Fader, Balance, Sub Volume Control w/o Headunit or EQ?

**The unL33T** · 06-13-2006, 07:02 PM

Hello all,

I've been struggling to find a location for my stock head unit if I want to put my LCD where my current head unit is. I decided it is too much work and unnecessary so I'm going to get rid of it for my install.

Now my problem is how am I going to control things like balance, fader, treble, bass, sub, etc without one... I considered getting one of these:

http://www.clarion.com/us/en/product...643389018.html
But my car has steering wheel volume control which I could not think of a way to integrate that into something that has analog volume control. Unless of course I were to somehow hack a little motor onto the volume control knob so that it could convert my digital signals from my volume buttons into rotary motion of the volume control knob ... but that sounds difficult (if not impossible) and messy.

I know you can control these things within the sound card drives usually (if you have a good one that is 5.1) but the drivers usually aren't very well suited for a small, low resolution, touch screen (hard to read, hard to "click" on things). Neither is the built in Windows volume control applet. Is there a software front end or program that can give me the control and ease of use I am after?

I could also build some kind of control unit that can send serial commands to the computer but I don't know how I would integrate that with the software side. I wouldn't know how to convert my serial commands into commands to tell the driver things like, "Increase the subwoofer channel volume," or "Increase left side volume," or "Lower total treble." Anyone know how that could be done?

Basically I want something that does everything (or almost everything) that the Clarion unit I said does only will either accept my input from my steering wheel control for volume or is a software solution. Why can't someone just make a sound card that comes with an external USB EQ controller (or maybe one already does, I don't know).

I did a search and the top hits were from like 2004 and didn't seem to have anything too useful in them.

I hope someone understands what I am trying to say here. Is there anything that will do what I want? Keep in mind it also has to be fairly affordable (around $50 or so is good).

Thanks all!

**The unL33T** · 06-15-2006, 09:46 PM

I've never used AutoIt before but anyone who has do you think it would be easy to create a more "touchscreen-friendly" UI to integrate with the sound card drivers to allow the adjustment of the settings I was after?

**modernbeat** · 03-22-2009, 11:52 PM

Anything new on this front? I'm looking for a pure analog solution. Something that I can use with a headunit-less system. I'd like something for volume, balance and fader control for an iPod and HK Drive+Play.

**The unL33T** · 03-23-2009, 02:24 PM

Originally Posted by modernbeat

Anything new on this front? I'm looking for a pure analog solution. Something that I can use with a headunit-less system. I'd like something for volume, balance and fader control for an iPod and HK Drive+Play.

Would a 1/2 DIN EQ device like I mentioned above not work for you? My only issue with that idea was trying to figure out how to integrate my steering wheel volume controls into it.

**catalinux** · 03-24-2009, 03:23 PM

Maybe you should consider hacking a mouse and use it with volumouse as a hardware control.
I bought this eq and ended doing this hack (had no place to put the eq).
It's easily finding a place for only one button.

Equalizer settings will be done only by software using touchscreen.

PS; this is my hacked mouse in the ashtray (I'm not a smoker and could afford it):
Volume control in the ashtray.