Steering wheel controls - 2020 Tundra

Anyone besides me think the steering wheel controls are backwards on the Steering Wheel?

 

X2

 

Dumb

 

A few have posted about this and there are some ways to change it. To me, it lines up with how the head unit is set up. The stations go vertically and the volume goes horizontally so to me this controller makes sense. But I totally get what you are saying.

 

Volume up normal, volume right not normal. Just be normal.

 

Yes, I change the song whenever I try to turn the volume up. There’s a thread on here somewhere on how to change it.

 

I'd love to find it. It doesn't seem that difficult to turn the controls 90° but then the buttons wouldn't match.

 

You should see me trying to drive the wife's 4Runner. The volume is where the phone buttons are. Still can't get used to that.

 

My wife has a Ford.... nothing is where it should be. I don't mind being lost with where things are in her car, but it annoys me once I get used to hers and then hop in the Tundra and mess up pressing buttons... I wish you luck sir

 

That’s how my ‘15 Tundra was. Volume was where the phone buttons are now. I don’t remember being bothered by it as much as I do now. I searched a little for that post but couldn’t find it.

 

It was totally as you drew it in my 2008, and at first was really off for me. 7200 miles and a few months into owning my 2021, I’ve gotten used to it and muscle memory has set it. Sort of like learning the manual of arms on a new pistol.

I imagine changing it involves changing the position of the pins in the connector that goes to the spiral cable. The button symbols would be wrong though

 

I was thinking you could just cock the pad 90° LOL

 

I’ll take a look at the spare buttons I have downstairs and report back

 

Ok... that won’t work.
The left side control module


What it looks like opened up. Changing the control function could likely be done by changing the terminations of the wiring (I need to pull up my computer to look at the EWDs to confirm). But the physical buttons are fixed to their positions.


A close up of the side of the button pad. It rocks along both axes as though it is mounted to a gimbal. And the bottom edge of the piece is tapered a specific way.


Popping the button off reveals the gimbal attachment - the white piece still in the frame pivots one way (left-right) and the button mounts inside of it to pivot the other way (up-down).


Now, a person could strip the black coating off the surface of the buttons to expose the opaque white layer, then make and apply some stencils and then repaint the buttons based on changing the pins so that the symbols matched the new functions...
Or get used to the rotated functions.

 

Please tell me you didn't read apart your steering wheel for this conversation?

 

Post before the pictures, he had spare buttons down stairs that he went and looked at.

 

No. I had a set from a wrecked Tacoma that I had installed for a while, but just sold today (well, sold the gunmetal trim parts - the buttons are left over). Perfect timing actually because it gave me something to do with those buttons! It all went back together super easy too.

 

I have a set of controls that you can use for R&D.

 

OK - so a little more not-so-great news. If someone on here has made the function change, I’ll be interested to know how...
Here’s the 2020/2021 EWD (this one for a non-amp head unit, but ALL of them have the same wiring for the steering wheel switches). You can see there are only three wires going to the switch for controls. So changing pins in the connectors won’t do it.

Now, I’m not an electrical engineer (but I have stayed at a Holiday Inn). This is just my brain trying to understand how this stuff works. I’d have to ask a real electrical engineer to explain how this really works. But my best guess is:

It would appear that the way the head unit interprets what button is pressed would be based on the actual current it receives on the return signal line from that bank of buttons. You’ve got a common feed (SWG at the head unit, EAU at the buttons), and then separate returns (SW1 and SW2 at the head unit, AU1 and AU2 at the buttons). Along each return is a series of resistors between where each switch connects to the main return - the switches are in parallel but the resistors are in series. The result would be that the signal for MODE would be higher current (the only resistor is the constant one that connects the feed to the return before any of the switches in the left side) than if you pressed the ON HOOK (which has a single resistor between the switch and the return), which would in turn be higher current than the OFF HOOK button (there are two resistors in line after that button), and finally the VOICE button would be less current still. The head unit would be seeing constant current of a certain amount any time the truck was on (the constant resistors) at each signal return, but different buttons would change that current signal and trigger the respective change at the head unit.


Again - that’s my best GUESS...

 

Damn that must have been one great stay at the Holiday Inn. You went over my head at SWG. So it's fair to say you can't just turn the switch 90°

 

LOL - RainMan's not my nickname because of where I live...
Yeah, pretty safe to say you can't just turn them 90°