Saturday, March 19, 2011 - 08:29 am, by: Sebastian Grant(Saabg)
I've recently purchased a Suprastick and an IS300 steering wheel with shift buttons. What I want to is to wire the buttons on the steering to enable me to change gear through the Suprastick.
The Suprastick has two wires that require a momentary 12V signal to change gears, one for up and the other for down.
What I was thinking of doing is getting my 12V from the cruise control module inside the steering wheel, run that to each of the shift buttons (momentary on) and then to the Suprastick. Pretty simple so far.
The problem I'm faced with is that obviously I can't just run two wires down the steering column as they would get tangled when I turn the steering wheel. Toyota was faced with the same problem with the cruise control wiring so the ran a hub with a sliding contact system like a train track so the wheel can turn without any wires getting tangled but there is only enough connections (four) for the cruise control on the hub. There is space in the hub for 6 but because our steering wheels don't require it they only installed the necessary hardware for four connections.
What I'm thinking of doing is installing the hub from an is350 as it has many buttons on the steering wheel (audio controls, paddle shifter etc) as it should have more connections to accommodate all the extra functions.
What do you guys think, am I on the right path? Is there a simpler way? I was thinking of relocating my cruise control and using the hub connections for the Suprastick but I would like to keep my cc stalk where it is.Would an auto electrician be able to make up the extra two connections I need?
Sorry for the long post but I wanted to make it clear what I'm after. I may post pics if anyone wants to know what I'm on about.
Saturday, March 19, 2011 - 11:17 am, by: Matt Newman(Soarersrock)
is it possible to use a splitter or to strip back the wires and put them on the same connection plug? (so you have 2 wires crimped into 1 plug) and then pick up the 12v feed where the wires exit the steering column
good luck with it would be good to find out how you get it to work in the end.
Saturday, March 19, 2011 - 12:31 pm, by: Tom Richards(Tomr)
you are on the right track. you either need to relocate some functions, or get an increased capacity hub. What about wipers and lights, can they be relocated?
Saturday, March 19, 2011 - 12:50 pm, by: Sebastian Grant(Saabg)
The problem with that Matt is that then the Suprastick would be wired into a constant 12V feed.
Tom, the wipers and lights are not connected to the steering wheel, they are connected to the column. I have found the part I'm after though (84306-48030) and it shouldn't be too hard to come by as Toyota have used it on a lot of steering wheels with audio controls etc so the hunt for a late model top spec Toyota that's wrecking begins.
Sunday, March 20, 2011 - 01:41 pm, by: Tom Richards(Tomr)
sebastian, another way to do it is to use a 4 position double throw switch. You would not be using cruise control and manual gear changes from the steering wheel at the same time, so you would switch between the steering wheel controlling CC or gear changes.
by using a switch, with 2 moving arms connected to the input and 2 to the output of the "ring connector" on the steering shaft, in position A, the 2 CC inputs are connected to the CC outputs thru the switch and when switched to position B, the 2 gear change inputs are connected to the gearbox.
Sunday, March 20, 2011 - 09:41 pm, by: Sebastian Grant(Saabg)
Pretty good idea Tom. The only thing is then I would have to flick two switches to move from Auto to Manual plus a double throw switch wouldn't look very good.
I think I might just bite the bullet and use the single wire option which reads the different voltages coming from the cruise control module. The cruise control module sends out different voltages when a button is pressed on the cruise control stalk. I should be able to wire the buttons in parallel with the cruise control stalk to do the same thing.
Thanks for your help guys and keep coming at me with ideas. I'll keep you posted on how it's going.
Sunday, March 20, 2011 - 11:57 pm, by: David Ward(Djwtoyota)
Sebastian, there is the other option that the V8 supercars use and that is a neat tidy coiled group of wires that go from the wheel to the column. They may not do as many turns of the wheel as a Soarer lock to lock, I don't know but it may work OK and it doesn't look out of place
Monday, March 21, 2011 - 06:07 am, by: Sebastian Grant(Saabg)
Haha yeah that would work for sure but I think it would look out of place in a road car though but a good idea though. Would definitely be the best option in a track car.
I did some testing last night on the single wire idea. The line that goes to the cc computer is feed a constant of 12V+. Different inputs from us create different voltages with the use of three internal resistors. Up = ~5V. Down = ~2V. Back = ~7V.
Some people have said that the one wore option is erratic I'd say that's because they have been told to use the up and down function on the cc stalk and the signals are two close together. I'll use back ~7V and down ~2V and just tap into the cruise control module and connect to the buttons effectively making the steering wheel buttons cc buttons as well if that makes sense.
Saturday, June 11, 2011 - 05:22 pm, by: Walter Gillmore(Cl33pa)
how's the progress on this sebastian? did you have to use the soarer's stock cruise control stalk or the is300 one? and have you found a suitable clock spring?
Saturday, June 11, 2011 - 07:55 pm, by: Sebastian Grant(Saabg)
As it stands I'm using the stock soarer cc stalk, I just dremeled it out abit to fit. It works pretty well, the only problem being the delay that comes with the one wire option. I'm sure the two wire option would be pretty instant.
As of now my gearbox or suprastick has been playing up since I took it to the drags on Wednesday. It won't change from first to second until about 37km an hour regardless of throttle input. It's most likely that my gearbox is on the way out because it was running like a peach at the start of the night.
I'm tossing up wether or not to get my new gearbox (buying Luke Cairns's) converted to a ratchet shift with a manual valve body and be done with the electronic gearbox all together. The way I see it it's one less thing to go wrong.
Are you thinking of getting a suprastick Walter? If so I may sell mine in the coming months.
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