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A little help please from the electrical wizards concerning steering w

Marv88

By Marv88
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Marv88 Enthusiast

Marv88

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I am upgrading the audio system in my 2016 Silverado LS that came with the 7" IOB infotainment system that does not have steering wheel control capability nor a CD player both of which I would like to have. I checked with Chevrolet about upgrading and was told I would need to get the 8" screen, change the steering wheel, change the bcm, add a harness and have it programmed at a cost of around $1500.00 but the crazy thing is they also said they could not guarantee it would work! I definitely wasn't going to take that chance so I decided to just replace the headunit with a Pioneer double din to get CD/DVD as well as a few other nice features along with an idatalink Maestro so I can keep all of my factory functions.

I knew this headunit could be controlled by factory steering wheel controls via an add on adapter which got me thinking so I looked up the instructions for the AXXESS ASWC-1 adapter and found it only needs power/ground and one connection into the harness under the steering column. After a little googling my understanding is the factory steering wheel button sends a signal to the computer which determines what function to do based on the different resistance of the particular button pushed and that's the reason only 1 wire output is needed. Now I am no electrical wizard for sure but it appears that if I change the steering wheel to one with the controls and add the necessary harness the buttons should be able to control the aftermarket headunit using the adapter since it would be doing what the computer would be doing with the factory headunit which is just reading the resistance of the button that is pushed. This almost seems too easy especially since I have found nothing is easy to upgrade in these trucks so hopefully one of you electrical wizard can confirm this will work or let me know why it won't. Thanks in advance!

Marv88 Enthusiast

Marv88

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Anybody have a guess as to why it most likely wouldn't work?

MonkeyMouth Enthusiast

MonkeyMouth

Posted
Posted

If it won't work. My bet is that it is because of the BCM. Or lack of installing on that is programmed with steering controls.

Marv88 Enthusiast

Marv88

Posted
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Posted (edited)

If it won't work. My bet is that it is because of the BCM. Or lack of installing on that is programmed with steering controls.

Edited by Marv88
Marv88 Enthusiast

Marv88

Posted
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If it won't work. My bet is that it is because of the BCM. Or lack of installing on that is programmed with steering controls.

Oops! I thought the same thing but then i read the connection to the adapter is before the BCM so I thought it would bypass that.

Marv88 Enthusiast

Marv88

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I have a wheel and clockspring for sale if you wanna try it. Lol.

I may just do that! How much and do you have the harness with the clock spring? (or know the part number)

DeepBlue17 Enthusiast

DeepBlue17

Posted
Posted

Yes. As long as you have all necessary connections for the steering wheel you will be fine. All of the steering wheel control buttons for audio just use different resistances to ground for function. The ASWC reads these resistances and then outputs the corresponding function to your new headunit. I have done car audio for over 20 years and have done this many times in other vehicles and our trucks are no different.

Marv88 Enthusiast

Marv88

Posted
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Yes. As long as you have all necessary connections for the steering wheel you will be fine. All of the steering wheel control buttons for audio just use different resistances to ground for function. The ASWC reads these resistances and then outputs the corresponding function to your new headunit. I have done car audio for over 20 years and have done this many times in other vehicles and our trucks are no different.

Just what I was hoping to hear and thanks! Are there any other connections I would need to make from the buttons ie a ground etc?

DeepBlue17 Enthusiast

DeepBlue17

Posted
Posted

Just what I was hoping to hear and thanks! Are there any other connections I would need to make from the buttons ie a ground etc?

No. As long as all the clockspring and wiring is there you should be good. As there is already some controls in the wheel even without the audio controls there should already be any ground or voltage wires needed. Should only be the output from buttons wire that is missing.

chancyrudd Enthusiast

chancyrudd

Posted
Posted

Yes. As long as you have all necessary connections for the steering wheel you will be fine. All of the steering wheel control buttons for audio just use different resistances to ground for function. The ASWC reads these resistances and then outputs the corresponding function to your new headunit. I have done car audio for over 20 years and have done this many times in other vehicles and our trucks are no different.

On these trucks the maestro and ASWC-1 catch the signal at the clockspring connector. There are very few trucks on this platform that were built using resistance swc functions. So few that the swc module manufacturer (maestro) doesn't even make that specific firmware public.

 

There is a module in the steering wheel for the controls that communicates to the bcm via LIN bus. The bcm then communicates to the radio on LAN or CAN bus. I don't remember which. PAC swc modules catch the signal after the BCM. So PAC is the only one that will always work even if it is a resistance based steering wheel since it is caught after the BCM.

 

Just wanted to throw that out there. I have done a lot of these truck and have encountered both versions and have had some time on the phone with the various manufacturers. I definitely prefer to use a maestro if possible.

 

These(newer GMs) are the only vehicles I have encountered that have data coming out of the steering wheel instead of straight resistance based controls.

 

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

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DeepBlue17 Enthusiast

DeepBlue17

Posted
Posted

On these trucks the maestro and ASWC-1 catch the signal at the clockspring connector. There are very few trucks on this platform that were built using resistance swc functions. So few that the swc module manufacturer (maestro) doesn't even make that specific firmware public.

 

There is a module in the steering wheel for the controls that communicates to the bcm via LIN bus. The bcm then communicates to the radio on LAN or CAN bus. I don't remember which. PAC swc modules catch the signal after the BCM. So PAC is the only one that will always work even if it is a resistance based steering wheel since it is caught after the BCM.

 

Just wanted to throw that out there. I have done a lot of these truck and have encountered both versions and have had some time on the phone with the various manufacturers. I definitely prefer to use a maestro if possible.

 

These(newer GMs) are the only vehicles I have encountered that have data coming out of the steering wheel instead of straight resistance based controls.

 

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

I was not aware of this. I've never encountered one that wasn't resistance based directly from the wheel and then usually converted to data at BCM. But I retired a few years ago so I haven't done one of our body style trucks.
Marv88 Enthusiast

Marv88

Posted
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Posted (edited)

Double post again!

Edited by Marv88
Marv88 Enthusiast

Marv88

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Thanks for all the info guys but I gotta admit I am a little confused now! chancyrudd, since the aswc-1 catches the signal before the BCM (my BCM is not SWC compatible however I am changing to an aftermarket headunit) does this mean it will still work whether the controls are resistance or data based as long as I have the correct clockspring?

 

On these trucks the maestro and ASWC-1 catch the signal at the clockspring connector. There are very few trucks on this platform that were built using resistance swc functions. So few that the swc module manufacturer (maestro) doesn't even make that specific firmware public.

There is a module in the steering wheel for the controls that communicates to the bcm via LIN bus. The bcm then communicates to the radio on LAN or CAN bus. I don't remember which. PAC swc modules catch the signal after the BCM. So PAC is the only one that will always work even if it is a resistance based steering wheel since it is caught after the BCM.

Just wanted to throw that out there. I have done a lot of these truck and have encountered both versions and have had some time on the phone with the various manufacturers. I definitely prefer to use a maestro if possible.

These(newer GMs) are the only vehicles I have encountered that have data coming out of the steering wheel instead of straight resistance based controls.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

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