I just installed the PAC steering wheel control thing in my MINI.
However, the LED seems to be very weak. I mounted it just in front of the shifter ring and the cup holders.
It doesn't seem to work that well.

Where have you guys mounted the LED?
Could it be a bad LED?

Any help would be great.

Thanks!

 

It seems like I recall other members mountingg their's somewhere by the ignition switch on the steering column. You might try taping it up in different spots before mounitng it to see if it works well in any particular location.

 

The two most popular places seem to be just on the steering wheel side of the ignition, or in the triangular area just behind the shift ring. It really depends on your head unit and you have to experiment. I found the second location best for mine:



It's the white dot centered in the triangular area.

 

Scooter, that is exactly where I mounted mine.
It just doesn't work from there on my Alpine.
I am very bummed about this. After all the money and time spent, it just doesn't work well. I need to find a new spot.
I thought about the small knockout piece next to the hand brake.
But I'm not sure the wire will reach.

 

Which Alpine do you have? I found that with the face of my CDA-7998 tilted to the max , that was the best spot. Doesn't make sense really, but that's the way it turned out.

The only time I have trouble with it is when the sun is shining directly on the head unit. In that situation the regular remote doesn't even work, so I don't fault the SWI-X.

 

It is an Alpine CD-A9815.
I stopped the tilting. i thought it would be pointless
because the LED had no chance of working.
I will try it on my way home tonight.
Otherwise, I just don't know what else to do.

 

let me know how well this works. I just got a cda-9833 and was considering the pac unit but was concerned about the ir quality. may need to sacrifice the steering wheel controls

 

Honestly, I thought it was weird too, but I found that the full-tilt position of the faceplate gave the BEST reception results with the SWI-X. Logic would dictate the opposite - the emitter would appear to be sending it's signal to the underside of the tilted faceplate in this position, so it should be worse. But it's better!

Give it a shot - tilt the faceplate and temporarily hold the emitter down where I put mine and see how it does.

 

Do you think the IR is boucing off the headliner and back to the radio?

I was considering fitting the LED in the dash trim piece above the radio (the one that wraps round the speedo) - might this be a good place?

I also wondered about extending the wires and putting it in the place where the alarm motion detector lives - but that is a long way for the LED to transmit ...

 

Ian, I had the same thought about the headliner, but I didn't dwell on it because I was just happy that it worked well there. :smile:

Re: other emitter locations - I really do suspect it can be different for each model HU, just experiment until you find the best spot.

The motion detector location may work fine - I keep the real remote for my HU in the rear cupholder and people sitting in the back seat have no problem controlling the HU from there. You would of course have to splice an extension into the emitter wire - the stock wire is nowhere near long enough.

 

No luck in the tilt position. That sucks.
So it seems that I spent the money for nothing.
It isn't working in that position.
I'm not sure what I am going to do.
I hope to move it again, but he cord is running out
of distance.

 

Minimac - perhaps Ian's suggestion (up above the speedo) might work well with the faceplate tilted. Can you temporarily put it there and try it? If it works there, you can install it there permanently by removing the dashtop (really easy), snaking the emitter up behind and above the speedo, then reinstalling the dashtop so the emitter is just sticking out under it's edge.

Other (perhaps silly) ideas: Is the faceplate clean? Is the emitter clean? Does the Alpine remote work fine from all angles? Perhaps you really did get a weak SWI-X unit.