I also have Axxess
ASWC steering wheel interface modules available
See this page for
more info
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Connecting 20-pin Harness To HU's
Harness
Read and understand all of the connections before
starting. You will be joining the +12V and ground wires from
several different harnesses (my 20-pin, your HU's, ASWC, and possibly
other accessories).
See this
guide for connecting my 20-pin Subaru installation harness to your
HU's power/speaker harness.
Connecting the ASWC Module
Refer to my pin-out table for Subaru's 20-pin harness.
Column
"A" shows the wires on the 20-pin harness.
Ignore the printed "Application Chart" booklet that was
included in the ASWC package — some versions of the booklet have
incorrect diagrams and/or pin information for the factory harnesses in
Subarus.
Also ignore where the ASWC vehicle-specific docs talk
about connecting to your Subaru's factory wires. You will use the
two or three SWC wires on my harness (which are BROWN/RED, BROWN/BLUE,
and BROWN/BLACK).
Connecting the ASWC to the Car
Join the following wires between the ASWC's harness and my
20-pin harness. Where colors are listed as a pair, the first is
the main color and the second is the color of the stripe(s) —
MAIN/STRIPE. The stripe(s) are usually thinner.
SWC Variation "A" — Subaru
models that do not have phone/BT buttons (only 6 audio buttons):
- ASWC's RED wire to the other RED wires (my harness'
and your HU's)
- ASWC's BLACK wire to the other BLACK ground wires (my
harness' and your HU's)
- BROWN/BLACK wire on my 20-pin harness (pin 14) to the
other BLACK ground wires (same as above)
- ASWC's WHITE/GREEN wire to the other ground wires
(same as above)
- ASWC's GRAY/RED wire to the BROWN/RED wire on my
20-pin harness (pin 4)
Note: If you have either the OEM Kenwood or TomTom
navigation HU, I also build a 24-pin harness that will allow you to
connect to your car's SWC wires without splicing into the factory
wires. E-mail me for details.
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2008–up Impreza, Forester
2010–up Legacy, Outback
(click to see larger images) |
SWC Variation "B" —
2011–up Impreza and Forester
with phone/BT buttons (On/Off-Hook and Talk):
SWC Variation "C" —
2010–up
Legacy/Liberty/Outback
with phone/BT buttons (On/Off-Hook
and Talk):
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Note: Your ASWC
module must have firmware dated July 19, 2010 or later.
- ASWC's RED wire to the other RED wires (my harness'
and your HU's)
- ASWC's BLACK wire to the other BLACK ground wires (my
harness' and your HU's)
- BROWN/BLACK wire on my 20-pin harness (pin 14) to the
other BLACK ground wires (same as above)
- ASWC's WHITE/GREEN wire to the other BLACK ground
wires (same as above)
- ASWC's GRAY/RED wire to the BROWN/RED wire on my
20-pin harness (pin 4)
- ASWC's GRAY/BLUE wire to the BROWN/BLUE wire on my
20-pin harness (pin 11, or pin 13 on some 2012–up models)
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2010–up Legacy, Outback w/ BT
(click to see larger image) |
All Subarus:
The ASWC's 12-pin harness will have many "leftover" wires that
you won't use. Individually insulate all of those unused wires on
the ASWC's harness. Don't cut off any wires — you may need
them if you want to re-install the module in another make/model car
later.
Note: The pink wire on
the ASWC harness may be labeled "MUTE". Ignore that label — this wire
has nothing to do with muting (Metra's harness subcontractor used pink
wire labeled for radio harnesses). Do not connect anything to
that wire.
Connecting the ASWC to your
Head Unit
Most HUs have a 3.5mm jack for a wired remote control (usually
labeled "W/R", "SWC", or similar). For those, simply plug in the
ASWC's right-angle 3.5mm plug. Your HU may have additional jacks
for an aux input or other A/V inputs or outputs. Those are not
for steering wheel wheel controls. Refer to your HU's
installation instructions to determine which is the correct jack.
Eclipse, Kenwood, and some recent JVC HUs have plain wire(s)
instead of a 3.5mm jack. For those, you will use the 3.5mm jack
adapter that was included in the ASWC package. Follow the
directions in the ASWC's instructions for connecting the ASWC adapter's
wires to your HU's SWC wire(s).
Metra recently started including a tiny 12K ohm resistor in
each ASWC package. I insert that inside the plastic bag with the
ASWC's female 3.5mm adapter. If you purchased your ASWC from
someone else, you may find that resistor loose in the package or inside
the instruction manual or warranty card. See my notes about the
resistor, below.
Tip: If you don't need the ASWC's 3.5mm jack adapter for your
install, save it (along with the resistor) in case you later switch to
a Kenwood, JVC, or Eclipse HU. I suggest wire-tying it to the
ASWC or its harness, to store it behind your HU.
