This is a bit of a niche mod but someone out there may find it useful.
Making use of the spare Dash Buttons to activate an electric garage door or gate remote control is done in two stages; firstly convert the static buttons on your dash switch unit into moving buttons and secondly prepare the remote fob.
[where possible, use plastic tools when prising things apart otherwise you’ll damage or bruise the plastic]
First Stage:
Buy a second hand dash switch unit (e.g. ebay for between £15 - £20).
2. Take your unit out of the car using radio removal keys.
3. Strip it apart in the same way as above.
4. This time you need to remove the white static switch mouldings. Replace them with the black moving ones you removed from the other unit. They just push in and click into place.
5. Reassemble all the parts and turn your attention to the pcb’s
6. You need to ‘desolder’ the surface mounted switches from the second hand unit and solder them onto the blank spaces on yours (keep to the same orientation as the existing ones on the board).
7. I didn’t fit any additional led’s as I didn’t want any indication that the buttons did anything, but now is the time to do this if you want to.
8. Once you have all the surface mount switches on the pcb, assemble it back into the unit along with the rubber strip that acts as the ‘spring’ for the buttons. Fix the pcb in place with the five torx screws.
9. Put the cover back on and secure it with three torx screws.
10. Don’t forget the two torx screws for the side holes that hold the body to the ‘window’ frame.
In the car you will have seen the 20 pin connector from when the unit was removed.
For UK cars the button switch pin slots are;
1 = Drive Select
2 = Stop/Start
3 = Park Assist or Spare (right side of Stop/Start)
4 = Parking Sensors or Spare (left side of Hazard)
6 = Hazard
7 = Traction Control
9 = Spare (right side of Hazard)
11 = Common earth to all switches
17 = MMI Screen Up/Down
You’ll need a repair wire for these new connections (I had a spare loom from a footwell light install with the correct connectors on that I was able to use).
Plug the wire(s) into the empty slot(s) you want to use and run the cables behind the dash towards the fuse box, this is easier to do if the glove box is removed.
Second Stage:
1.
Take your remote control apart and identify how it switches, you’ll see mine had a small surface mounted switch which I removed. This was bridged with copper wire to complete the circuit.
2.
Solder two tails to the battery terminals. Put the covers back on to protect the pcb, after making a hole for the cables to escape.
3.
I connected these two cables into a small multi-plug connector (from Maplin). The mating half of the connector was wired up with the lead from the dash button and an ignition switched live from the fuse box.
4.
So once the two halves are pushed together the live feed goes to the positive terminal of the remote and the dash button cable goes to the negative terminal of the remote. The dash button completes the circuit when depressed, but only when the ignition is on.
5.
Tidy the cables up and hide the remote control behind the dash or glove box or end panel of the dashboard.
6.
Enjoy the new addition to the dash buttons.
Hope this is useful to someone.
Making use of the spare Dash Buttons to activate an electric garage door or gate remote control is done in two stages; firstly convert the static buttons on your dash switch unit into moving buttons and secondly prepare the remote fob.
[where possible, use plastic tools when prising things apart otherwise you’ll damage or bruise the plastic]
First Stage:
Buy a second hand dash switch unit (e.g. ebay for between £15 - £20).
- Take the second hand unit apart in this order;
- Remove the three torx screws (you’ll need a T8 torx bit) that holds down the large flat plastic moulding covering the pcb.
- Remove the five torx screws securing the pcb and lift it out along with the rubber strip and put them safely to one side.
- Remove the torx screws at the side of the unit (one each side) that hold the front mouldings in place.
- Remove the chrome trim by carefully prising the clips over the black plastic tabs.
- From underneath carefully prise off each of the switch covers (be careful – you will break some of the retaining tabs, fortunately the covers will go back on ok with one tab in tact).
- The white moulding that was behind the ‘Passenger Airbag’ cover must be removed next.
- Carefully squeeze together the two legs of the moulding at the same time pushing the moulding outwards. This plastic is very brittle and one of the legs will break if you squeeze too hard.
- Once this is out, unclip the button frame (the moulding with the ‘windows’ for the buttons) from the body part by lifting the clips over the tabs of the body part.
- The switch moulding plastic part (black is the moving one and white is the static one) is much more resilient, they are removed by squeezing both sides fully in (as shown in the picture) to free the sides from the pivot pins at either side and at the same time push the moulding outwards. Use two metal flat bladed screwdrivers (or long nose pliers) as it takes a fair amount of force to push the legs in. You only need the black switch mouldings, no need to remove the white parts from the sacrificial unit.
2. Take your unit out of the car using radio removal keys.
3. Strip it apart in the same way as above.
4. This time you need to remove the white static switch mouldings. Replace them with the black moving ones you removed from the other unit. They just push in and click into place.
5. Reassemble all the parts and turn your attention to the pcb’s
6. You need to ‘desolder’ the surface mounted switches from the second hand unit and solder them onto the blank spaces on yours (keep to the same orientation as the existing ones on the board).
7. I didn’t fit any additional led’s as I didn’t want any indication that the buttons did anything, but now is the time to do this if you want to.
8. Once you have all the surface mount switches on the pcb, assemble it back into the unit along with the rubber strip that acts as the ‘spring’ for the buttons. Fix the pcb in place with the five torx screws.
9. Put the cover back on and secure it with three torx screws.
10. Don’t forget the two torx screws for the side holes that hold the body to the ‘window’ frame.
In the car you will have seen the 20 pin connector from when the unit was removed.
For UK cars the button switch pin slots are;
1 = Drive Select
2 = Stop/Start
3 = Park Assist or Spare (right side of Stop/Start)
4 = Parking Sensors or Spare (left side of Hazard)
6 = Hazard
7 = Traction Control
9 = Spare (right side of Hazard)
11 = Common earth to all switches
17 = MMI Screen Up/Down
You’ll need a repair wire for these new connections (I had a spare loom from a footwell light install with the correct connectors on that I was able to use).
Plug the wire(s) into the empty slot(s) you want to use and run the cables behind the dash towards the fuse box, this is easier to do if the glove box is removed.
Second Stage:
1.
Take your remote control apart and identify how it switches, you’ll see mine had a small surface mounted switch which I removed. This was bridged with copper wire to complete the circuit.
2.
Solder two tails to the battery terminals. Put the covers back on to protect the pcb, after making a hole for the cables to escape.
3.
I connected these two cables into a small multi-plug connector (from Maplin). The mating half of the connector was wired up with the lead from the dash button and an ignition switched live from the fuse box.
4.
So once the two halves are pushed together the live feed goes to the positive terminal of the remote and the dash button cable goes to the negative terminal of the remote. The dash button completes the circuit when depressed, but only when the ignition is on.
5.
Tidy the cables up and hide the remote control behind the dash or glove box or end panel of the dashboard.
6.
Enjoy the new addition to the dash buttons.
Hope this is useful to someone.
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