK from All Best Parts - a US supplier via ebay. It cost around £33 delivered and he was happy to mark the item with a low value to avoid import duty. In this guide I am going to be installing the unit for an Alpine Head unit - Mode 9833 (5 years old). This model is not officially supported. Luckily Alpine have not changed their wired remote interface in many many years meaning this interface actually works with most Alpine models in the last 5/6 years. First lets start with the interface it self when you get it. It looks fairly daunting with lots of wires but its actually fairly simple. Lets start with the centre console. For this its presumed you have already installed your head unit and you have used a loom adapter such as Autoleads. Remove the bottom section first. Pull gently on the section towards the back of the gear stick and the panel will pop up. For safety remove the ribbon from the panel which controls the air con. This mean you can twist the panel round giving you more room. If you have lots of time its worth removing the upper section of the console too as it gives much better access to the cabling. For instructions on how to do this refer to HOWTO: Console Reomval As you can see from this there is lots of room underneath the centre console to store the unit. Next job is to remove your head unit and pull out the loom as much as you can. The picture below looks like there is a lot going on but its actually fairly simple. To the left are the RCA/AI-Net/Aerial. On the right in the main loom which is factory -> Autoleads Adatper -> Alpine Adapter Now its time to start with the SWI-JACK unit. The unit is a universal under designed for many cars so has wiring for this. Luckily for us we only need 4 of the wires for our install : Red, Black, White & the remote jack The remaining cables (blue yellow, orange, green) can all be cut off and taped up. The two cable loops (purple & brown) should be left alone. Plug the loom into the main SWI-JACK unit. To make things easy for feeding the cable tape all 4 of the cables together Pass them up behind the aircon control model into the head-unit area. The first job is to connect the black wire to ground. There are various places this could be done. Before connecting the ground wire to the black cable in the audio loom I performed a continuity check with ground. To my surprise I found that this was in fact NOT earthed. After studying the wiring diags it appears that Pin 9 on the factory loom (which provides ground to aftermarket stereos) is only ground in terms of cable shielding. The factor unit is ground by being screwed into the chassis. The Alpine head unit was actually getting its earth from the Aerial loom. Without the aerial the unit would not turn on. Due to this I cut the Autoleads adapter and added an extension This was fed down behind the aircon unit and was ground on a nice clean fixing on the side of the gear stick Now back to connecting up the SWI-JACk unit. First off connect the ground in the Autoleads adapter. On my loom I already had a spare bullet on it so I just connected it to that Next stop the +12. This needs to be connected to an ignition switched feed. On the 350z this is the red wire in the loom. Here I have again connected it into the Autoleads adapter. Next is the slightly tricky bit. Time to connect up to the steering control. This is done via a connector that the Head Unit loom does not use as shown in the diagram below. Unfortunatly there is not much slack on this cable which means working on it is stricky The cables we need to use are.... Pin 25 Yellow/Green -> Ground : Luckily this cable is already ground so nothing to do here Pin 22 Red/Green -> 47 Ohm Resistor Pin 23 Orange -> 150 Ohm Resistor The diagram above is looking from the plug side not the cable side. Be careful to get the right Orange Cable. There are two on this plug. One is from the immobiliser. By accident I cut this one first. The correct orange cable is the towards the middle of the socket Pin 23. The photo below shows the WRONG orange cable. Connect the other ends of the Resistors together and connect this to the White cable from the SWI-JACK Now solder & tape up the resistors making sure that the car loom side to not short. The final step is to use some double sided sticky tape and secure the SWI-JACK. There is a nice flat section just in-front of the gear stick where the unit can go Now its time to setup the unit for this specific install. First we need to set the dial on the unit for the model of head unit we are using. Alpine requires this to be set to 1 (I had nothing to do as this is the factory position) If you are using another model then set it accordingly (JVC=2, Kenwood=3, Clarion=4, Blaupunkt=5) Next step is to program the unit for this specific car. The version number for the 350z is "3". To program this do the following Now its time to program the individual buttons. 1. First : Turn on the Ignition - The unit LED should flash 3 times to show its version number 2. Press and release the program button - The unit LED should turn on and stay on The following steps must be started WITHIN 7 seconds of step 2. Program each button in turn using the instructions below The order in which you program the buttons is shown by this list For my setup I was going to have Volume Up/Down, Track Up/Down, use the phone button as mute and use the speak button as Source. As a result of this it meant I pressed the buttons in the following order 1 Volume Up 2 Volume Down 3 Phone button 4 Program button to skip 5 Program button to skip 6 Speak button 7 Track Up 8 Track Down 9 Wait 7 seconds for unit to end programming - Module will flash 3 times. Job Done - Before putting it all back together properly plug your head unit in and check if the programming has worked. Now time to put it all back in again and put the panels back. Once you are finished it should be just as it was before Job Done - It took me a few hours to do but mainly due to getting my wires mixed up and the earth issue. If you are competent with car electrics then this job should take around an hour. This guide can easily be used for other makes of head unit and even car BUT its worth reviewing the docs at Pac Audio A PDF version of the manual is available Here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lomoto Posted March 25, 2007 Share Posted March 25, 2007 Great guide Rob (makes me wish I had some steering wheel controls to go and do this ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kennydies Posted March 25, 2007 Share Posted March 25, 2007 Excellent, just what i want, where did you buy it from? What are the resisters for? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob_Quads Posted March 25, 2007 Author Share Posted March 25, 2007 Update the HOWTO with information about suppliers. Mine arrived within a few days As for the resistors - First here is a diagram to help explain it. It shows the interal wiring of the button panel on the steering wheel If the resistors were not used the outcome would be that pressing Volume Up or Volume Down would give the same output and the SWI-JACK module would not know which one it was. By using different value resistors and combining the output cables only a single input line is required, simplifying matters. For referance the voltages of the white cable I got were. Normal 4.92v Volume Up 3.46v Volume Down 3.60v (I think) Mute 1.59 Source 0.85v Track Up 2.05v Track Down 2.54v Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M13KYF Posted March 25, 2007 Share Posted March 25, 2007 added to guides. Nice one Rob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarnie Posted March 25, 2007 Share Posted March 25, 2007 Nice one Rob Now if only i undertood any of it............ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ir_fuel Posted March 25, 2007 Share Posted March 25, 2007 Cool stuff man! Does your mobile phone adapter still work in the car with such a setup? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob_Quads Posted March 25, 2007 Author Share Posted March 25, 2007 From the diagrams I have seen the mobile phone adapter will not work with any aftermarket head unit as the phone buttons on the steering wheel are not connected to anything. IF the car kit works with an aftermarket head unit (with the steering wheel buttons just doing nothing) then IMO yes this could be used with it and should not affect it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moff Posted November 27, 2007 Share Posted November 27, 2007 Does anyone know if this works with Pioneer HU's? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GIXXERUK Posted November 27, 2007 Share Posted November 27, 2007 Does anyone know if this works with Pioneer HU's? list suggests it works with 05 - 06 model with the interface on a pioneer best to email them though http://www.pac-audio.com/swixprogrammin ... amming.asp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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