CAN-VIEW (Recovered)

Oh, OK. In that case you are probably right, and in which case your device would need to do the same to work with NAV.

 

I know right where you are. I have been there on a fishing trip with my son. I will stand by. I love going up to BC it is one of my favorite places to visit!

 

I do not think so: I you use a basic ohmmeter , you will see that the impedance on the RGBS is 75 ohm.
Anyway, as said by C4, the Toy converter & mine (from converters.tv) are using analog switches to select le signals.

B) After seeing some docs (thanks eflier), I am very optimistic about the adaptation of can_view to nav-equipped Prius.

 

Just because you have an ohm reading doesn't mean that it isn't tri-state. It depends on how you are measuring. If you are measuring when the input source is still connected to the input destination (or the bus) you could be reading the terminators. This is how any multiple access bus topology network would work.

But since you state that other devices are showing to have solid state analog switches, then I will concede that devices are daisy chained and the device taking over the input disconnect the devices behind it, and assume that the devices ahead of it have removed themselves and set their connections to pass-through when not in use.
A tri-state bus topology would have been a better, simpler approach though.

 

HI to all those enthusiasts who have hung in wondering when they there will be a CAN-view they can actually buy. Well, the answer is a qualified 'now'. Yes, I am now accepting orders for both the standard and enhanced version, but as the demand is unclear beyond the few who have written directly to me, I will be building them one-by-one myself, at least until its clear if demand justifies a more commercial approach. That means limiting orders strictly to what I know I can reasonably build and ship in a 3 week timespan from receipt of order. Which means just 15 of each in the first 3 weeks. (Maybe that will satisy the entire market anyway...) I will review that if the situation changes.
I am sending sales info to Danny for the Chat accessory shop, but it seems only fair that those who wrote specifically about buying one when available should have the first opportunity to buy. So here is a public appeal to the following PriusChat members who specifically wrote that they were very interested: (no priority intended)
abjrjrm, tinspoon, Nomax,DaveinOlyWa,Dolio,mrbigh,imwoody36,montanawill,rwithop.
With the lost postings, if I've missed someone, sorry, PM anyway and that will jog my memory.
If you are still interested (and have been to the CAN-view website www.hybridinterfaces.ca) then send a PM to me to get on top of the list.
Payments will only be made through the PriusChat shop, where it should appear sometime this week, hopefully.
Remember:
ONLY for the 2004/5 Prius without factory NAV or camera. (At present, but stay tuned)
DOES require pulling your dash apart. Faint hearted need not apply, or should have access to friendly auto technician.
Does NOT provide audio inputs. No intention of getting into that.

 

the dash really doesn't all come apart, several of the panels have to be remove to gain access. Having never done a Prius before when shown and given a hand no big deal. Less energy required for this than rotating 4 tires and doing an oil change on a Prius.

 

Looking for it to show up in the Shop section.

 

As an owner of a Nav equipped Prius I am very jealous. Buy they suckers so I might get one!!!

 

I would be interested in one.. I have a scan guage now.. and it looks like yours contains more information right on the MFD..
I also just purchased a VAIS box. for audio input.. I thought that box. uses the same MFD connector you are using.. Anyone that has the VAIS box want to chime in?

I also am a bit leary of taking the MFD out to get to the connector.. Does this need to be done to install your interface?.
I have taken the dash apart already for the scanguage install.. so I am ok with that.. The MFD worries me though..


scott
04 Silver#5 39K miles

 

once the dash panels are removed the mfd is held in with two 10MM bolts. That part was easy.

 

I have a stupid question: why does the RGB-NTSC converter cost so much? I did a quick search online and see that while it seems like there are individual chips for RGB -> NTSC "encoding" available for just a few bucks, the complete box with one is $100... I don't really know anything about this stuff, I guess I'm wondering if there is more to it than just getting the encoding chip, and if not, whether there will be a v2 of the CAN-VIEW that has the support for backup cameras built in. It seems to me that interest in the tool would go up significantly if it had this functionality out of the gate...

