# Please Help with Pac module SWI-RC. Confusing and probably wrong instructions.



## badshah2000 (Jun 5, 2016)

KIA Sedona 2006 EX
Radio: Kenwood
Pac Product: SWI-RC
According to Pac-audio website, the KIA Sedona plug is referenced by diagram "Hyundai 24".

Installation notes (App Guide #439 on pac-audio/swi website) say:
Note #110: "Connect the INTERFACE's White wire*s* to Pin 6 (Blue) of the above connector. Connect pin 18 (Blue/Black) of the radio connector to ground."

A couple of questions regarding this:

1. The first part of above referenced note #110 says to connect interface's white wire*S* (note plural!) to pin 6 (Blue) of the radio connector. Confusion is that there actually are multiple white wires. There is one white wire initially coming of the Pac's interface harness, which then turns into three white wires--one pure white, and the other two are white with different colored stripes on them. Do I connect all three of these white wires to Pin 6 (Blue) of radio connector, or just the Pure White? In other words, should I also connect the two sriped white wires to the pin 6 (Blue) of radio connector?

2. The second part of note #110 says "Connect pin 18 (Blue/Black) of the radio connector to ground". The problem is the pin 18 on my KIA Sedona original factory wiring harness is *not* Blue/Black. It is Red. I have photos of the factory harness taken from various angles which clearly show that while the pin 6 is Blue (as correctly described in note #110), the pin 18 (the cable directly underneeth pin 6 in second row per Hyundai 24 diagram) is RED. It is not Blue/Black as the note #110 says. What should I do?

3. Assuming that the note #110 described number of pin 18 correctoly and made an error in naming it correctly (or, Pac-audio will correct the error and let me know of the correct pin number in factory harness to connect with ground): can I just take one of the black wires from pac harness (in pac's interface harness, the black wire coming out of the harness connector is split into two black wires), and connect to the (pin 18) of factory harness?


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

It means use the white wire, if there was multiple input wires it would say, they just said wireS because it's a universal instructions.

Just use the white wire, you can also use whi/red or whi/blk it dosent matter which white wire u use. The whi/red and whi/blk have a added resistor to it. You can still program to the version number of any of the white inputs. 

The part is says connect to ground the other wire , just hooky to one of the blacks coming out of SWIRC and hook the other black wire to Gnd. They tie together In the harness 

Make sure you set your rotary switch and version number . It will work


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

As far as determining the swc wire, use a dmm set it to resistance, Gnd the wire they say to Gnd , than Gnd one lead of dmm , than probe the suspect swc wire should read a resistance, when you press a botton on steering wheel resistance should change , that is you swc wire you will hook the white wire to.

Each button will have a diffrent resistance and it's rest should have its own resistance. The whole thing is resistance based. That's how it knows what button it is and learns each button. And that's why it dosent matter if u use whi/red or whi/blk instead of whi , it will just be a diffrent resistance it learns to . It dosent look for any specific resistance it just learns what ever resistance it sees for that button you select when you map out that version numbers map list. 

Map list version three is something like vol/up vol/down mute preset up preset down source track up track down band mute answer hang up and voice control . Or something like that, you can make any button do any of those things in whatever order you use when you program the buttons. It dosent care which button use use on what.


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## badshah2000 (Jun 5, 2016)

@oabeieo: thanks very much for the reply and help.

One question remains:

Note $110 said: Connect pin 18 (Blue/Black) of the *radio *connector to ground." 
I took it to mean that by "radio" connector, they meant the original factory harness. And that's where the confusion arose because the pin 18 on original factory harness was not blue/black.

So, the white WIRE from SWIRC connects to pin 6 (Blue) on factory harness.

There are two black wires (meant for ground, right) coming from SWIRC's harness (it is really one black wire which has been split into two using a joint). Where do I hook these two black wires to? To the black (i.e. ground) on the radio wiring harness? Both of them? 

Sorry if I am not getting what might be obvious so I would appreciate a bit more explanation.

thanks much!


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

badshah2000 said:


> @oabeieo: thanks very much for the reply and help.
> 
> One question remains:
> 
> ...


 there's two black wires coming out of the SWIRC , one goes to ground weather it be the ground wire on the radio harness or chassis ground=same thing

The other black wire goes to the 2nd swc wire to feed it ground. PAC did that to simply the install so there's not a bunch of jumpers . 

