R34 Triptronic Controls converted to Audio Controls (THE RIGHT WAY)

[tsyk3s]

Hello everyone,    BEFORE I START PLEASE ASK QUESTIONS IF YOU HAVE THEM

For a few months now I have been thinking about changing the controls on my old Triptronic steering wheel to audio controls and this weekend I actually sat down and did it. I must say that it was quite the bitch, and I went through many different designs before I had the final version, and this final version, in my opinion, is the best way of doing it. 
This guide isn't a step-by-step walkthrough unfortunately because I have already installed the system into the car, I am writing this in retrospection so other people can also do this on their cars, as I have seen it asked about many times.

First I'm going to cover other designs that I have seen which are either stupid, needlessly complex or just wont work as expected
FAILED DESIGNS

• Using a 4-way transmitter and reciever (As seen in THIS video) (Would work but needlessly complex and many POF)
• Wiring resistors inline and running wire from steering wheel back to head unit (A steering wheel rotates //2short)
• Using a pre-existing PCB and wiring it in on the "dash-side" of the steering column (Ribbon cable in wheel boss wouldn't support enough inputs)

 

 

OK, Now that that is out of the way. We get onto the good stuff. Below is 3 things. REFER TO THESE INCASE OF UNSURE OR COMMENT
1. A video of the finished product AND a talkthrough of how it is all wired (I rambled a bit)
2. A rough wiring diagram for reference
3. The notes of which wires are connected to what and the pin layout of the PCB. ALL WIRES MAY NOT BE 100% REPRESENTATIVE OF YOUR CAR (ie. Different Colour or Pin) SO PLEASE CHECK WITH A CONTINUITY TESTER FIRST

 

 

WHAT YOU NEED

• Steering Wheel Control Harness (Most often comes with your stereo as a 3.5mm jack)
• Universal Wired Steering Wheel Controller (What I used) (I MIGHT SELL PEOPLE JUST PCB's WITH THE WIRES PRE SOLDERED ECT IF YOU WANT ONE PM ME)
• Soldering gear and experience
• Plenty of wire
• OPTIONAL: Desolderer (Expensive and doesnt need to be used but makes light work of desoldering PCB)

 

HOW YOU DO IT 
ALL WIRE COLOURS THAT ARE UNDERLINED ARE THE STOCK WIRES, ALL IN ITALICS ARE THE WIRES I ADDED

PLEASE TEST THE CONTROLLER AND 3.5MM JACK IN YOUR HEADUNIT BEFORE INSTALLING

ALL COLOURS AND PINS MIGHT BE DIFFERENT IN YOUR CAR SO PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE CHECK BEFORE YOUR CUT ANYTHING

1. Prepare the PCB 
   1. Take apart your Universal SWC and remove the PCB. It should have a number of tactile switches on it and a power cable
   2. Test and notate which pins are Ground and which pins the actuation pin is. (This can be done with a continuity tester)
      In my case the whole board shared a common ground between all switches
   3. Desolder all of the tactile switches
   4. Solder new wires to the actuation pin for each switch
   5. Solder a wire to the common ground for the board. You should now have 5 wires soldered to your board (4 actuation + 1 ground), as well as the 2 original power cables
      
      IF YOU DONT HAVE THE TOOLS OR SKILL FOR THIS I MIGHT SELL A PRE-SOLDERED PCB FOR THOSE WHO WANT ONE (PM ME IF INTERESTED)
2. DISCONNECT THE BATTERY!!  
3. Remove the Airbag
   1. Remove your key surround, upper column cover and lower column cover to gain access to the steering column (5 Phillips head screws in Lower cover)
   2. On either side of the steering wheel there is a plastic cover which covers a Torx Head Screw holding in the airbag. Remove both covers and screws
   3. Disconnect both plugs on either side of the steering wheel behind the previously removed covers. The airbag should be able to be pulled out now
4. Prepare the Switches
   1. With the airbag removed you should be able to see the wires for the switch relay. Find where the two switches combine into a single output in the centre of the steering wheel and cut just before here, so that the switch wires are seperated.
   2. Solder the "COMMON GROUND" from your PCB to the YELLOW wires from each switch.
   3. Solder the "UP" from your PCB to the GREEN wire (One Side Only)
   4. Solder the "Down" from your PCB to the BLUE wire (Same Side)
   5. On the other side, "Next" -> Green  //  "Back" -> Blue
      
5. Connect PCB to Loom
   1. On the passenger side of the steering wheel there is a plug, make sure it is disconnected.
   2. On the upper plug, follow the wires back to the cut you made earlier. Clean up and hijack the BLUE and YELLOW wires. Connect the POSITIVE wire from the output of the PCB to the BLUE wire, and the GROUND wire to the YELLOW wire
      