Tip: It's possible to manually remap using just your SWC
buttons. This is much easier to do if you locate the ASWC so that
you can still see its LED even after you have closed up your
dash. Even better if you position the ASWC so that you can reach
its reset button.
Kenwood and some JVC HUs
Instead of a 3.5mm jack, Kenwoods and some recent JVCs have a
single wire for "Steering Remote Control" on the power/speaker harness
(normally LIGHT BLUE/YELLOW — check your HU's installation manual
to verify the color!). Connect as follows:
- Kenwood/JVC's BLUE/YELLOW SWC wire to the ASWC 3.5mm jack
adapter's Brown wire
- Insulate the ASWC 3.5mm jack adapter's BROWN/WHITE wire
- Plug the ASWC's 3.5mm plug into the 3.5mm adapter's jack
Eclipse HUs
Instead of a 3.5mm jack, Eclipse HUs have two or more
individual wires. These wires may be part of the power/speaker
harness, or on one of the additional harnesses that plug into the rear
of the HU. The opposite end of the SWC wires may terminate into a
white, rectangular, 20-pin socket.
Some Eclipse HUs use BROWN and BROWN/BLACK wires. If
your Eclipse uses those colors for its SWC wires, connect as follows:
- Eclipse's BROWN wire to the ASWC 3.5mm adapter's BROWN wire
- Eclipse's BROWN/BLACK wire to the 3.5mm jack adapter's
BROWN/WHITE wire.
Other Eclipse HUs use wires colored BROWN, WHITE, and
BLACK. If your Eclipse uses those colors for its SWC wires,
connect as follows:
- Eclipse's BROWN wire to the ASWC 3.5mm adapter's BROWN wire
Eclipse's WHITE wire to the 3.5mm jack adapter's BROWN/WHITE wire.
If the HU does not recognize all of the car's SWC buttons, try
reversing these two wires.
If your Eclipse HU has different SWC wire colors, and the HU's
installation manual does not identify them, you will need to contact
Eclipse and/or Metra's technical support for guidance.
Programming the ASWC
The ASWC will automatically detect the Subaru's wheel
buttons. You do not need to press a Subaru's Volume Up button
during detection. In most cases, the ASWC will also automatically
recognize your HU. Simply
follow the ASWC's normal procedure for auto programming.
Ignore where the ASWC's manual refers to its LED color.
One of the enhancements for the ASWC-1 was changing to a bi-color LED
(RED/GREEN), but there may still be places in the manual where the
manual says RED when it should now say GREEN.
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On some HU brands (Pioneer, Clarion, and possibly
others), the ASWC's automatic programming will assign the car's phone
buttons to do audio functions — preset up, preset down, and
mute. This is because most HU models in those brands do not
support any phone/Bluetooth functions. If this happens with your
HU and you think the HU might support the phone commands, you will need
to program those buttons yourself.
Note: Very few
Pioneer models support a command for "Push To Talk" or "Voice
Recognition." And according to Kenwood, the only phone-related
remote command their HUs accept is "answer call" (you can use the MODE
button to end a call).
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Recent Firmware Updates
- In an April 2012 update, Metra added a shortcut step to
program the phone functions: After the ASWC completes its auto
programming (and after it gives the LED blink codes to confirm which
wires and which HU brand are connected), the LED will go solid
ON. Press and hold your wheel's on-hook button until the LED
turns off (should take about 4 seconds). That should program all
3 phone/BT buttons. Test to make sure all 8 buttons work.
See ASWC's vehicle-specific guide (online) for more details about the
shortcut.
- In an update released May 13, 2013 (V 3.13) Metra added the
ability to dual-assign steering wheel buttons (programming different
functions for short and long SWC button presses). See the latest
version of the ASWC-1 Installation Manual for details.
- On June 11, 2013, Metra released an update (v 3.15).
The release notes include the comment: "Fixed MODE button not working
on some Pioneer radios. Only affects 257291 Rev E boards."
If you purchased your ASWC from someone else (or got one from
me prior to those dates), you should update your firmware.
Phone/Bluetooth buttons not
working
On cars with phone/Bluetooth SWC buttons, the ASWC module will
definitely "see" all 8 of
your car's SWC buttons (including the phone/Bluetooth buttons).
You can program the module to assign each button to any remote command that your HU supports.
That last part is key:
Many HUs don't have remote control commands that correspond to all of
your wheel's phone buttons (even HUs that have built-in BT). This is usually a limitation of the HU
itself, not the interface module. HUs where the BT
function is provided by an external accessory unit have been especially
bad about not recognizing those remote commands. You can program
the ASWC to assign any leftover buttons to do additional audio
functions (e.g., Mute, Band, Seek Up, etc.), so none of the buttons
need be "dead."
