So, during the site outage, I was able to finish up hooking the OEM radio controls to my PC. The whole job was fairly easy, and the toughest part was taking the dash trim off without scratching it up as most of you know. Here are some pics of the OEM dash controls soldered up to the USB joystick guts:

OEM controller before disection:




The CAT5 jumper wires soldered to the OEM board:



All buttoned up and ready to be installed back in the car:



I have been using it now for a few days and I am very happy. All the controls work very quickly and reliably. Right now, I have the OEM mode button set to return me to the main menu from whatever screen I am in, like GPS or XM. I am working on the software code to have it behave as a true "mode" button. When I get the code right, it will rotate between main, gps, and XM for each subsequent push.

Now that I have done this, I may also wire the cruise control switches to perform some function or another. It will only work when the master cruise control switch is not activated. I never realized how much I missed the OEM dash controls!

 

Nooooooooo....leave the joystick whole! That would be kick ass seeing your car with a fighter pilot stick in it.

 

you know, if it wasn't for the placement of the shifter, I would do just that. I imagine a small fighter style joystick molded into the center console. It would work in a bigger sedan type car, but not in the S. Most joysticks have like 6 or seven buttons right at the top of the stick which would be sooo convenient. I have thought about that BMW iDrive thingy though as an option for a similar controler near the shifter.

Maybe I can devise a way to have the joystick control the electronic steering box and retro a DBR module from an 06 into the throttle that is controlled by the joystick. then I can eliminate the wheel and pedals all together....


KIDDING!

 

wow cant wait to see finished product

 

It's all back in the car now. I didn't take any pics of it re-installed because it looks 100% stock. I will eventualy take some more pics of the actual PC on the PAS2kNUT rack and some shots of the USB hub and periphials in the car to give a better idea of what the system is all about. I may even make a short demo video to show what it can do.

 

jeff,
this is a great project, i keep pretending i'm going to have time to do one.. but i refuse to start because knowing my schedule it'll be obsolete before I finish it.

 

yo this is sick, u really got some computer skills, cant wait to see it when its finished

 

wow, that is amazing what you did with the joystick!

I am wanting to put my carpc back in, I just have not had the time. I also would like to get a smaller motherboard, like I posted before. I just need to pull my papers out and find out what board I have now and see if any of the parts I have now will work with a smaller board.

Did you happen to make a diagram of the oem dash control mod?? I would love to make mine work like you have! Everytime I drive someone else's car that doesn't have the side controls/wheel controls I go crazy

 

Yeah but now how will you play MechWarrior when driving?

 

As far as a diagram, no. No need actualy. All you need to do is solder the switches on the OEM board to the switches on the game pad or joystick. You will need to remove some of the printed circuits on the OEM board to isolate each switch though, since in stcok form they work on a resistence measurment. If you have a soldering gun and a multi tester, it is fairly easy. Or, you can ship your stuff to me and I can set it up for a nominal fee