Center Console Radio Control Plan - Continuing nalc's saga
 

First let me introduce myself...I'm Bob and I just bought a white BRZ Limited. Last two cars were 2004 Subaru WRX and 2012 G37 Coupe (when I was living in Qatar). Love the BRZ. It's a little underpowered but so much fun. Lack of steering wheel controls is frustrating...

So, based on the outstanding investigative work of nalc found here:

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39244 ,

I got the idea to rig up controls on the center console, which would put them right where I rest my hand. The critical info from nalc's thread is this:

2011-up Impreza and Forester (both w/ phone/BT buttons):

Pin 21:
Seek Up 0 Ohms
Seek Down 330 Ohms
Volume Up 1000 Ohms
Volume Down 3110 Ohms
No buttons 100K Ohms

Pin 22:
Mode 0 Ohms
On hook 330 Ohms
Off hook 1000 Ohms
Talk 3110 Ohms
No buttons 100K Ohms

Pin 23 is the common wire for the SWCs

I realized that I could replicate all of these controls with four DPDT momentary on-off-momentary on switches, specifically four of these:

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/JR-Products-13445-Mom-On-Switch/dp/B002UC2TZA"]JR Products 13445 Black DPDT Mini Mom-On/Off/Mom-On Switch : Amazon.com : Automotive[/ame]

You can basically jumper across the center poles with 100k ohm resistor and place the appropriate resistor across the respective pairs of poles for each switch to get all 8 functions with four miniature rocker switches.

Subaru gave us the perfect spot for it (which is unfortunately right where my heated seat controls are...more on that later). Four of these switches will fit nicely into that ~2.25" x ~3" spot.

But wait there's more, I plan to get a control panel made by this company:

http://www.plaquemaker.com/

They will do custom printed plaques/signs for not much money (I used them in the past for a gift). In plastic, they will do custom shapes including center cutouts for the controls, making it much much easier to assemble. Silver plastic with black lettering is available. It will look something like the attachement. I'll dremel out the spot in the center console, leaving a lip and a center rail for support and then glue the panel assembly in place.

So that's the idea. I'd very much appreicate feedback. I could use other ideas on the design and switch selection. Unfortunately, I've got about a month before I can implement this (I just moved back from Qatar and wont have a house/garage and my tools until late September).

I could also use some insights on relocation of the heated seat switches. The front edge of the centrer storage, just above the 12V socket seems like a good location but the heated seat switches might be just a bit too big. Does the seat power actually run through the switches or are the switches just used to activate relays elsewhere. I could get a couple of additional on-off-on switches (not momenatary on) like the ones above and tuck those in the center console.

Really the most important control is the Seek +/-. I also thought about buying the sport/snow switch assembly for my manual BRZ and using that extra switch for seek/scan. Still temped as it would not require the work on the heated switches. But I just kind of want to do the full kit above...

Thanks for any input!

Bob

I want to link you to a thread that you may or may not have seen but I can't because I'm on my phone.
Someone here took their entire centre console and move the heated seat switches in front of the shifter and used the empty switch area to put the push button start there and it looked really good.
Maybe someone here can link you to it, and maybe you'll want to do something similar, and have the radio controls around the start button where your heated seat switches are currently.

Sent from my SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

Great feedback. I hadn't seen that project. I don't think I'm up for that amount of work, but that looks like a great spot for the heated seat switches. Here's the link:

http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41877

Actually, I don't think there is room for the seat switches there in mycar as the bulge of the start-stop button is in the way...

Bob

Progress!
 

I got the control panel made by plaquemaker.com. Very pleased with the results. The labels are laser cut into the silver plastic so they will be quite permanent. Shape and internal cutouts were also precisely laser cut so the switches slipped right in and locked in place (one is slightly loose so I may glue in place). Cost about $40 for the custom job.

This is the switch I ended up using:

http://www.americanrvcompany.com/JR-...per-Trailer-RV

All resistors procured from Radio Shack. Now I just need to wait for my soldering iron to be delivered with my move from Qatar.

I also need to settle on a place for my seat heater switches.

Pictures attached.