If the ASWC's automatic programming appears to leave the phone
buttons (or any of the others) unassigned, first check your wiring (see the
"troubleshooting" tips in the ASWC's manual, and check that the LED
blink codes match the wire colors you should have used). Next,
try the ASWC's manual programming procedure — assign the "dead"
buttons to other audio functions that the ASWC didn't choose (e.g.,
Band, Preset Up/Down, Mute) and verify that every button works.
That will at least confirm that the ASWC is able to see all 8 of your
car's buttons.
Once you've verified that the ASWC is able to see all of your car's
SWCs, you can try manually programming the three phone buttons to do
the corresponding phone commands. Several people have found this
works, even though the automatic programming did not assign those
buttons. For any buttons that still don't work, you can again go
back and assign those to do extra audio functions.
Kenwood seen as JVC
The ASWC is detecting some recent Kenwood HUs as JVC.
The two brands are now owned by the same company and are apparently
sharing some circuitry. At one point, Metra's instructions said
these Kenwood models exhibit this problem: DNX9960, DNX7160, DDX896
and DDX418. You can solve the problem either of two ways:
- Use the ASWC's manual programming procedure to select
"Kenwood" as the HU brand.
- Temporarily insert
a 10k to 12k ohm resistor between the ASWC's BROWN wire and
the Kenwood's SWC wire (LIGHT BLUE/YELLOW). Metra now includes a
tiny 12k resistor in the ASWC package. This will enable
the ASWC to automatically detect the HU as a Kenwood. You can
then proceed with auto- or manual programming of the SWC buttons.
After you have done that, you must
remove this resistor for normal operation.
Again, you only need to add the resistor if the ASWC
auto-detects your Kenwood as a JVC. In that case, only
have the resistor connected during auto programming.
SWCs not working on Kenwood
Another customer recently alerted me to this: Some
Kenwoods have a menu option that enables/disables SWC control. In
the manual section "Setting menu items", find the option "Remote
Sensor". That actually affects both the infrared remote and SWC
input (though the manual doesn't reveal this).
Additional notes
Reset button and LED holes
Remember that the
ASWC's reset button is inside the hole towards the left (closer to the USB port
cover). If you need to press the button, use a blunt probe (such as a toothpick,
small hex key, coffee stirrer, paper clip, stem of a Q-tip, etc.) and
insert that into the hole.
The hole towards the right
(closer to the ASWC's 12-pin harness connector) has the LED
underneath. Don't poke anything in there!
USB Interface
On the older ASWC (the version that does not have a micro USB
port), you must NOT connect
the ASWC's USB connector directly to a computer's USB port — you
could fry the ASWC module. Metra's USB-CAB interface cable
converts USB to +5V TTL serial.
Their updating software will only work with certain converter
cables. If you need to update the firmware on an older module, I
have the USB-CAB cables available.
The newer ASWC-1 has a micro USB socket. You can use a
regular USB cable (male micro USB to male "A") to update the firmware.
ASWC Documentation Online
The latest versions of the ASWC product manual and
vehicle-specific instructions are available from their web site.
Always navigate from their home page, to be sure that you get the
latest version of each document.
Be aware that Metra may post revisions to these documents "in
place" (without changing the file names or URLs). So it's not
easy to tell when a file has been updated. You can check the
"document properties" in a PDF to see the "Created" and "Modified"
dates (which are different than the date you saved the file to your
computer).
ASWC Product Instructions
Start at their home page: www.axxessinterface.com
Click on the "ASWC-1 Vehicle Instructions" button (in column
of links on the right side, below the scrolling banner pictures).
Scroll down to see "PDF Downloads:" and click the link
"Download the ASWC Instructions Manual >>".
ASWC Vehicle-Specific
Instructions for Subarus
From Axxess site's home page, click on the "ASWC-1 Vehicle
Instructions" button (in column of links on the right side, below the
scrolling banner pictures).
Select: SUBARU, (your model), (your year), and your factory
radio (e.g., "WITH STANDARD AUDIO SYSTEM", "WITH NAVIGATION EQUIPPED
AUDIO SYSTEM", etc.).
This brings up a link to a PDF doc for the vehicle-specific
installation instructions. Beware: Some of those PDF files may
still show incorrect harness diagrams and/or pin numbers. If
theirs differ from mine, e-mail me and I'll look into it.
ASWC Firmware Release Notes
From the Axxess site's home page, in the row near the top of
the page, click on "AXXESS UPDATES" to go to this page:
There you'll find a blog with release notes, as well as some
press releases. Often, Metra is a little slow to update
that. If you install Metra's WebXXpress Updater program, you can
find more recent notes in a file named "ASWC Version Updates.txt", in
the directory "USB Bootloader\data".
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