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.