After market Navigation

It seems to be a common theme that the navigation on this unit is not intuitive or accurate to say the least as I've tried it out twice w/ bad results myself. For me it is not a deal breaker as the better sound, extra features & appearance makes up for it. Now, if I had to pay more than what I had for it than I may have a problem but I can totally understand the disappointment of others who bought this and wonder what's the point of having a navi & not being able to use it.

 

Question: If you just engage the NAV button and let the map come up, does it "track" where you are driving correctly? If not, you might not be getting a good GPS signal from the sats. Another possibility is you have an outdated map on the SD card. You should contact M&D and see if they can assist. I think you and xcuter both reside in So Cal so it's even possible you could drive to the M&D plant in San Bernardino, if need be.

 

It is able to track just fine when the nav screen is up. When I punch in an address it calculates the route and starts just fine. About 1/4mile into it it shuts off and has to reload. I tried moving the GPS antenna, resetting the navigation, resetting the whole unit. Same problem each time.

 

It sounds like a tech support issue - you should call M&D on Monday to see if they can assist. Hopefully, you saved all of the original packaging, and if need be, you can return it to the eBay seller for a replacement. Also, be sure to check before entering a route that you have acquired 4 GPS satellites. There's an icon for that on the upper left of the screen.

I've been using my NAV for over a week with no trouble. I will assume that all of the connectors on the back of your unit went in with a click-to-snap securely and the GPS antenna connection was gently "snugged" tight enough.

 

Everything was connected properly. I normally am connected to 7 satellites. I hope it's a simple fix. I don't want to go through the hassle of taking it out and getting a replacement and reinstalling it. I tried it this morning for a 4 mile route and it worked for 75% of the way and then froze. Ill try calling tech support on Mon.

 

Has anyone received this when the navigation is being used (going to a specific address)? I have to click on the center icon and the second screen pops up. I hope tech support will be able to remedy this without having to replace the unit.

 

The map works fine w/tracking. My gut feeling is a bad software perhaps an outdated map. So phoenix I'm assuming your navi is working alright? About how many times have u used it to get to a destination & not once have u had a bad or wrong route?

 

So far, everything is working perfectly and I've assisted on a friend's installation and it's good too. Yes, I get that loading screen as shown by Kenny, but after that a map appears with a blue boxed message "acquiring satellites". Then normal NAV functions start to happen. So here's a quick checklist here to be sure your installation was OK:
1) the top 2 shipping screws on the M&D were removed (I covered the openings with tape so dust can't get in there
2) you used M&D's screws to put the Prius mounting brackets on the unit's sides
3) you connected 3 of the 4 OEM harnesses to associated M&D sockets and all connections clicked (the OEM BT is not used)
4) the wire marked "brake" is securely connected to a ground (there's some metal brackets inside the sky bridge that I used.
5) the GPS antenna is mounted using the double-stick tab to the 3 inch x 3 inch metal square and that square is over the center of the defroster vent. (on both my installs, the wire from it is pointed towards the front so a bit can be seen, but then I tucked it behind the dash plate)
6) the gold end of the antenna is gently but securely snugged to the back of the M&D unit.
7) the OEM radio jack is securely placed in the M&D socket
8) the external mic is used (their in-dash mic does not work)
As a last resort, open the tiny SD card slot (pry from the right side) pop it out and make sure it makes a good connection in the slot by re-inserting it so it "clicks". Also be sure the tiny white slide switch on the SD card is all the way towards the connections.
After all of that, it's time to contact tech support - again, ask for Richard as he was very friendly and helpful.

 

Hi phoenixgreg,
Thank you for your help to Prius chat members. I just received my backup camera. Can you give me some pointers on how to install it? How do u tap the wire for camera and head unit? Thank you very much.

 

I think the backup camera is a tougher job than the NAV unit install. Hopefully, you have already routed a video cable (yellow connectors) from the back of the NAV to your driver's side channel under the door. Also, you should have extended the wire labeled "back" to that same channel. You will need a male-to-male video cable connector to join your extension to the provided video cable. I will post some pictures of my benchmarks, but they are an over-simplification of what you need to do.

First, watch the video someone posted several pages back on this thread. He is right on the wire fishing needed thru the rubber conduit between the hatch and the car body. You will need to pop out 3 flat plastic body connectors towards the rear of the headliner to get access to that conduit. One thing I suggest is to not remove the lower part of that conduit as it is nearly impossible to reset. The top part that goes into the hatch is easier to deal with. I used a long zip tie with soap as was in the video to fish the long video wire (provided) and my own red wire (long enough to get to the camera's red wire and to the backup lamp.

You will need to remove all of the black plastic housing on the inside of the hatch to get access to the areas for the camera. They pull off with connectors, but be careful not to break any or scratch any surfaces. Then you need to remove the panel below the small back window with "Hybrid" on it. There are 4 nuts that are visible from the inside that you remove. Then carefully work from one edge (passenger's side) and pry it away from the hatch. Go slow as there are several yellow plastic connectors that pop out. Once that panel is free, you can pinch/pry out the blank where the camera goes.

