steering wheel led

Hi all,

I am currently in the process of trying to make a custom steering wheel center emblem for a 2008 Mustang. I am casting it out of clear resin and then painting everything black except  the very outer edge. In theory, since it is clear, if I were to put an LED behind it, it should light up the ring that was not painted. The problem I am having is coming from how to wire it. I know about resistors and all that good stuff, but it is going to be an RGB LED that can be tied into the factory installed ambient lighting system (7 color). It would be four wires and I know that just running them straight down the steering column could cause a potential snagging hazard. Is there any way anyone can think of doing this? I have thought about seeing if there is any space left in one of the wiring harnesses running to the clock spring but, I would rather not mess with it. Any ideas? Any help would be great.

it really has nothing to do with space left in one of the harnesses to the clock spring because the clock spring would still have to have the proper number of usable traces, or tracks on it. in order to work you would have to get rid of some of the OE wiring to the clock spring so that you can use yours in place of it, or harder yet, find a clockspring with an adequate amount of traces that will work in place of the original.

Most steering wheel buttons are multiplexed so there isn't a bunch of wiring.  You may have to go the same route as adding 4 seperate signals to the clock spring may be difficult.  If you could find a ground in the steering wheel already and could encode the three digital signals you can send them through on one wire and then decode them in the steering wheel.  I would imagine someone makes a simple chip that would do all of this for you.

The other alternative is RF.  I know they make very simple inexpensive digital RF chips.  if you could find power and ground inside the steering wheel you could make that happen pretty easy.

RF and  RFID are two completely different things - RF is all you need.

Do you have a wiring diagram for the existing switches? 

Look in to this: Linx TXE-315-KH2 - this is a 315mhz 8 input encoder and transmitter (about $10).  You may need to add an antenna to get it's advertised 3,000 ft range, but for your 3' situation I doubt the antanna will be that critical.

Pair it with a Linx RXD-315-KH2 - this is a 315mhz 8 outuput decoder and receiever (about $16).

These are just two examples - you will need to do some reseach up front and may have to add some support circuitry.  For example, the transmitter above is designed for battery operation and has an input voltage range of 2.4-3.6vdc.  If you hook it up to the car battery you will fry it.  I'm not sure if there are 12vdc versions of these available, but I do know several companys make little RF chips like this.