Control phone with steering wheel buttons?

[MrTrendizzle]

Is it possible to control the music on my phone using the steering wheel controls?  

I have a 3.5mm jack plug with USB C adapter which connects to my phone and it works flawlessly. My problem is trying to skip a song requires me to shout at my phone "Ok Google" or "Hi Bixby" but they have their own issues when asking certain commands.  

What i would like to do is control the songs by using the radio buttons on the steering wheel (Under the volume buttons). I know it's possible to send commands via the 3.5mm jack plug as wired earphones on previous phones had little buttons inline that would skip/pause the music etc... So i was wondering if anyone has or knows a way that i could take the steering wheel button feeds and splice in to them some sort of adapter which could pass through to the phone allowing me to skip to the next song or restart the current song etc...?  

Or is there some sort of Bluetooth function that the steering wheel/radio has to allow such a thing to exist?  

 

[J Henderson]

I know it doesn't answer your question, but what about using the buttons on the head unit itself? Under the volume button.

[MrTrendizzle]

34 minutes ago, J Henderson said:

I know it doesn't answer your question, but what about using the buttons on the head unit itself? Under the volume button.

Unfortunately nothing works to allow control of the phone. From what i can find online the AUX is audio input only (2 wires) unlike wired headphones which is 4 wires and allow the skip/pause/play option.  

I've just had a look around to see if it's possible to upgrade the cable and port but it seems without something like Grom it's impossible without a ton of wiring and some small hardware to capture the steering wheel control inputs, decode and output to the AUX. IEBUS is a chip that can do that but i have zero experience in that type of work.
others seem to have suggested using an adapted headphone cable as a pass through to allow using the inline buttons to control the music and tape it to the door handle etc... Not really my sort of bodge job but if that's possible then surely splicing the steering wheel wires could work if i upgraded the AUX port to a 4 wire port and spliced the buttons direct to the port as there should be some sort of signal input when pressed.  

I might pop the buttons out tomorrow and see if i can tap a couple of wires to them and see if my old headphone wire can be used IF there's a signal otherwise it's a HUGE learning curve to figure out how to setup some sort of board/chip to convert whatever signal the steering wheel outputs in to something a phone can understand as pause/play/next/back.

 

EDIT: This is what will need to be done for the AUX port to allow control via steering wheel controls. Basicly i would require the steering wheel buttons to act as a resistor between the mic/gnd wires but will also require the AUX port to be upgraded as far as i know the IS250 only has RT and LT audio inputs. If the AUX wire to the stereo only has 2 wires then swapping the port out and wiring in the steering wheel button wires to the port with the correct resistors "should" do the trick. Again i'm no expert and hopefully someone with much better electronic experience could chime in and call me dumb OR say i'm on the right path with a few helpful tips.

[MrTrendizzle]

Quick update: After a few hours of searching and talking to various "experts" swapping the OEM AUX port to a 4 pin AUX would allow me to run the normal L/R wires to the stereo as normal but use the mic+/gnd with new wiring to the back of the steering wheel and T on to the existing wiring so the momentary buttons act how i want. This will depend if they run on a CAN Network and if i can splice in to the wires and get an analogue signal.  

I i'll pop out the button tomorrow and take a look at the wiring. If it's a simple momentary switch as i believe it is and the radio does all the decoding then just T'ing off the in/out wires should be enough to get a signal. Then it's work out the correct resistance (if required) for my phone to understand what that signal means. I'll most likely butcher an old pair of headphones and use the inline controls to T in/out of with the resistor there to see if it works.  

If all things go well i'll report back with what i find and post some instructions as Bluetooth modules are normally bulky and a Battery drain while Grom products are expensive and i'm not 100% sure they do what i'm trying to achieve. 

[zoricib]

12 hours ago, MrTrendizzle said:

Quick update: After a few hours of searching and talking to various "experts" swapping the OEM AUX port to a 4 pin AUX would allow me to run the normal L/R wires to the stereo as normal but use the mic+/gnd with new wiring to the back of the steering wheel and T on to the existing wiring so the momentary buttons act how i want. This will depend if they run on a CAN Network and if i can splice in to the wires and get an analogue signal.  

I i'll pop out the button tomorrow and take a look at the wiring. If it's a simple momentary switch as i believe it is and the radio does all the decoding then just T'ing off the in/out wires should be enough to get a signal. Then it's work out the correct resistance (if required) for my phone to understand what that signal means. I'll most likely butcher an old pair of headphones and use the inline controls to T in/out of with the resistor there to see if it works.  

