The stereo controls on the steering wheel. I assume these will become useless. Do I assume correct? Or do these controls not have anything to do with the installed head unit, but rather something further down the line?

The steering wheel controls are usually proprietary and only work with the factory stereo. So your assumption is, for the most part, correct.

However, there is hope.

You could check out the product line at PAC (anyone have that link again?) which includes an interface for various vehicles which will turn the steering wheel buttons into IR remote signals, allowing you to use aftermarket stereos with your steering wheel controls.

Better yet, remember that the Empeg, even when docked in the car, has a serial plug in the back. It's designed to respond to ASCII commands on the serial port for things like volume and track change. Intrepid persons on this BBS have already created little interface boxes which will convert steering-wheel-buttons into these ASCII commands. Go to the BBS forum titled "Projects" and check out the threads. I think this will be my next project, too.

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Tony Fabris