Electrical add ons

It would be very simple to just tap the 12V battery with the proper size wire and fuse and install more power points but they would be live all the time and if you left something plugged in it would kill your battery. The ideal way is a little harder is to find a way to power it only with the key on. This would be a little more difficult but not impossible.

 

Check customization in the user's manual or Google your question. I changed the default so all doors unlock on my 2013, but I forgot what I did.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

Well... Modern car interiors are designed in ways that makes taking them apart very simple, not very challenging... For less than $20 and your own labor you could install some 12v and USB ports in a couple hours. For $100 or less you could connect a power inverter to the 12v battery and have 110v power too, which Prius owners sometimes do to power a small amount of their home during power outages.

And if you don't have the skills or don't want to learn them any car stereo installation business will professionally do the work for you in the $200-$600 range depending on what your needs are...

 

It's not hard to build an aux-power distribution thingy using a gizmo like the InPower VCM-06 to turn it on and off. You don't need to find specific switched circuits to tap into; the VCM just recognizes the voltage difference between when the car is READY and when it isn't.



That was the Gen 3 reimplementation of the original Gen 1 thingy.

-Chap

 

Wow... That's a pretty extreme rig... Just looked at 'em on Ebay... Back in my Campervan building and car stereo installing years in late 80's thru early 90's I would of never imagined something so fancy. You could do alot of pushing the limits of what a Prius is capable of with gear like that.

 

FYI... I bought a cigarette lighter extension cord off ebay for under 20 bucks.. you can just run that down the middle of the car between the seats...

 

All comes down to your application. Each of the existing power outlets is rated ten amps. If you want to power some things that won't ever need more than ten amps together (either they add up to less than ten, or they're individually less and you know you'll never use them together, or so on), an extension cord sharing one car outlet is the simplest solution and completely does the trick.

It's only if you want to run things that draw more current than that, or just too many things, that an extra power distribution gizmo becomes useful.

-Chap

 

Just reading this, I noticed the lock thing hadn't been addressed.
Am not sure if all Gen III do it but...
Simply sit in the car and press both the lock and unlock buttons together on the key, for about 5 seconds. The car will beep and you should see the red car icon on the dash change to all doors open.
Now, when you approach the drivers door, all will open.
If you go to the rear hatch, it will open from locked too, handy for shopping trips.

 

I suppose you first leased and purchased your 2015 Prius Two? Because what your are describing is you have a driver door Smart Key System vs you want a three door SKS where you can just walk up to passenger door to unlock and open.

Oh by the way, keyless entry basically means you don't need to use your key to enter/unlock the doors, doesn't mean you don't need to hit any buttons on the remote fob.

 

I know i've RTDM'd out the wazoo and still get problems.
Or, to translate, have read the manual several times and still have some confusions about the doors.

For example. We get home from shopping and my wife has the key. I run around the back to open the hatch and the door won't open. By which point, she's out of the car and closed her door, so I go back to the passenger side to press the unlock button on that door. The hatch opens!
So, back at the store, when she walks up with the full shopping cart, all the doors unlock. I also get in by simply opening the passenger side door....how on earth is the hatch not unlocked when we stop in the driveway?
The hatch will open fine if she gets out and walks to the back instead of myself. The 3ft proximity thing with the key seems to be in effect.
Shouldn't all doors stay open until she locks the car with a front door handle or the trunk button or keyfob?
Bizarrely again, we both can get out, but the one without the key can lock the car from the other sides door handle sensor. Both doors must share that circuit, because we're not standing just 3ft apart.


The solution, is to come up with lots of deft sneaky similar methods with electronics to make her do all the work