custom steering wheel radio controls

Wasn't sure what forum to park this in and no search I attempted showed anything, so here goes.... I have seen in the past, custom radio controls made from Dodge truck cruise controls mounted on the sides of the steering wheel. I'd liek to do something similar but am unsure where to start, what is needed, etc. I have a Sony HU (made in Japan - not the cheap junk sold at Wal Mart) that accepts the Sony Remote Commander joystick. It also has a remote control (if that can be used). Either/or I think can be wired into this. I think once its wiRED / configured to work, silkscreens or even small square decals could be used to relabel the buttons. All I am looking for is Volume +/- ; Disc Selector (changer controls); and track +/-. Anyone have any ideas or suggestions....or maybe even done this?

I did a project a few years back where we converted the fan up / fan down switches in a Cadillac to shift the auto transmission up /down. From memory, we determined the fan up / fan down switches (along with all the other switches on the wheel) outputted a preset voltage anytime they were pushed. I used two op amps per button - one looked for the voltage to be ABOVE a certain threshold and the other looked for the voltage to be below a certain threshold (thus creating an activation "window" The outputs of both op amps were then ran to an AND gate and the output of the AND gate was the trigger that told the custom made transmission computer to shift gears. Instead of going to the computer you would need your output to be either a voltage or a relay contact - whatever it takes to recreate the signal from the remote you decide to use. From memory the wired Sony remotes were always preferred because they, too, had a voltage output on them that was easy to recreate.Kevin Pierson

Not the prettiest SWC in the world, but Metra makes a kit to add them. Look at OESWC on thier website...Mike M2

Tech Manager

CS Dealer Services

hi, year, make , model of vehicle. the PAC SWI-JACK can be set up to recognize input triggers with varying resistance to ground. was asking of vehicle info to see there was optional steering wheel controls available. mark

The car is a late 80's Volvo so it doesn't have anything OE for controls. Here is what I have currently: RM 151X Here are my other options for something to gut and rewire using the cruise control (or anything else) switches: RM X6S RM-MC24C RM X5S Just really not sure what can be done/rewired with these to an alternative housing. Was hoping someone here had done something similar and could either point me in the right direction or give me some ideas where to start.

No idea why the link to the RM X151 didn't work. Try this again: RM X151