What I did was bore a hole from the back of that blank using a 3/4 inch spade bit (wood underneath for a clean hole). You should see a small silver bracket on the top of the camera. What I did was carefully remove the 2 screws and with a tin snips, very carefully cut a slit from the outside of the tin circle towards the center hole where the cable is. DON'T DAMAGE THE CABLE. Now you can gently bend that tin bracket along the slit to remove it from the camera. You will be reusing this piece. Now feed the camera's cable from the smooth side of the blank you drilled and make sure it's facing out (if I recall, the rounded corners face outward). With the camera in place, carefully put the wire back thru the slit you made on the tin piece and that will be how you mount the camera into the blank. Bend the 4 tabs so they lock on the back of the blank. Replace the screws. Now you can put the assembly back into the "hybrid" panel. I hope you have a Dremel tool. What I had to do was create a rounded area for the camera cables to pass into the hatch on the left side of the body opening in hatch where the hatch opener goes, then line it with electrical tape so it can't chafe. That is where I routed the camera wires out from. Now you can reassemble the hybrid panel onto the hatch and replace the 4 nuts. The rest is routing wires along existing wires in the hatch to your fished wires.

WARNING: there is a black and red wire on the camera power jack. Only attach the red wire to the red wire of the backup lamp - the black wire is not used - do not connect it to a ground! I almost messed up my ECUs! After that, you route your red wire to the red wire of the backup lamp and also from that same wire, route a connection to the wire you extended from the NAV that says "back". Before putting all your panels back on, test the camera. Good luck

 

Wow, you did a wonderful job. Installing backup Camera is a big job . However, based on your information, I think I am ready to tackle this job Thank you very much.

 

I called Richard at tech support and it sounds like its a problem with my SD card. I'm sending mine in so they can send me a new one. Hopefully everything works with the new sd. Thanks for your help!

 

First of all, Thanks to all the great info on this thread. Some very helpful posts and images. I'm an impatient douche and it took me about 1.5 hrs to do the install. I also bought a camera but didn't have the time to install it. I also needed a wire which I didn't have.

I installed it right before a 2hr-ish road trip and it worked fine. However, I have few minor gripes:

1.Can I set it so it will operate in dual-zone mode when I'm using the voice on the satnav? If I'm using my bluetooth to play music, it mutes the music entirely and speaks. I want it to turn down the music and then talk. That an option?

2. Maybe I drive too fast, but I'm finding the ETA to be really inaccurate. For example, I drove from where I live near Philly, PA to Dewey Beach, DE and it's about 125 miles. I made it there about an hour before the system estimated me to be there. Similar numbers on the reverse. Any ideas why or is it just that I'm pulling 50mpg averaging 70mph?

3. When I pop in a cd of MP3s, it automatically restarts the song from the start. It wouldn't matter if I was listening to a 5 minute song but it's really annoying when I'm listening to an 1hr+ DJ mix. Can this be fixed?

I'm also going to do some research on hacking these units since I'm notoriously impatient with some things. Let's see what I can find and I'll report my findings.

 

You're welcome It sounds like you have a good installation - but you will have to pull the unit again to add the necessary wiring for the camera. On my install, I put an ordinary 6 foot video cable (yellow connectors) onto the camera jack and then also put a same length wire onto the M&D wire labeled "back". I was able to route those over the steering wheel and then down to under the driver's door.

I have not found anyway to do that...the radio or CD gets interrupted by the voice.

I think it just makes a time estimate based on average posted speed limits and it is not a "real time" tracker.

I'm pretty sure it does not have a "memory" as to where it was on the mp3 track. The OEM CD player did, but it only worked if the car is powered down while the CD is playing.

I'd be interested in what you find...I tried searching for hacks too but with no luck on our model. I'm betting there are other AUX codes besides 7253 that the software developers know about - secret "back door" codes to make changes. The one thing I'd like to know how to do is "brighten" the backlit buttons. Tech support says there's no way to do it but I wonder.

 

Ok... so reeling from a wicked hangover, after my drive home I spent a lot of time studying up. Amazingly, I couldn't find much on these units online. That said, I did find that we --should-- be able to install iGo or other software fairly easy as these units are basic Win CE 5.0 or so. We might have to make slight mods to the .ini files to do so.

I'll let you know if it works. I think I'll be able to try it tomorrow.

I can't post links here (yet), but it seems doable based on the fact that our SD cards have a .exe file. That seems to be the key. Some Rosen ones apparently don't have that. I'm backing up my SD card as well, wiping that and then replacing it with the iGo software.

EDIT: No go. Can't easily do it. When I hit the NAV button, it says it can't locate one of the NAV files needed to operate the included NAV. No easy ability to update. I'm going to tinker with it in the next few days and see if I can get anywhere with it.

 

Do you guys think this will work? I want get a mini hdmi adapter and and HDMI to rca adatoer so that I can connect my Note 2 the this head unit..

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I received the Myron and Davis unit today. I installed this evening and it seems to work perfectly so far. I was astonished at how easy it was to take apart the Prius console and remove the old head. The next step will be to install the backup camera, which I intend to do this weekend. I mounted the gps antenna on top of the head before I installed it. It weems to work reasonably well.

 

I'm also not having any problems with the GPS and it's installed right on top of the HU.

For what it's worth, it's not a well known fact here in the USA but GPS systems work much better here than in the rest of the world. The GPS network is as it states, but it was built and designed for the US military (It took a stray Korean Air jet being shot down over Russia which caused the GPS network to be opened for public use). There's a reason why the Europeans are launching their own satellites.

That said, I think that's why the M&D people say you need the metal plate and mounted on the dash etc. It's just not needed in the states.

 

You could be right, but one member had trouble with the Bluetooth interface because he put the antenna on the head unit...is your Bluetooth working?

 

That is not correct. My bluetooth functioned perfectly for the first week, then lost connection and couldn't pair with any phone. I tested the nav antenna on the headunit and off the headunit. It made no difference where it was located.