Steering wheel controls - stereo volume?

[yeti]

I have the full gamut of controls on my wheel, crusie on the right (yay!), phone nonsense on the left (boo!).

I don't use a phone in tha car, neither do I want blueteeth or need any of that assorted nonsense though some chump paid money for it back in the day. There are therefore a set of very likely looking buttons which currently operate volume control and so on, I assume of the phone.

Can these be converted theoretically to control the volume of the stereo? And flick between CD/radio and skip track etc? You know, like a ten grand hatchback would have!

Seems odd in such a car to have to reach over for the stereo control, would rather keep my eyes on the road especially in traffic.

A job for a very skilled electrician or a competent mechanic with a soldering iron in theory..?

[Jockman]

yeti said:

...I don't use a phone in tha car, neither do I want blueteeth or need any of that assorted nonsense though some chump paid money for it back in the day. There are therefore a set of very likely looking buttons which currently operate volume control and so on, I assume of the phone.

Can these be converted theoretically to control the volume of the stereo? And flick between CD/radio and skip track etc? You know, like a ten grand hatchback would have!..

I must be missing something here matey - they already control both volumes

If I have the stereo system on they control that volume - if the phone rings, they switch to that volume. The cursor underneath them also switches tracks.

Why are yours different??

[MichaelV8V]

On later models (2009+?) they do control the volume of the sound system, and the slider on the back of the wheel moves from track to track

[Jockman]

MichaelV8V said:

On later models (2009+?) they do control the volume of the sound system, and the slider on the back of the wheel moves from track to track

So on the earlier models, surely it requires a software upgrade or something similar ??

All the hardware is already in place

[yeti]

MichaelV8V said:

On later models (2009+?) they do control the volume of the sound system, and the slider on the back of the wheel moves from track to track

Excellent - I will see if the BR fellas have an idea how to activate it!! It just looked like it should do that, but didn't

[Murph7355]

Jockman said:

...
All the hardware is already in place

Not necessarily.

There could quite easily be cable connections that aren't present too, in much the same way that iPod connectivity cannot be activated by software alone.

[Jockman]

Jockman said:

All the hardware may be already in place

EFA - tough audience sMurph

I'm sure Yeti knows every part of his steering wheel inside out.

Enjoying your sleepless nights?

[Murph7355]

Jockman said:

EFA - tough audience sMurph

I'm sure Yeti knows every part of his steering wheel inside out.

Enjoying your sleepless nights?

They're not that sleepless at the moment tbh (well, wouldn't be if I hadn't picked up a lovely cold/dose of man flu).

The Aston audio and electronics are very clever in many ways, but implemented poorly. It's a system designed to be installed in 30k family wagons and ill thought through on the earlier cars. Probably the single poorest elements of the car (definitely so if we include the satnav in the bundle).

I'm sure someone like Paralight could fix it at a cost.

[yeti]

Murph7355 said:

I'm sure someone like Paralight could fix it at a cost.

Good point - might be worth dropping James a mail and seeing what he can do. He's tinkering with DAB radios for AMs at the moment!