Axxess ASWC Steering Wheel Control. No more programming and no more resistors!

[bikinpunk]

Copy & pasted from my build thread...

The PAC SWI-PS piece I bought for my civic was apparently a POS. After over a month of dealing with it off and on, trying to get it to work, and even replacing my friggin clockspring , I realized that my car was fine... it was the pac piece that was messed up. It would randomly power up and shut down on it's own. I couldn't tell because it was in the dash. This weekend I did some troubleshooting and realized what was wrong.

I was talking to my friend on Monday night about it and he asked if I had tried the steering wheel interface from Axxess called the ASWC. He said he saw his friend (Jeff Smith) installing it in someone's car and said it looked pretty sweet.
It's a universal piece that will work with nearly any car and works with any aftermarket headunit that's capable of SWI. No need to mess with resistors, etc as it comes PRE-PROGRAMMED!

You can read about it here:
Universal Steering Wheel Control Interface | Sonic Electronix Blog

More info from the company:
http://assets.sonicelectronix.com/ma...metra/aswc.pdf

Well, I got it installed today. Took me a few minutes to solder the wires up. Put the headunit in, turned the key and the aswc did it's thing. All my swi issues are now resolved.


This ASWC is pretty badass. I didn't have to do a thing except for connect three wires (comm, power, ground) and hook the 3.5mm jack to the pioneer. It took care of everything else by itself. No resistors, no nothing. 4 wires total and I'm done.

Cool that is that it works with any headunit and can be updated if I switch to another brand later on. No need for a brand specific swi.

Now!!! I can move on to something more fun like installing gear in my wife's car. Yea!

(in the picture below, the pac is hanging under the dash piece so that I could verify it's LED stayed on. that's not the permanent location ).






+1 for this bad boy. At $50 on e-bay, it's easily worth the price.

[Notloudenuf]

So you have to have a steering wheel remote ready head unit? It will or won't work with IR remotes?

[mrstop]

I feel your pain. I installed the SWI-Jack to control a new alpine unit in my wife's Odyssey. She's not really happy with the lag in the buttons and getting kind of angry that I messed with it.

The one thing I can say for PAC is that they do have great customer service. Mine wasn't functioning when I installed it, and they walked me through how to test for the right resistor. My biggest complaint is that it still does not have that "factory feel." I'm hoping I can tweak the resistors some more to improve it. That said, I wish it was more plug and play.

Do you have the lag issues with the Axxess unit?

[AAAAAAA]

^ X2 on the lag.

I as about to buy a PAC but I am ordering one or two of these.
Awesome thanks a lot, appreciate the review.

[bikinpunk]

Originally Posted by Notloudenuf

So you have to have a steering wheel remote ready head unit? It will or won't work with IR remotes?

I have the z110bt from pioneer. It has the 3.5mm input for hardwired remote (steering wheel controls).

The headunit did not come with an IR sensor, as most of the other top level pioneer navi units as of late do not. I bought an add-on IR adapter but wound up reverting back to trying to get the swi to work. I pulled my IR sensor and remote. Put them up for sale here, actually.

Originally Posted by mrstop

I'm hoping I can tweak the resistors some more to improve it. That said, I wish it was more plug and play.

Do you have the lag issues with the Axxess unit?

When I did have my pac piece working (rarely) it wasn’t too bad. But there was some lag. The one complaint I hear from a lot of people who are complaining about it is that after about a year or so it quits performing well.

This unit does not have ANY lag. At least not with my setup.

Originally Posted by AAAAAAA

^ X2 on the lag.

I as about to buy a PAC but I am ordering one or two of these.
Awesome thanks a lot, appreciate the review.

Let us know how yours works out for you. It’s a pretty sweet little setup. I like that you don’t have to fiddle with calculating resistance ladders and trying to figure out resistance values, much less program it. Wire up, plug in, done.

[nismos14]

Can't wait to get mine!

[bikinpunk]

wanted to mention, that you can also program this if you want. If you add extra buttons, or whatever, you can program those, too.

This piece makes it much simpler than the PAC piece did.

[mkellypc]

I just installed one about 2 weeks ago and it works AWESOME. 09 Silverado and pioneer HU. Was skeptical but worked perfectly first time.

[CodeMan]

Thanks for the review! This sounds promising and I didn't know it existed until now. I was just about to order the SWI-JACK too. Spending less, doing less work, and getting a better end result... nice.

[aV8ter]

So I should be good to go with this unit in my S2000 with my 9887 or 9855 radio?

[bikinpunk]

read one of the links I gave. Go to the axxess site and enter your car in. it'll tell you.

[HondAudio]

I am so happy to have discovered this. I've had the PAC unit and the DXZ785USB sitting in a box for like a year... it's time to pick up one of these and get busy.

I'll sell the PAC unit

[tinctorus]

I got a question about this unit, My car doesnt have steering wheel controls BUT I have a buttload of valet switched from alarms and was going to mount them under my center console armest.

Doe you think if I put a different ohm resistor on each button and wired it to the steering wheel input wire of the adapter that I could make each button perform a different function??

I mean all the steering wheel controls are is a main wire and each button has a different resistance when you push it so I think in theory it SHOULD work but would like to know if anyone knew for sure

[TREETOP]

Originally Posted by tinctorus

I got a question about this unit, My car doesnt have steering wheel controls BUT I have a buttload of valet switched from alarms and was going to mount them under my center console armest.

Doe you think if I put a different ohm resistor on each button and wired it to the steering wheel input wire of the adapter that I could make each button perform a different function??

I mean all the steering wheel controls are is a main wire and each button has a different resistance when you push it so I think in theory it SHOULD work but would like to know if anyone knew for sure

Yep I've done something similar before- I used the existing faceplate buttons on a factory radio, through resistors, to control an aftermarket head unit tucked away in the glovebox. I used a PAC piece (it was before the Axxess ones were on the market), but the Axxess one should be no different since it can learn manually as well as autolearn.

[tinctorus]

Originally Posted by TREETOP

Yep I've done something similar before- I used the existing faceplate buttons on a factory radio, through resistors, to control an aftermarket head unit tucked away in the glovebox. I used a PAC piece (it was before the Axxess ones were on the market), but the Axxess one should be no different since it can learn manually as well as autolearn.

Sweet I am gonna order one at work tommorow then because I think it would be sweet to have some push buttons right at my fingertips to control some of the settings on my radio

[JayinMI]

Well, I've finally got to put a couple of these in...and it's AWESOME!
I did a Lincoln Aviator w/ alpine W505. All I did was turn on the car and then turn on the radio and Bam! done. And it worked perfectly.

I rewired a set of cruise control buttons in my last car (it didn't have cruise) and used the PAC piece to integrate and had no problems, except that the response was a little slow.

But this is way better.

Jay