6. Tap Wheel Harness
   1. On the back side of the of steering wheel boss there is a cable with a yellow plug (the wire itself is also probably covered in yellow tape) which runs back into the dash. Locate this plug and strip back whatever is covering 
   2. Cut the 2 GREEN wires on the PASSENGER SIDE of the plug (Make sure to leave enough wire to solder to)
   3. Solder a POSITIVE wire to the INNER wire that you cut (INNER to the centre of the plug) (Make sure its long enough to run to the back of the stereo)
   4. Solder a NEGATIVE wire to the OUTER wire that you cut (OUTER to the centre of the plug)
      
7. Connect Harness to Audio Jack
   1. Make sure you have enough wire to reach the back of your stereo
   2. Solder the POSITIVE wire to the "INPUT1" wire on the SWC audio jack
   3. Solder the NEGATIVE wire to the "GROUND" wire on the SWC audio jack
   4. Plug controller jack into 
8. Reconnect battery and test if working
9. If working
   1. DISCONNECT BATTERY!!!
   2. Cable manage and protect your PCB with whatever you can (I used heatshrink)
   3. Reassemble airbag (remember to reconnect plugs and TORX screws)
   4. Reassemble steering column
10. If not working
    1. Check your wiring against mine in the diagrams and the handwritten sheet (The handwritten sheet is the notes I took on the day so they are 100% correct for my install)
    2. Use a continuity tester and check wiring if able
    3. Write a comment and hopefully I will be able to help
11. ENJOY THE AUDIO CONTROLS

 

Conclusion
If you need help with anything dont be afraid to comment and I'll help out the best I can. I have seen tons of people asking about how to do this for a number of years now but I believe this is the first tutorial. I posted a couple videos to facebook of it and there seems to be alot of people who are interested, however, I believe that people think its a lot less time-consuming of a job than it actually is.

[GTD22]

After finding your video on YouTube I started searching a little harder on google and found this forum post and decided to give it a go.

I just wanna say a massive thank you!!! this works a treat and quite easy to follow.

a few things I wanna add

I tried to make this as easy as I could for myself and copied this into a word document scaled up the pictures and printed this out, I used all the same coloured wires soldered to the pcb and it made following along that little bit easier.

one small thing I noticed the pcb diagram has a small error it has 2 up and down labels but no next and prev.

if i was to do this again id also desolder the plug of the off of the pcb while your desoldering the tactile buttons and run 2 wires (the little plug was hitting on the horn bracket and i had to grind a small piece off, also the wires are a smaller guage so using all the same size wires just makes fitting up that little bit easier.

my stereo swc wasn't a 3.5mm jack it was "key 1 key 2" wires. because this only has 2 wires you use key 1 for power and the ground went to the place my stereo was grounded.

cheers for making guides like this, making my daily that little bit better to drive every day! 

Edited February 24, 2023 by GTD22
spell check

[tsyk3s]

3 hours ago, GTD22 said:

After finding your video on YouTube I started searching a little harder on google and found this forum post and decided to give it a go.

I just wanna say a massive thank you!!! this works a treat and quite easy to follow.

a few things I wanna add

I tried to make this as easy as I could for myself and copied this into a word document scaled up the pictures and printed this out, I used all the same coloured wires soldered to the pcb and it made following along that little bit easier.

one small thing I noticed the pcb diagram has a small error it has 2 up and down labels but no next and prev.

if i was to do this again id also desolder the plug of the off of the pcb while your desoldering the tactile buttons and run 2 wires (the little plug was hitting on the horn bracket and i had to grind a small piece off, also the wires are a smaller guage so using all the same size wires just makes fitting up that little bit easier.

my stereo swc wasn't a 3.5mm jack it was "key 1 key 2" wires. because this only has 2 wires you use key 1 for power and the ground went to the place my stereo was grounded.

cheers for making guides like this, making my daily that little bit better to drive every day! 

Oh man that's so good to hear. I got a lot of people saying it's cool, but until now, I don't know anyone who had actually tried to do it. 

 

Thanks for your points too, I was writing mine specifically to my car, so I'm glad someone with a different setup had been able to contribute here too. 

 

Can I also ask, where the wire colours/pins all the same? Or did you need to change them to suit your car? (Just curious)

[GTD22]

36 minutes ago, tsyk3s said:

Can I also ask, where the wire colours/pins all the same? Or did you need to change them to suit your car? (Just curious)

As far as I could tell everything was exactly the same. 

I even watched the video and bought that exact style of steering wheel controller just to be sure 

I only had 3 things that weren't straight forward, removing the buttons off the pcb, the plug on the board hitting the horn plate and the one of the isolator washers holding the horn plate on disintegrated when removing so on reinstall the horn was stuck on so I had to make a new one 

Other than that just follow the instructions step by step and bobs your uncle