There's one problem with the IR thing though. Wouldn't that look pretty ugly having wiring coming out of the steering wheel?

I think you're putting too much thought into this. I'm sorry I even brought up the PAC thing... It looks like their interface will only work with American cars, anyway, and you're getting a Honda. But just to clarify... It's a pretty simple concept- you open the dash and plug their interface into the factory wiring harness. Then there's a tiny little infrared LED on the end of a long extension wire. You run that wire somewhere in your car that's unobtrusive but still shines out enough so that it activates the aftermarket radio (it doesn't even necessarily have to be line-of-sight to the radio- infrared can sometimes bounce off of objects in the car and still work). Then, when you press the steering-wheel radio buttons, this thing converts those proprietary button-pushes into infrared signals which are compatible with aftermarket stereos.

In other words, it works like this:

Steering wheel--->PAC Interface--->IR LED- - -(IR Signals)- - ->Radio

This is all completely unrelated to the Empeg. Although such a scheme would work with the Empeg, provided that the interface rendered Kenwood-style IR signals. You don't need to do any programming for the Empeg or anything. Seems like a lot of trouble to go to, though (and PAC's interface only works for American cars anyway). What this world really needs is a standard for steering wheel controls so that aftermarket radios can use the steering wheel buttons on every car.

A more straightforward approach for the Empeg would be to skip the IR signals altogether and wire an interface directly into the RS-232 serial plug on the back of the unit. It would go like this:

Steering wheel--->RS-232 Interface--->Empeg

This is a project that's been successfully done, and you can find its documentation at Big John's page.

This is a more involved project because the electronics are not trivial. But the result is that the RS-232 interface renders serial commands that the Empeg is already programmed to respond to, so again, there's no programming needed on the Empeg side.


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Tony Fabris