Bob

Could only figure out how to attach on photo per post...

Impressive looking so far!

any updates?

Looks really good, I didn't realize someone else was going with this idea. I can post a circuit schematic if you need any help, the OEM stuff is wired all in series, so each signal goes through all the resistors below it.

So Seek Up shorts out the pins. Seek down connects a 330 ohm resistor. Volume up connects a 670 ohm resistor in series with the 330. Volume down connects a 2110 ohm resistor in series with the 670 and the 330.

Do you have a plan for addressing Mode/Voice? They're electrically isolated on the factory SWCs, but you've got them on a single DPDT switch. There's probably a way, but I'm a very visual type of engineer, and I can't really think through how it would work without drawing a schematic.

One thing I've thought of doing was getting a piece of plastic and molding it into the start button cubbyhole, then bondoing over it and sanding and painting so it's smooth, then installing the heated seat switches there, like in a NC Miata. I got turned off though because I am adamant about not significantly modifying factory wiring. I'm fine inserting pins, and I'm fine modding a $15 trim piece that I could replace if I had to, but I don't want to mess with relocating the heated seat switches, unless there were extension cords available for them that would plug into the switches and into the harness.

Someone needs to mass produce this shit. I bet you everyone would buy this, especially us premium owners who don't have heated seats.

Hey, Nalc, glad to have your input. I think I have the resistances thought out. Rather than putting a 330 and 670 in series, I'll just switch over to a 1000 ohm resistor. But I will try to draw it up as I would value your review.

I do fear that I misinterpreted you post with respect to Mode and Voice. I had thought that they both come off pin 22... Uh oh. That may require a rethink.

Pin 21:
Seek Up 0 Ohms
Seek Down 330 Ohms
Volume Up 1000 Ohms
Volume Down 3110 Ohms
No buttons 100K Ohms

Pin 22:
Mode 0 Ohms
On hook 330 Ohms
Off hook 1000 Ohms
Talk 3110 Ohms
No buttons 100K Ohms

Pin 23 is the common wire for the SWCs

I'm going to buy a new console for $50 to cut up. I'm hoping there is enough wire on the heaters that I can shift them to the front of the cubby where the 12v socket is. I haven't pulled it apart yet so all of this is theoretical... But I agree the cubby hole next to the start button is another possibility.

As far as progress not a lot will happen in the next couple of weeks. I close onto house on the 19th. Then hopefully I'll get my shipment from Qatar soon thereafter.

If someone wants to carry this forward I'm happy to pass on the plaquemaker.com design for your use. They really drop in price the more you make.

Thanks for the feedback all!

Bob

Whoops, never mind me, that was a brain slip. They are on the same thing. I must have been thinking about Legacy style (the one used in the current Legacy and older Imprezas) when I wrote that, because that has the mode button on the same pin as the vol and seek. You're correct, the Impreza/BRZ has the mode and voice both on pin 22.

Nalc--Whew! That's a relief...

So here's a schematic of what I have in mind. Am I understanding correctly how these three pins work? It should mostly just involve soldering resistors straight to the switch lugs so should not be too tough.

For those that have had the center console apart, how much extra harness do I have to work with on those heater switches? Will they reach to the front face of the cubby, where the 12V outlet currently is?

Thanks.

I guess the 100k-ohm resistors jumpering the pins in the "no buttons" case are kind of superfluous. I should be able to leave those connections open. That's the state it is in now, eh?

I don't know. From what I remember from my testing, you can just short the pins with the correct resistors to work. If you just place a 330 ohm on it, it will do something, it's not like there is some logic that looks for a 100K ohm resistor and says "Oh, SWCs are installed, I'll pay attention to the pins now" like there is for the backup camera. You can go from open to shorted with a 330 or whatever ohm resistor and it will do something, you don't need to go from shorted with 100K to shorted with a 330. I don't see why you'd need the 100K resistors, but they are in the stock SWCs, so I personally wouldn't take a chance on deleting them, but it's your car. I'm not sure whether it is "We want to have some resistor that is so high that the HU can't even detect it to aid troubleshooting SWCs" or whether it does something. I couldn't get the SWCs to react to anything over 11.26K ohms, so that might be the smallest current that the radio can detect.

