Steering wheel control hookup

I have a 07 Honda Ridgeline and just got a made in China touchscreen head unit. The unit has steering wheel control but there is only one wire (labelled key1) on the harness that came with it. Everything that I’ve read online typically refers to key1, key2 and a swc ground wires coming out of the unit which is not the case with mine. On the Ridgeline’s factory harness, there are supposed to be two wires, the control wire positive and the control wire ground. I’m sure the control wire positive is connected to the key1 wire but where do I connect the control ground wire to? Does the head unit’s ground wire make sense?

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Originally Posted by frozenrice

I have a 07 Honda Ridgeline and just got a made in China touchscreen head unit. The unit has steering wheel control but there is only one wire (labelled key1) on the harness that came with it. Everything that I’ve read online typically refers to key1, key2 and a swc ground wires coming out of the unit which is not the case with mine. On the Ridgeline’s factory harness, there are supposed to be two wires, the control wire positive and the control wire ground. I’m sure the control wire positive is connected to the key1 wire but where do I connect the control ground wire to? Does the head unit’s ground wire make sense?

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I have found in the last 2 stereo i installed the OEM units were grounded through their mounting frame and not via a wire. Typically you can just add a ground in the dash. For steering controls i am not sure how you could possibly add a ground

I ended up wiring the factory ground for the steering wheel control wire to the ground wire on the head unit and it worked (sort of). Now I'm having trouble programming the damn buttons. LOL.