If all things go well i'll report back with what i find and post some instructions as Bluetooth modules are normally bulky and a battery drain while Grom products are expensive and i'm not 100% sure they do what i'm trying to achieve. 

or you could install this https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07JN9MD28/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1&tag=autoclubinte-21&tag=autoclubinte-21

It's a bit fiddly to install as need to take the stereo out & need to be careful not to damage the dash around the vents, probably a 30 min job - but if you're comfortable with splicing wires & such, this should be a breeze. It plugs in the back of the stereo and it's read as a second CD magazine. Installed it and has been working flawlessly for the past 3 years.

[MrTrendizzle]

7 minutes ago, zoricib said:

or you could install this https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07JN9MD28/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1&tag=autoclubinte-21&tag=autoclubinte-21

It's a bit fiddly to install as need to take the stereo out & need to be careful not to damage the dash around the vents, probably a 30 min job - but if you're comfortable with splicing wires & such, this should be a breeze. It plugs in the back of the stereo and it's read as a second CD magazine. Installed it and has been working flawlessly for the past 3 years.

I saw these. I just prefer not to use Bluetooth. Honestly i have no idea why i hate Bluetooth just don't like using it i guess through dodgy Bluetooth connections being dropped and having to repair etc.. I wanted a full wired setup with AUX cable altho fitting a wireless charging mat in the armrest with Bluetooth connection might be kinda cool.

I just found this image which confirms the steering wheel buttons for seek-/seek+ are just momentary switches and even have their own resistance values which i assume would be beyond the plug and not from switch to plug which means splicing on to the wires should allow me to install the correct resistors for the AUX port to activate the phones skip track function (Pause/play will just be me turning the radio on/off)

My thought process would be to tap directly to the switch wires, install 220ohm 1/2w resistor on the Seek- line and  660ohm 1/5w resistor on the seek+ wires completely bypassing the radio itself direct to the 4 pin AUX port   total cost £2 + some solder, heatshrink and time which "should" allow me to now control my phone using the AUX cable in the armrest of a Lexus IS250. Luckily i have some of those clamp on wire connectors so no need to cut anything. Just going to run this through a few people to 100% be sure this method will work and then give it a bash. Worst case i wasted £2 and a bit of time, best case it works 100% and i can give a quick tutorial allowing others to do the same and give their car a bit more control.

[McShmoopy]

A fairly straight forward solution is an android head unit which supports SWC out of the box, with some easy splicing I've got everything wired up to accept and decline calls, Siri, and skip track in apple CarPlay quite successfully. Same would be applicable to Android Auto 

[Thelongterm]

Subscribing to your post.

I also like to know how steering wheel buttons can be provided.

I have an SE with the standard head unit, so currently, I use this BT kit from eBay or amazon. It works perfectly well, and I buried it in the handrest with only the button popping out and accessible for fast-forward, backward pause, etc'.

TECEVO Bluetooth 5.0 Handsfree Car Kit - Bluetooth Music Receiver, NFC Quick Pairing, AUX Jack Playing Music And Hands Free Calling Car Adapter …: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

 

 

[Kahvinkeitin]

On 11/20/2023 at 4:57 PM, MrTrendizzle said:

I saw these. I just prefer not to use Bluetooth. Honestly i have no idea why i hate Bluetooth just don't like using it i guess through dodgy Bluetooth connections being dropped and having to repair etc.. I wanted a full wired setup with AUX cable altho fitting a wireless charging mat in the armrest with Bluetooth connection might be kinda cool.

I just found this image which confirms the steering wheel buttons for seek-/seek+ are just momentary switches and even have their own resistance values which i assume would be beyond the plug and not from switch to plug which means splicing on to the wires should allow me to install the correct resistors for the AUX port to activate the phones skip track function (Pause/play will just be me turning the radio on/off)

My thought process would be to tap directly to the switch wires, install 220ohm 1/2w resistor on the Seek- line and  660ohm 1/5w resistor on the seek+ wires completely bypassing the radio itself direct to the 4 pin AUX port   total cost £2 + some solder, heatshrink and time which "should" allow me to now control my phone using the AUX cable in the armrest of a Lexus IS250. Luckily i have some of those clamp on wire connectors so no need to cut anything. Just going to run this through a few people to 100% be sure this method will work and then give it a bash. Worst case i wasted £2 and a bit of time, best case it works 100% and i can give a quick tutorial allowing others to do the same and give their car a bit more control.

Did you get it working? Im trying to find a good place to tap into the steering wheel buttons wire, where did you tap into?

[JDM-Fiend]

12 minutes ago, Kahvinkeitin said:

Did you get it working? Im trying to find a good place to tap into the steering wheel buttons wire, where did you tap into?

I used one of these:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07JN9MD28/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Bluetooth Audio for music now built into the car and you can skip songs direct from the steering wheel.

[H3XME]

23 hours ago, JDM-Fiend said:

I used one of these:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07JN9MD28/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

Bluetooth Audio for music now built into the car and you can skip songs direct from the steering wheel.

This is probably the best solution if you don't want to spend £200 on a CarPlay head unit.