Control your stereo with your Tiptronic steering wheel buttons
 

I actually did this a few months ago and am finally get around to doing a write up.

I did a 3-spoke 996 wheel conversion several years ago (Click Here for that thread) and always wondered if I could use the buttons on a Tiptronic wheel to control my stereo. Came across a good deal on a Tip wheel and decided to go for it and it works great.

Here's the DIY:

1) You need a receiver that uses an IR remote
2) I bought a little box that is basically a learning remote. It's made by Pacific Stereo and is called the PAC SWI-X
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-8.../IMG_00122.jpg
3) I added resistors (4 different values, included with PAC SWI-X) to the wires coming off the Tip buttons
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-c.../IMG_00121.jpg
4) The Tip wires get wired directly to the PAC SWI-X
5) You go through a programming routine where you press the button on the steering wheel and then press the corresponding button on the IR remote, which teaches the PAC SWIX what IR command to transmit when you press the steering wheel button
6) My stereo has an IR receiver on the front of the deck and a remote IR eyeball. I used the eyeball and mounted it up under the dash with the IR transmitter pointed at it.
7) Voila! steering wheel control
8) Right now I have volume up and down on the right side and track forward and backward on the left side. You can actually get more controls by pushing two buttons at once, say the top buttons on both sides but it's a little finicky.

Stuff you need:
1) Tiptronic 996/986 steering wheel
2) Tiptronic clock spring
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-m.../IMG_00118.jpg
3) Tiptronic wire extension (you could wire this with your own but having the right connectors was nice)
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-g.../IMG_00119.jpg
4) PAC SWIX
5) A receiver with an IR remote input

Buttons:
I wanted the graphics on the buttons to correspond to the buttons on the remote. I used Testor's clear decal paper to print my own graphics on my inkjet printer. Decided to paint the buttons with silver wheel paint to match some of the other bits in my interior. Affixed the decals and then clearcoated the buttons.

And here's what it looks like:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-J...4/IMG_0358.JPG

Excellent. =)

Really neat! and soooooo jealous...

Holy crap that is excellent. A nice modern update. Anyone have the auto down and up window switches?

Very Cool!

95ONE- someone sells an add-on to make our windows automatic- I could find it if I did some digging..

Greg, you surely have the nicest looking interior of any 944 I've ever seen, and this latest mod is just fantastic.. Now that I've spent a good 15 min drooling over your car, I've got two questions..?

- Where did you get the carbon inlays.? My old plastic ones are cracked and brittle and needs replacing..
- Which head unit.?

Thanks - Alex.

Thanks all, it was a fun little project. I have my old non-Tip 3 spoke wheel already modded to fit our cars and the old clock spring available if anyone is interested.

The carbon fiber bits came from Jager Engineering and my head unit is a Blaupunkt Hamburg MP-68.

Paragon has the one touch up and down window controllers. My car has them and I love them, the buttons are in such an awkward place it's nice to tap it once and be done.

Thanks.. I've been looking for a nice clean HU to replace my old one and yours looks just like that, plus that I like Blaupunkts stuff.. I'm onto a winner here I think..

Just one more question then.. Is that your stock shift rod thats modified with another knob, or is it an all together new shifter.? And from where.?

Alex.

Greg, dude, you're killing me! As usual - AMAZING. You have the nicest interior of any car on RL. Kudos! :rockon:

Awesome dude. Your interior is so nice it's laughable. Jesus man.

Great project Greg and those Paragon controllers are the stuff!

BAHAHAHA!!!! You are freakin nuts! Nice job Greg!

Hmm, I was planning something similar only my buttons will be there to adjust boost via EBC.

I'm thinking about ditching the entire radio in this car and hiding a small amp somewhere. I would then use my cellphone as the source. I only ever use the radio on long trips, otherwise the exhaust is the hi-fi.

That could work, the buttons just make a connection between ground and the output wires. You end up with two wires on the back side of the clock spring, one for '+' and the other for '-'. The two '+' wires for the two buttons merge on the wheel side of the clock spring (as do the two '-' wires of course).

The trick will be providing an input that your EBC can read...and not making a turn into your local McDonald's, accidentally bumping up the boost and launching yourself through the Golden Arches :p.

Very nice work. Best interior I've seen

A couple of additions after helping a fellow RL'er get this going on his car:

1) I originally stated that you needed a deck with an IR receiver but actually you need either that or a deck with a remote-in wire. Based on a similar install on my BMW the hard wired option works much more reliably.

2) The Pac Audio steering wheel control box will ask you for a version number, which is intended to correspond to the brand of car you have, on the assumption that your car has existing steering wheel stereo control. As this is a retrofit of transmission control buttons rather than stereo control, that doesn't really make any sense. I used Version 3 and it works fine.

3) For hard wired installation you'll be connecting the single control wire to your deck to a single wire coming off of the clock spring.

Hope that helps someone in the future.

Cheers.

With much help from Greg, I completed this modification a couple of weeks ago. Thank you Greg!!! The looks and function are incredible! I am going to add a few things which may or may not be clear from the original post. I see that Greg has covered one of the biggest ones. I was not sure which version number to use, but 3 worked perfectly. I might note that I used a different PAC device. Mine was a PAC SWI-RC. There is a single black wire with a RCA jack that plugs directly into the back of my new Alpine receiver that allows for remote control. The control is precise and accurate. I have six functions. Volume up/down, Track up/down, Mute, & Source selection. You MUST fully disassemble your TIP wheel and get the rocker switch wiring harness removed. Once removed you must strategically find the correct spots to insert four resistors included in the kit. They must be cleanly soldered in. You will put two on the yellow with red stripe wires and two on the solid brown wires before they go to the clock spring. The factory uses these crimp on terminals to join common wires together. WIWIT, I removed all of these and made soldered connections. Make sure the resistors are 500 ohms apart from each other. I will post some pictures later from my phone. I made an Excel spreadsheet of the Wheel harness. I will see if I can figure out how to upload.

OK, here are some pics from my install:



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Harness competed below:

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Installed back into the wheel below:

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Back into car:

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Completed install

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Some extra pics of the clock spring and various other stuff:



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All in all a great project. You will spend a lot of time upside down under your dash though! Thanks again to Greg for making this possible!