It's probably also worth mentioning here that the resistance values the SWC works with have a pretty high tolerance, and they nearly overlap. So, for instance, Seek down is 330 ohm and vol up is 1000 ohms. If you put in a 400 ohm, it will do seek down. If you do a 900 ohm, it will do volume up. Any resistor between 330 and 1000 ohms will do something. There's some crossover point that it will switch over, there is not a "gap" during which it won't do anything. For my HU, it was at 529. Anything from 330-529 was seek down, anything from 530 to 1000 was volume up, there was no value in between that didn't do anything. It probably shouldn't be an issue for you, but keep it in mind if you start having problems.

I don't remember if I posted it in my thread or not, but what gave me some confusion was that if you hold down seek up/down it turns into tune up/down (and I assume ff/rewind during CDs). So a quick press goes to the next preset, a long press will give you a beep then it will start going to the next radio station. Holding down the Mode button also acts as a Mute.

Nalc,

Thanks for the feedback. No reason not to put in the 100k-ohm resistors just to be safe. Or perhaps I'll put a 200k-ohm resistor across each parallel switch for symmetry...

Interestingly, the resistances seem to step up by 0.5 on a log scale--330, 1000, 3300... Those are readily available at Radio Shack so I went with those.

I did pick up on the short/long press seek/tune, but not Mode/mute. Cool. Good to know.

So the schematic looks okay to you? Glad I'm on the right track.

Yup, seems like it would work fine.

I will buy one

I like this idea a lot. I can't stand the next track/previous track on the touch screen, so I will probably only do one switch for those two. Now to just figure out where I will put that one switch then I will get to work!

And just so I know im understanding everything correctly, if I were to do this I basically would want pin 21 as the input for the switch and pin 23 as the output. When the switch is in the middle position there would be no connection between these pins, in the up position for next track it would create a connection between these two pins with no resistor, and when the switch is pushed down it would create a connection between the two pins with ~330 ohm resistor giving me previous track.

As long as my understanding is correct this seems pretty simple, now I just need to find an on-off-on momentary switch lying around my shop to test it out.

That's correct.

If you have a manual transmission car, I would propose trying to get the three switch traction--snow/sport--stability control module and try to hack it to make the center snow/sport switch serve the seek function.

This is a picture I took of the insides of the TCS switch (MT).

http://i.imgur.com/b2wzssQ.jpg

Sport/Snow are the two gold circles in the center. As you can see, the traces go to the two empty pads towards the right. The MT has 7 of the 9 pads connected - illumination positive, illumination ground, switch common, TCS switch, VSC switch. The AT has the additional 2 pads connected to Sport and Snow.

In theory, if one was to get the AT switch module, you could insert pins into the harness and use snow and sport for alternate functions, but you'd need to make sure that the common contact for all the switches will play nicely with what you're using it for (I do not know whether it's a ground or a positive, or if it will cause problems if you connected it to a radio pin)

I did also observe that it may be possible to jury-rig the MT switches to allow usage of the center switch. The housing and PCB are the same, and the MT center switch blank is installed on a pivot point same as on the AT. The only difference is that the switch blank is so long that it won't freely rock back and forth, and it doesn't have plastic legs that push down on the pads to short out the contacts. It doesn't seem like it'd be all that hard to mod the MT switches so that you could press the center blank and have it do something else (i.e. radar detector mute, radio controls, toggle some lighting, etc)

Nalc,

One more question for you. What's the best way to get the three wires into the 28 pin connector? Are these some sort of standard Molex connector pins?

Thanks again for all the advice.

I couldn't find info on the correct pins, but I found that the pins from a PC motherboard header work fine. If you can get an old computer case, the female pins from the power/reset switch and power/HDD LEDs and the little speaker/buzzer can be used. Just remove them from the black plastic connector they're in. If you don't, I'd pick up a pair of PC internal speakers (the old ~2" paper cone speakers with a 4-pin header that connect to the motherboard and do a beep when you power on your computer) on Ebay and pull the pins from those. USB ports will work, but I've found that the wires in the USB cable are very thin, so I'm concerned about the long-term reliability, and ease of soldering. Again, I'm talking about the pins from the 9-pin connector that goes into the motherboard, not the USB port itself.