Coming from the clock spring there are two wires that lead to the steering wheel buttons: 1 is your swc wire that goes to the white wire and the second you ground to complete the circut. 

The factory radio may not have used ground on that wire , it may have been voltage or 5v or whatever the factory radio used to interpret its resistance.

The SWIRC uses resistive ground so we will ground the 2nd wire. 


(The clock spring is the interface that spins between the steering wheel and the wiring harness from the wheel)

So it's really a easy circut. Some cars have 4wire swc , another words they have multiple wires coming from clock spring leading to swc buttons so SWIRC has more than one white wire. Whi/red whi/blk have added resistors to simply join multiple button arrays into one resistive circut. 

As long as each button has a diffrent resistance it will learn each button seperate.

In your car each button has a resistor in it . Vol/up may be 21kohm while vol/down may be 150ohm. Or whatever ! Your car has resistors built in the buttons. So when you press a button it shorts it's built in resistor to the 2nd wire. That simple 


Hope that helps here is pic of similar circuit. It's literally 2 wires


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

Also when you are learning the buttons have car running. The voltage diffrance from when car is charging from alternator can change resistance a tad and make it to where swc doesn't work all the time. Just have car running when doing programming. 

Basicly make sure rotary dial is set for deck brand 
Than while holing the button on side of SWIRC with car running plug in harness to swc

Than let go button. Than press button however many times for what version it says to use. Example: version 3 would press button 3X

Than after you press button (on side SWIRC) to set version number the LED will blink however many times. Example if version 3 LED will blink 3x than turn solid.

Once the version number has been confirmed the LED will go solid. AT THAT POINT YOUR ON A TIMER and need to start mapping buttons.

So as soon as LED goes solid press vol up on steering wheel. If swc is hooked up right , the LED will go out as soon as you press vol up. Than LED will turn back on saying it learned volup and is ready for you to press vol down. Than press volume down and again the light will go out after learning that button. Go through the list of options for that version number and program each button.

When you get to a option that you want to skip like for example if you don't have mute on your steering wheel and need to skip it press the button on side of SWIRC to skip and light will go out and come back on saying it skipped that option and is ready to learn the next option on the list...

Once you have mapped all buttons just wait and the 15sec timer will count out and SWIRC will blink on its own a few times than LED will go out. 

At that point you can test you buttons and radio should work and all will be good.

ALSO the button on side of SWIRC may seem too sunk in for your fingers to press it.
Just press on side of case with your finger above the button. The flesh from your fingertip will make its way down into the hole and button will press. Sorta wierd at first, some folks pull case apart but really there's no need to . Just fat finger it and your skin will get down the hole enough to press it


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## badshah2000 (Jun 5, 2016)

oabeieo, I really appreciate you kindly taking the time to explain this so well.

So, this is what I understand so far, followed by one last question.

1. Per Pac's instructions (note #110), the solid white wire from SWIRC goes to pin 6 (Blue) of factory harness.

2. Per your suggestion, *one* of the black (ground) wires from SWIRC can be connected to the black (ground) of the harnesses/wiring which connect the Kenwood radio to factory harness. I am using a Metra 70-1004 harness to sit between the factory harness and radio wiring. And, yes, there is a black wire (ground) in all of those. So, I would connect "one" of the black wires from SWIRC to the black wire present in radio wiring as described above. Do I have it right?

3. And the final (and hopefully last!) question: (My apologies again for asking what might be an "idiot" question...)


> *The other black wire goes to the 2nd swc wire to feed it ground.* PAC did that to simply the install so there's not a bunch of jumpers .


Sorry; I am still not grasping where the second of these two black wires from SWIRC goes. 
As noted previously, their is only one black wire initially coming out of SWIRC connector. That single black wire has been Y splitted into two black wires. As described in #2 above, we connect one to black (ground) in radio harness/wiring. Does the second black wire from SWIRC gets connected to the same wire which the White wire is connecting to? Or, does it connect to regular ground--just like the "first" black wire? Or, it doesn't get connected to anything?

THANK YOU ONCE AGAIN for being so helpful and patient with my very basic questions.


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

badshah2000 said:


> oabeieo, I really appreciate you kindly taking the time to explain this so well.
> 
> So, this is what I understand so far, followed by one last question.
> 
> ...


They split the wire to create a jumper. That's it. One black wire go to ground. Again ground it where you want, yes the black wire on Kenwood harness is fine. 
The 2nd blk wire the other half where it "Y"s off goes to the wire your instructions says to ground.


