Now that's how you do a "how to" post. Wow, nice write up. Still trying to save up for other mods before I tackle stereo stuff. 10gigs of music? Wish I had a set up that held that much music so my days of taking CD's in and out would be over.

 

thanks wade, and yea the ten gigs was actually old technology. The Keg was way ahead of its time with its many acceptable music formats. Kenwood pulled the plug on it right before the MP3 and cdr r/w era hit. The keg is no longer compatible with the 2009 radios but everything before 2009 with the round cd changer plug is fully compatible.
I now have 32gigs on a thumb drive attached to my new setup.

 

Geeeez, 32gig of music? And I thought I had a vast knowledge and taste in music. Im guessing w/this head unit you can see title and artist so you can scroll around 'til you find what you want to listen to?

 

well i sort my music on the thumbdrive in folders by genre, then make subfolders if i want particular playlists. so i can go from playlist to playlist within a folder or a whole different genre with only a few taps of the steering wheel controls.
The unit displays from about five or six selectable texts. It does artist, album, genre, folder, filename, and a few others i think. Its pretty neat it even displays album art (cd covers) if the file has it embedded. It can search/scroll thru music by artist, playlist or genre i believe or you can just select show all artists and they all come up regardless of what folder they are in. Its actually a little to advanced for my everyday driving, but sure does come in handy on long summer roadtrips.
I still have a bit to fill the 32 gigs though. The 10 gig keg filled up rather quickly.

 

Do you mind emphasizing why it would not work? I am really wanting to switch my xlt to more or less the same set up and I would love to customize ALL the buttons.

 

not really sure why it wouldnt read all of the buttons.
Here is my theory though.
The buttons work thru resisted circuits and each "bank" of buttons is its own circuit with each button being a different ohm level.
When i modded the buttons, i tied the output wire of each circuit together into one wire so it would read all eight outputs. But when i tied them together it changed the overall resistance of the two circuits since they are now technically ONE circuit.
The SWIX has no problem reading the difference and memorizing it and assigning a value to each via your handheld remote since its a (semi) universal unit.
The pac-jack on the other hand, has assigned values for each of its outputs (to the radio) which must be assigned in a specific order. It is a bit more tuned in to a particular headunit/vehicle combo and it absolutely refuses to read my married circuits. Once pulled apart it will read the radio buttons just fine or if i swap the output to just the hvac it reads those just fine just not both at the same time.
I just made it easier on myself and installed another swix since i knew it would function.

Another slight note i would like to add.
the buttons get power from the cluster area i imagine. After i did my full LED cluster swap if i turned the brightness of the LEDs up all the way it wouldnt read the buttons. Im geussing the LED panel i made was pulling too much current and dragging the voltage of the buttons down a bit to where their level wasnt at par with what was programmed on the SWIX.
All i had to do was drop the dimmer just a hair and they would function normally.
I have since then pulled the panel and did a little re-circuiting on it and it as well as the buttons functions just fine.

 

Any thoughts about installing 2 pac-jacks and just tying them together? It seems the only difficulty would be programming each one separately.

Thanks for the help, btw....

 

honestly since the swix worked just fine for what i needed i didnt go to any lengths to find another alternative.
I imagine two pacjacks would work.... there is one small thing that you should worry about though.
The pac jacks already have the ouputs preloaded into the unit. You have to program the vol + - mem track up and down etc in a specific order. I dont know how well thats going to work trying to program two units together, specifically skipping the vol section on the second unit since youll be programming the temp/fan buttons to do other functions i presume.
I would suggest going to the pac website and looking at the install instructions for the pac-jack to familiarize yourself with the process before buying the units. Youll see what i mean about how the programming is already loaded into the unit.
The SWIX is basically a mimicing device, where it simply records the steering wheel buttons and assigns them a value based upon an inputted IR signal via the stereos original remote. The only downside is a small lag, and you have to run an IR sender near the units remote input sensor. (both of which are clearly shown on this thread for your reference)

Good luck and just holler at me here, via PM or via email (you can use the the forum to email me) if you need any additional help. Email is usually the best for me if you are in a pinch and need a fast answer.

 

This may be a silly question, but what kind of wire do I need & how easy does the wire fasten into the plug? Thanks.

 

i just used the same gauge as the factory wire size there, i think it was like 14 or 12 gauge. and the plug your putting it into is a female wire end plug, so youll need the female wire receivers. Since i was using two spaces i simply slipped the end of the wire in one hole and routed it to the next hole since it was adjacent. the male pins from the clockspring make contact with both holes and therefore i get one wire with both ac and radio signals.
Hope that made sense, i suck at explaining stuff.

 

Where can I find the female wire receivers? I went to three different places today with no luck. Thanks for all your help!

 

I have read your post and did everything you said but
I have a 2004 FX4 and i put swc switch's from a 2007 in and nothing happen's
I hooked them up to the stock harness in the steering wheel no cruise.
I replaced it with the harness that came with the 2007 steering wheel and
the airbag flash's code 19.In 2004 they had a Lariat with the upgraded swc.
Is it possible the clock spring in my FX4 is not compatible.

 

BTW I have an aftermarket system Kenwood DNX 9960
The harness at the clockspring are the same colours
and the upgrade swc do light up.
For some strange reason it's working now no airbag light and cruise works
but you will need to use updated harness cause the 2 wires that control the
radio and heater are missing on the 2004 FX4