For the 28-pin connector, use a very small flathead screwdriver to pry the rectangular insert in the bottom of the connector. Just pop it up a sixteenth of an inch or so , you can't/shouldn't completely remove it. Then you'll be able to slide the pins into the connector from the back, and push the insert back int.

Saving that three way switch for something else.... We will see though Im not sure how good it will come out so I may do this instead.

I'm done!
 

Success!!! I finally got around to finishing this project. I am delighted with how well it works. Thanks, Nalc, for the guidance.

I ended up buying a new center console so it could hack it up offline. I alb wanted to start with a console without the heater switch cutouts so I could leave as much material as possible t reinforce the button panel, which is fairly thin. I did a bit of a hack job to cut the holes frothy sbitches, but it doesn't matter as they art covered. I took a picture of the underside with the resistors soldered onto the switches. Sorry I didn't take a picture of the wiring harness attached. Basically I used three 22awg stranded wire and attached the with spade quick disconnects (3/16" fits the switches).

Relocating the seat heater switches to the center storage worked out pretty well (took a hell of a lot of time though filing the hole just right). They're slightly loose cause the stock material quite thick enough for the switches. I installed the armrest at the same time so the heater switches are tucked away out of sight.

The switches fall right where my hand naturally rests with my arm on the armrest. I am fairly tall so ye might be a bit far back for some.

Happy to advise if anyone wants to replicate.

Attachment 56844

Here's the final setup.

Not terribly exciting, but here it is in action.

[ame="http://youtu.be/zoyg30JZJec"]http://youtu.be/zoyg30JZJec[/ame]

Haven't tried the phone control yet. Phone wasn't in my pocket...

I can't make out the radio clearly. Is that the same one in the anniversary FR-S?
This is a great idea.

It's the stock BRZ Fujitsu Ten, which is quite different from the Pioneer FR-S head units in it's inner workings.

Damn.

Whoops...appears I failed to plug the GPS antenna correctly. Looks like I'm going back in.

One disadvantage of this setup - now I'm constantly flipping XM channels...

nice work, that looks really clean.

I ended up relocating my OEM switches to the key fob blanking plate, which is a lot prettier than where I had them, and still fairly accessible, but yours is much cleaner.great job

I would not use this often enough to justify the effort, but props to you for successfully pulling off a very clean and functional installation. I hope you are an engineer so all that talant is also being used on a daily basis.

i have been wanting to do this for a long time, but that mounting spot doesn't work for me, thats where my push start is....back to the drawing board.

So, I have to ask.......is the radio too far away to reach????

There's one in every crowd.

You have to take your eyes off the road to use the controls on the radio. Putting an arm rest on the center console and locating switches where he did, you can do it by touch.
Plus it's just a friggin cool bit of work.

I've got them on my steering column. Pretty good spot in terms of reach (you don't have to move your hand too far from them) and while it doesn't the greatest, it's tucked away in an inconspicuous spot so nobody notices. Could also probably do some fiberglass work to blend it into the steering column if it was that big a deal.

http://i.imgur.com/L4YxaBch.jpg

Yes, I am an engineer, though I don't do a lot of engineering anymore. This is my creative outlet. Quite a fun little project. It does seem to be an indication that I have too much free time on my hands though...

on the BRZ, everything is touch screen, the buttons are tiny and its very annoying when you press it and nothing happens or you're on a bump and miss the button. having it on the wheel is no only convenient, but its less irritating.

also, please dont go around threads posting like a smart ass, it'll come bite you in the ass.

actually...THATS NOT BAD, i can definetly mold that somehow...hmmm

but i'd prefer the CC method. all i want is volume and next track

I would try to get an auto transmission traction, snow/sport , stability button set and try to hack the snow/sport button for seek up/down. I came very close to going down that route.

thats actually genius...