It’s becoming more and more common these days for cars to come with factory steering wheel controls. The problem is, if you want to upgrade your headunit, chances are you’ll lose those controls unless you purchase an additional adapter because aftermarket headunits are so rarely compatible with steering wheel controls. Luckily, there are steering wheel control adapters available like the Axxess ASWC-1 that allow you to retain your controls.

The Axxess ASWC-1, the best steering wheel control adapter on the market, just got even better. With the latest update to the ASWC-1, you will be able to program your steering wheel controls with dual functions. Currently, each button on your steering wheel with the ASWC-1 will only perform a single action when clicked. This additional feature lets you program the buttons on your steering wheel for a secondary function when you hold the button down for an extended period of time.

Before setting any ‘long press’ action for your steering wheel controls, your ASWC-1 will need to have been successfully detected by and functional with your stereo. You will also need to update your ASWC-1 to its most recent software revision. When a button has been successfully programmed with a long-press action, a quick tap of the button will work as it always has while a longer press (at least a quarter of a second), the new button action will be sent to your stereo. You can program every button on your steering wheel to work with the long-press function except for your volume up and down controls.

Updating Your ASWC-1

Adding the long-press functionality to your steering wheel controls is no more difficult than installing it was.

Your first step in adding secondary button press functions to your steering wheel controls is to update your ASWC1 to the latest software revision.  To do this you will need to download the WbXXpress Updater program and connect your Axxess interface box to your computer via the Micro-USB connection (the 4-pin serial port is located directly on the circuit board). Your computer will recognize the interface box and prompt you to begin the update.

Once you’ve updated the software on your ASWC-1 and have the interface wired back up in your system, press and hold down the button you want to add a long-press action to for roughly 10 seconds. The green LED will blink quickly to acknowledge the action while you have the button pressed down. Release the button and the blinking LED light will turn solid.

Determine the new steering wheel button number in the chart below. Press and release the volume up button the number of time corresponding to the new button. The green LED will blink rapidly when you have the volume up button engaged and then return to solid when the volume up button is released. If you take more than 10 seconds between a volume up button press, the procedure will self abort and you will have to start over.

To store the long-press button in memory, press the same steering wheel button you held down in step 2. The LED will turn off, indicating completion.


To clear/reset a button to its original use (remove the long-press action), repeat step 2 while pressing the volume down button in place of the volume up button. The LED will go off and the long press mapping will be removed.

Mapping Your New Controls
Button Number
New Button Action
1
Not Allowed
2
Not Allowed
3
Seek Up/Next
4
Seek Down/Previous
5
Mode/Source
6
Mute
7
Preset Up
8
Preset Down
9
Power
10
Band
11
Play/Enter
12
PTT
13
On Hook
14
Off Hook