New use for Voice Activation button on steering wheel? Any auto electronic knowledge?

[chipshill]

I've searched high and low for an answer to my problem and have come up with a few solutions but I'm not 100% happy as of yet, but I have an idea.

I have an Audi A4 Avant 59 B8. It doesn't have MMI, just the aux port in the arm rest. I wanted to control my iphone without going into the armrest while driving, so my first idea was to make a control out of an old pair of headphones. I took an old pair of iPhone headphones with the remote in the wire (volume up/down and pause, or double click to skip track), which I stripped down and attached another 3.5mm jack to the other end. So it kind of works, I have the little remote sticking out of the armrest which I can use to skip tracks etc, but it doesn't look very nice and isn't the easiest to use, especially when the armrest is raised or extended.

So, my next idea was to make use of the voice activation button on the steering wheel. At the minute it just says 'button not used' or something on the screen because the car doesn't have bluetooth installed so I'm wondering; could I find where the wire for this button goes, and splice on the remote in a way that the steering wheel button would be used as the main button on the remote for pause/skip etc. After all, the button only presses something that's not used, why not use it to press something I'm using? It wouldn't be too easy to run a wire from the aux port in the armrest, under the gear stick, under the steering column etc, but could be done.

So does anyone know if this button goes direct to a circuit board behind it or does it have a wire tracing back underneath somewhere before reaching the circuit board? And how to access it?

Then I thought, if this is possible there may be yet another option. You can buy bluetooth remotes to control ipods etc off ebay for just a few pound. It may be possible to take this out of its casing and attach this instead? This would mean no wires tracking from the armrest to the steering column but the only issue with that is, would the wiring to the device give it any power? Or would I need to detach it once a week to charge it up?


Any advice would be appreciated.

Cheers guys

[chipshill]

Anybody?

[B5NUT]

It goes from the slip ring to a circuit board (steering wheel control module) there is no wiring you can tap into.

[chipshill]

Ah that's a shame. I wonder if there's a way I could use the blank button behind the parking brake button?

[B5NUT]

There are no solutions for what you what to use it for,.