What is function of sensor on dashboard

I was told it has to do with the SR venting...

 

For the air-conditioning !

 

It's for the climate control system.

 

Tells the climate control ECU when the sun is on the window and the ECU increases the cooling.

 

I think if it detects the sun coming in through the windshield it will pump more air out the top vents vs the bottom.

 

It’s a photo diode. It detects light and will give feed back to adjust the temperature of the car

For Prius cars that have auto head lights it is also used to turn the lights on and off. In the US it is not an option. There is a thread that shows how to modify the car so enables auto head lights.

 

It is also used to regulate the light intensity of the dashboard. If you turn the headlights on during the day, the dashboard does not dim at all. You run into a tunnel, it does dim. At least on the versions sold in Europe.

 

I believe it is a combination of all the above depending on what equipemnt you have.

I have an Oz Itech which means it

feeds into the climate control system
feeds into the panel lights to dim the lights, HUD and the sat nav screen
controls the auto headlights

in my car if I go under a bridge and thus into shadow the panel lights, HUD and sat nav dim down as it must be night time. There is a setting somewhere to set the sensitivity of this but I have yet to find it.

David

 

The light sensitivity is an dealer customisation option or you need Toyota Techstream SW and the interface.

 

What are the choices on the dealer customization?

 

I had that one on my list for the dealer to do but they said they could not find all on my list as it was from the US model. It is in the Oz manual however.

David

 

Here it is.

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...modifications/64812-automatic-headlights.html

 

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii.../64812-automatic-headlights-9.html#post953788

Start at Post #87 - this is where the auto headlights using factory wiring really starts. Posts prior to #87 include using an aftermarket method - but I was able to add them pretty inexpensively. My method is described in post #87.

 

Has anyone in the states had this customizable feature for the dash brightness sensitivity set by their dealer? What are the pros and cons of doing this?

I am going to my dealer tomorrow for my first 5K service and was thinking about having them set mine to use this sensor sensitivity feature. From what I have read from the Europeans, this seems to be a nice feature.

 

The default settings seem to be pretty good, but I think I would like to perhaps have the display and nav go to "night" mode a little later (when it gets a little darker outside) and return to full brightness a little earlier - these are the first two settings on page 591 in the owners manual. I believe the the first would be -1 (less sensitive) and the second +1 (more sensitive).

I tend to like bright displays, though. Others may not.

 

Can you direct me to this thread? Thanks.

 

Same in Canada.