Hi,

My Christmas present for 2002 was a Mk2a and Blaupunkt Tokyo head unit with the RC09 steering wheel remote. After a weekend of effort, both are happily installed in my 1991 Mazda 323.

Please don't ask why I spent more on my setup than the car is worth. My wife already has!

An obvious next step is interfacing the steering wheel remote to to the empeg.

I read the thread on the subject of the Blaupunkt Thummer that occured on this board exactly a year ago. It ended when it was determined that the Blaupunkt IR emitter works on a different frequency than the empeg. I have installed hijack and it seems that this is indeed the case.

I am wondering if it might be possible to interface the RC09s IR sensor to the RS232 port of the empeg, as has been done with the Sony stalk.

The RC09 sensor plugs into the back of my head unit, with six connections. These connections run first to a connector for my head unit and then to another for a GPS Navagation unit. There is a switch on the RC09 to allow both to be used at the same time. Of the six, three have documented functions in the Tokyo manual. One is a ground, one is +12V and the other is labelled "remote control". The other pins are not labelled.

From very limited experience, I recall that three pins are also required for RS232, tx, rx, and ground. However, I know enough to surmise that +12V is not a signalling function. I'm sure that this is a completely different type of interface.

My question is, has anyone looked into this? If not, could some of members with hardware expertise please comment on the feasability/difficulty of putting some logic in the middle?

Thanks and Happy New Year! I'm happy to have started 2003 by joining your ranks.

Da Winksta

I had a similar problem with my 99 Grand Jeep Cherokee...
The remote buttons on my steering wheel would control the stock radio/cd changer.
(Mine had an 8 pin connector.)

I spent about 10 hours trying to figure out what I could do, to comply with the Empeg...
So I could still have that luxury/convenience.

My advise to you is this:
The easiest way to make this work is to use this "adaptor harness". It's almost like the one you described, except it will produce/send a frequency.
(Taken from this FAQ entry.)

This would avoid all that wiring/trouble.