HOW TO: Alpine compatible Steering Wheel Control Adapter

[Rob_Quads]

The following is a guide for installing the unit in a UK car but the theory is exactly the same for US cars with the only difference being you have different wires for the steering controls. Refer to the Pac Audio web site for the US colors

This guide is to utilize 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.

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 center 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.

<note>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 Removal



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 Adapter -> 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 diagrams 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. Unfortunately there is not much slack on this cable which means working on it is tricky



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 immobilizer. 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

[Sean]

very nice.

[gt3]

Great detailed writeup. How well does the PAC unit work? Is it very responsive?

[Rob_Quads]

Its fairly responsive. If you flick the button really quickly then it does not pick it up. But then I can't remember if that worked on the factory unit.

I would have thought it would work just as well as it is using exactly the same system as the factory unit uses inside i.e. it looks for voltage change on the lines. Once its stable enough to work out what button is being pressed it passes it on

[Mike Wazowski]

nice write up

[RANDY350Z]

Ok, I have a QX4 and I will be connecting to a Pioneer avic D-3. So do I cut the wires going to the "plug", place the 2 resistors and then twist them together and then connect to the white on the Pac interface? --these are the same wires that are for my infiniti QX4 as the Z but gives no pin location on the supplied guide.

[RANDY350Z]

If you can, look up instructions on a 2002 infiniti QX4 @ www.pac-audio.com/swixprogramming this got me a little lost and unclear when connecting the resisters and white wire. Thanks

[KManZ]

Ok, having just connected this this up, let me lend what I know to help you make sure you get everything connected correctly. I thought I had everything wired right, but later had to rip apart my dash again because it wasn't working as advertised.

I have a non-Bose system, so the DIY here was not exact in the connections, namely with the 3 wires in the factory harness:

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

I highlighted that wire because on the non-Bose, this wire needs to be connected to the ground, as it is not grounded as he says in the DIY. So in the end, these are the 5 connections you will have:

Pin 25 Yellow/Green Wire -> HU Ground
Pin 22 Red/Green Wire -> 47 Ohm Resistor -> White Wire
Pin 23 Orange Wire -> 150 Ohm Resistor -> White Wire
Black Wire -> HU Ground
Red Wire -> HU Power

Hopefully this is more clear now.

[JEKL]

I know this is an old thread, but I have to add my 2 cents. This was AMAZINGLY helpful. Sure, you can read the directions (if you are into that sort of thing). But to have someone put it into lay mans terms with pics made a world of difference.

I did not that notice that the PAC-AUDIO website and instruction manual show a different connection for the resistors:



This was a pretty easy install and no where near as intimidating as it looked at first.

[Rob_Quads]

As noted my directions were for the UK car - I guess PAC-AUDIO have now updated thier instructions to include the US wiring instructions

[JasonZ-YA]

good job...

[Deteria]

I had the PAC SWIJACKv1 installed with my Alpine INA-W910 at 1st. It was so unresponsive. Had it taken out and had the Axxess ASWC installed in it's place. Much more responsive.