You instructions say hook one wire up to white on SWIRC and hook another wire to ground. That's is the wire you ground the 2nd "y" to the first "y" goes to the radio ground or chassis ground


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## badshah2000 (Jun 5, 2016)

Thanks again!

I think I'd need to raise it with Pac's tech support. The original problem/confusion I faced was that Pac's notes are saying to connect pin 18 (Blue/Black) in factory harness to ground. While the pin 18 in my factory harness is RED. So, what do I do??? Ignore the wire colour and go with grounding pin 18 regardless, or ignore pin position and look for a blue/black wire in factory harness to ground???

Rest of every confusion and question was taken care of your excellent help. Thank you!

Here are a few pics of my harness. As you can see, pin 18, which is directly below pin 6 is RED.


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## adrianp89 (Oct 14, 2007)

Always go with pin location over wire color. Wire color can change in cars for many different factors.


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## badshah2000 (Jun 5, 2016)

the727kid said:


> Always go with pin location over wire color. Wire color can change in cars for many different factors.


Got it! Will do...

Thanks again, everyone, for your great help!!!


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

badshah2000 said:


> Thanks again!
> 
> I think I'd need to raise it with Pac's tech support. The original problem/confusion I faced was that Pac's notes are saying to connect pin 18 (Blue/Black) in factory harness to ground. While the pin 18 in my factory harness is RED. So, what do I do??? Ignore the wire colour and go with grounding pin 18 regardless, or ignore pin position and look for a blue/black wire in factory harness to ground???
> 
> ...


Pin location usually trumps color HOWEVER I instal ALOT of these and usually means you might have wrong instructions or have wrong year in there or are looking at wrong plug. Maybe wrong sub model like lx/se/ coupe / sedan what not. I would try pacs info for year before and year after yours and see if you get diffrent data 

Tech support might be a good idea at this point if you don't know how to test for the wires as I explained. 

You can easily pull the steering column shroud off look at plug on clock spring. You should have a few wires going into clock spring, some will be for cruise / horn/ lights/ (airbag will be seperate on a yellow plug) you can look for two wire colors that are at both the clock spring and behind radio

Once identified you can do a continuity test to validate those are the 2 wires with a dmm set to tone. 

Than you know what 2 wires they are, ground one and hook one to white . It's resistive so it won't matter if there backwards, once one is grounded set meter to resistance and the other wire will change resistance when pressing sw buttons.

Some cars also only have 1 wire and the 2nd is grounded at the wheel. I think Kia's are two wire tho . So your on right track. 

Another way to test is plug back in factory radio and test suspected wires with factory radio plunged in. One will have resistance other will be either ground /12v or 5v 

Sorta process of elimination, you know your radio harness speakers power lights ground wires already that only leaves a speed sence and swc wires.


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

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Looking at instructions looks like your using version 8

I think based on pic u posted and the pic they show you might be looking at wrong plug. 
The factory radio may have had more than one plug plugged in and the secondary plug may be floating behind the sub dash somewhere behind the radio


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## firebirdude (Dec 24, 2009)

I really don't understand what's going on here/why this is so difficult. The PAC SWI-RC only has one white wire and one black wire. The red wire goes to +12V ignition. The white wire from the PAC SWI-RC goes to pin 6. The black wire from the SWI-RC goes to any ground (ground from head unit, directly to chassis, it's all the same for this purpose). Then you need to tap into pin 18 and jump that to ground. Again, doesn't matter if it's head unit ground, chassis, etc. Ensure that pin 18 is not connected to anything other than ground. De-pin it from the harness, cut it, leave it plugged in if stereo harness doesn't have a wire there, whatever. The blue/black wire color PAC has listed looks like a mistake. It is EXTREMELY common for two steering wheel control wires to be stacked on top of each other in the factory connector. In fact, if you view PAC's full application guide, it just says "Pin 18" and doesn't call out a color at all. 
http://www.pac-audio.com/SWI/pdf/swi-rc_appguide.pdf


> Connect the INTERFACEs white wires to Pin 6 of the above connector. Connect pin 18 of the radio connector to ground


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## firebirdude (Dec 24, 2009)




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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

firebirdude said:


