Pictures | Screen Shots - Post yours here.

Here is my install, using an Acer Aspire One ZG5, with a dog awful slow 8gb SSD. But once up and running it does very well, plenty of CPU head room running Priidash Lite. The increased size of the gauges with the Lite version is definitely a good thing for visibility, IMHO.

These go for about $100 on eBay. The only thing needed is some sort of right angle USB adapter to keep the wires out of the way, as the USB plug is on the side.

I hacked into the battery, soldering wires to the + and - ends. I added a couple of 2A diodes as voltage drop, and plugged that into the 12V plug nearby. That allows for running without using an inverter and the laptop supply. The battery sits around 12V. The battery monitor doesn't like that, but if the low battery alarms are turned off the computer continues running just fine.

 

Nice, I have and Acer Aspire D260, which I want to stick in the Prius, I will use a standard inverter, the ideea of "shunting" the OEM charger looks to risky for me. Did you made some sort of a bracket for holding the notebook? I will search for and alternative way of buying and external monitor for showing the Priidash and sticking the monitor from the sunvisor.

 

My "install" made use of some foam to act as wedges. So it is relatively ad hoc but still has not moved around in all the bounces. I have used an inverter as well, tucked inside the center console. The 12V direct hack gets that space back, but is not totally OK as bypassing the brains in the battery makes for a confusion as to battery state. I need to tap into the actual charge input. Haven't done that yet. Overall it's a great addition to the car, and down the road I think it will help to avoid the confusion that some of the folks on PC report when their MPG goes down for no obvious reason. Creating your own internal knowledge base of how our gauges should look over time will come in handy when, someday, they don't look right.

 

Running Priidash on my interior mirror. I use this when towing my caravan with a camera on the rear of the van to give a clear view of what is behind me. The screen has two composite video inputs, and will run PAL or NTSC. This allows me not only to be clearly see following traffic, but also allows monitoring of vital temperatures.
The system consists of an ancient IBM laptop with a VGA to PAL converter card meant for a desktop PC to convert the VGA to PAL for the LCD mirror. This is under the drivers seat with all wiring hidden to keep things neat and tidy. The laptop is powered by a 12 volt to 19 volt converter with a 5 volt USB charger output that supplies the VGA converter. The internal laptop battery died years ago.


John (Britprius)

 

Nicely done John. Is there no tablet app for priidash still?
Regarding your iinstall ' what does the camera/mirrror consist of and how have you hidden the cables?
John C

 

The LCD clip on mirror along with the camera is from Ebay (around £35 $55 for camera with mirror). The "mirror" has two video inputs switched on screen or with a small IR remote also supplied "running PAL or NTSC". The cable that plugs into the "mirror" " can be seen just visible above the mirror, runs under the edge of the roof lining, and down the door pillar capping to the drivers side (RH drive car) kick panel. As the "mirror" with camera is required for when I am towing the caravan it doubles up "without extra screens" for monitoring vital temperatures.
If your laptop has video out the VGA to video card is not needed.
There is available for around the same price a 7 inch LCD screen with two video inputs, and camera instead of the "mirror" as another option.
As far as I am aware there is no version of Priidash for tablets, but for these you can use "Torque" or other applications.

John (Britprius)

 

wow, that's pretty sweet.

 

The mirror also gives the option of watching video via the DVD player in the laptop. This is also a good application for old laptops with broken screen, and it will also run Techstream using the mini VCI devise.

John (Britprius)