 

You are right in that in theory the cost of the parts should not be anywhere near $100. But in all my searching, I couldn't find one cheaper. I suppose its like saying the cost of parts for an Ipod is only $20. What I can say is that in pulling apart that converter, it has a very large surface mount custom chip. If I was designing something for a market with sales of at least 10,000 units (which I have done) then this would not be an issue. But so far, interest appears limited to just a few dozen people, so it seems uneconomic. This was never intended to be a generic video input box, so someone wanting that should pursue the pure audio/video products.
When the dust has settled and free time appears, if someone knows of a composite to RGB chip set that is actually available (most I've seen are discontinued) I would re-examine the issue. I think manufacturers have moved towards where the money is and all the chips I see now are aimed at higher end (read higher margin) converters with HDTV capability

 

For faint hearted people without access to friendly auto technician (like me), here are the two PDF's contain step by step instructions and pictures on how to take the dash apart.

https://www.metrotpn.com/documents/PDF%20Fi...sXMradio3.2.pdf

http://www.chrisdragon.com/downloads/Stere...us,%20v1.03.pdf

 

Actually it's not RGB to NTSC, it's the other way around: NTSC to RGB..

RGB to NTSC encoders are plentiful and relatively cheap, but decoding in the other direction seems to be more of a problem. The old Motorola decoder chip that was mostly standalone (a few resistors, capacitors and a crystal) and quoted in many references has long been discontinued and it seems, no longer available even from the Asian "clone chip" foundries.. I've done some investigations in this direction and Analog and Freescale (formerly Motorola semi) make a number of chips that do NTSC to RGB (among other conversions) in the $7-30 range (free samples for most of these are available from the manufacturer's sites if anyone is interested in pursuing this), but they are *not* standalone and require a substantial amount of support and control logic wrapped around them- and eflier is correct that most of these are geared towards HDTV and high-end video (some of the chips even have built-in Macrovision).. Put all this stuff on a custom PCB, and $100 is pretty cheap (for low volume, your *cost* would probably be over the $100 range, so a retail in the $200 range is pretty typical)..

Of course, if you want an easy solution, do what the Estima camera box does- if you feed the same composite signal to all three RGB inputs (you still need some buffer circuitry and a sync detection circuit), you'll get a monochrome (B/W) picture.. Maybe not ideal, but it works..

 

I also have had the 'PM sent but nobody got it" syndrome. Teething troubles?
I've explained in a bit more detail at www.hybridinterfaces.ca that my version 2 model does accept text-to-XY input (if you buy the BOBIII card from Decade Engineering of Oregon and plug it in the empty SIMM socket standard in each CAN-view version 2
And it does provide serial XY touch out via a DB9. So it may already do what you want. But unfortunately NOT for the Classic (yet). I haven't included the BOBIII card as at US$100 it makes more sense for those who want it to go buy it themselves.
And yes, the Pioneer AVIC-88 interface is also standard in each version 2, with these provisos: I can't buy the Mitsumi 26 pin connector that comes out of the NAV unit so I have to modify the Pioneer cable by hand and attach a SCART plug in its place. Those cables cost a ridiculous $70 odd from Pioneer, so the only thing that makes sense is to ship me the cable you get included with the Pioneer and I modify that. I also have to add wires for the voice guidance speaker from that cable and it makes more sense for you to buy a small boxed speaker locally (small PC speaker or intercom?)
I also have to add an external IR receiver which isn't in the base package, easy to add the 3 wires to the cable, but packaging this tiny item isn't. When you consider the very limited features of their steering wheel remote, plus the fact the current Prius wheel is too small to accept it, I find the remote not worth having. I haven't worked out what a Pioneer addition would cost as its quite labor intensive for me and I get nothing from the sale of the Pioneer unit which you buy elsewhere. Probably $100+shipping?
Biggest issue here is that until C4 establishes a CAN-view working with his Classic Prius, I don't have a version for the Classic to offer.
But stay tuned...

 

In response to some queries, I've made this modification. The display part applies to both versions of CAN-view. The ability to trigger EVmode really only applies to version 2 because there isn't enough room in the small version 1 to put the glued-on small relay board NOTE: you still need to install the wire to that horrible pin..[attachmentid=764][attachmentid=765][attachmentid=766]

 

I suppose some clarification is needed. To activate EV, whether by separate dash button/light flasher mod or from a relay contact closed by CAN-view by touching a screen 'button', you still need to run a wire to that hard-to-push-in infamous pin. If you've already got EV working, I'd just use this as a better indicator of EV status.

You could switch your EV wire from your current switch to CAN-view, or hook them both up; its just a momentary ground contact.

The ability to start EV from the CAN-view comes indirectly from requests for an auxiliary I/O part aimed more at a Prius+ controller. I've made an add-in daughter board with 2 relays and 5 high current drivers to keep my options open in that direction. Until it can be integrated it requires soldering about 16 wires to an existing CAN-view, so is overkill just to get screen EV activation.

And before anyone else asks, no, I know of no way to directly activate EV without that extra pin being installed.