> I really don't understand what's going on here/why this is so difficult. The PAC SWI-RC only has one white wire and one black wire. The red wire goes to +12V ignition. The white wire from the PAC SWI-RC goes to pin 6. The black wire from the SWI-RC goes to any ground (ground from head unit, directly to chassis, it's all the same for this purpose). Then you need to tap into pin 18 and jump that to ground. Again, doesn't matter if it's head unit ground, chassis, etc. Ensure that pin 18 is not connected to anything other than ground. De-pin it from the harness, cut it, leave it plugged in if stereo harness doesn't have a wire there, whatever. The blue/black wire color PAC has listed looks like a mistake. It is EXTREMELY common for two steering wheel control wires to be stacked on top of each other in the factory connector. In fact, if you view PAC's full application guide, it just says "Pin 18" and doesn't call out a color at all.
> http://www.pac-audio.com/SWI/pdf/swi-rc_appguide.pdf


On the SWIRC the white wire coming out of connector splits into 3 wires whi whi/red whi/blk. And the black wire coming out of connector splits into two black wires. 


They did that to simplify installs and it's brilliant. (Once you've done a few dozen installs and realize why they did that ) 

They just make the black split into two one to be grounded of course and one to act as a jumper for a swc wire that requires ground. 

Once you figure out the reasoning taping up the SWIRC harness and splitting the power and ground wires away from the swc wires and taping them up to there ends makes for a very nice and clean install .


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

firebirdude said:


>


That's an old pic before they did the splitting.

The new ones are split . The nice thing is the whi/red and whi/blk have resistors on them , so it eliminates the need for the installer to have to add resistors on about 99% of install. Harley Davidson motorcycle is the only one now I can think of that still needs resistors added. 


Back when the old harness were out an installer often times had to do there own splicing with bare resistors. It lead to a LOT of confusion. 

It's way better this way


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## firebirdude (Dec 24, 2009)

Ahh. I've installed a few, but carry the ASWC and Maestro. 

Then one black to ground and one to pin 18. Solid white to pin 6, ignore the other whites. Dun.


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

firebirdude said:


> Ahh. I've installed a few, but carry the ASWC and Maestro.
> 
> Then one black to ground and one to pin 18. Solid white to pin 6, ignore the other whites. Dun.


Exactly. It's that easy . I think OP is looking at wrong plug tho. PAC is usually very good about wire colors. 



The aswc is so nice , good ol auto program. I still like SWIRC tho for custom mapping. On my car I baught a steering wheel with paddle shifters just so I could make the paddle shifters vol up/down. 


On other hand aswc has a app you can custom map to now. It works nice


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## firebirdude (Dec 24, 2009)

Maestro SW is king. Plug it into a PC and map it anyway you want. And once installed, it just works. No pressing and holding volume up/pressing volume up repeatedly, etc. Remapping is easy. No counting flashes. No pressing buttons at the precise time is needs it. etc.


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

firebirdude said:


> Maestro SW is king. Plug it into a PC and map it anyway you want. And once installed, it just works. No pressing and holding volume up/pressing volume up repeatedly, etc. Remapping is easy. No counting flashes. No pressing buttons at the precise time is needs it. etc.


Well yeah! Got to love that tpms and gauge set too! 
And multi functional mapping. 

Every time I try talk a customer into a maestro they just don't get they get twice the functionality


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## badshah2000 (Jun 5, 2016)

Just wanted to report back that WE HAVE SUCCESS!!! Everything worked fine 

I simply took a chance and grounded the pin 18 ignoring its color. Everything from that point on worked exactly like the manual said it would. And then it worked fine in practice too. 

I did contact PAC tech support as well, but haven't heard back yet.

Thank you to all of you for awesome help!!!!
best regards,


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

badshah2000 said:


> Just wanted to report back that WE HAVE SUCCESS!!! Everything worked fine
> 
> I simply took a chance and grounded the pin 18 ignoring its color. Everything from that point on worked exactly like the manual said it would. And then it worked fine in practice too.
> 
> ...


Glad to be of service, glad it worked out. 
And now you know exactly how it all works.

If you didn't program the swc with car on at some point it may act goofy , if so just re program that buttons with car on and will work perfect forever


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## firebirdude (Dec 24, 2009)

You're thinking of the Maestro RR, but yeah. They're both awesome.


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## oabeieo (Feb 22, 2015)

firebirdude said:


> You're thinking of the Maestro RR, but yeah. They're both awesome.


Yeah, the rr and the sw . Both are good , I always go for a rr on a ddin and a sw on sdin.


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