Xm 2 Steering Wheel Radio Control, After-market radio compatibility

I am thinking about replacing the factory radio with a new one. The current radio is Philips 22DC594/35 with 8-pin flat connector for the steering wheel remote control (only 4 pins are present). I assume this connector also leads to the dashboard dot matrix display.
Is it possible to re-wire this connector in such a way to preserve functioning with new radios? Would anyone share the wiring diagram for the remote control connection?
Thank you in advance.

You can buy conversion cables and interface boxes but this can cost around the £50-£60 mark and they don't always work. Didn't with my Alpine headunit.

Steve.

Like most of fellow XM-ers, I am pretty much a DIY-er and I see no reason to pay tens of Euros for a dubious outcome if I can do the rewiring.

This post has been edited by John Malkovich on February 29, 2008 04:05 pm

I have a Kenwood with an adaptor that I got from the net, I think it was about £25.00 but that was a few years ago. As far as I know you can only get them for Kenwood or Sony, and then only for certain models. Someone was selling some Sony adaptors on ebay last year for about a fiver, so I got one just in case. I dont think its just a case of connections, they have a module in line with some electronics in it.

Mine works reasonably well but not all the functions work, vol +- is OK as is radio channel and CD track up, but not down, but its better than nothing.

Peter.N.

If I understand right the steering wheel controls work through a set of different resistances but that isn't to say that headunits do, hence the need for interface boxes and loom convertors.

Still if you have the time and skill why not?

Steve.

Fair enough Steve

I have the time but my skill shut down when I retired from the TV trade

Peter.N.

I have a lot of respect for TV engineers, more so from the old days of the live chassis. I tend to think that such people have forgot more than I've yet learnt. I've worked with a few over the years and they always seem to have some great stories to tell.

Steve.

Me too, and I really could do with one to sort out the old Toshiba 80's model that was donated to me a few years back that is now impossible to read anything on on the top 1/2 of and has no external horizontal or vertical hold controls.

The problem is that I grew up with valves and there is little relation between them and modern electronics. I managed the change to transistors and then I.C.s reasonably well, logic circuits were a challenge and when everything started going digital I'm afraid I just lost it - which, as you can't repair most of it anyway, doesnt matter all that much. Apart from the feeling of defeat, which I would never have tolerated in my younger days.

Peter.N.

OK, then I'll do the research of remote commands with a multimeter and report here about the results. But not before the coming weekend.