I have successfully completed the installation and did not disconnect the battery. Everything works beautifully. I did the installation myself using those detailed VAIS directions and photographs. Thank you hybrideyes for those. ....And I am a "Priusess" (female Prius owner) with no previous auto mechanical experience. My husband removed the bolt for me - that's all. I have a 2005 with nav and 6 CD player. My ipod is a 60g video with 1:1:1 firmware. So far (one week) it works perfectly. With D1 selected I can get album and song title on the MFD whether I am shuffling through all songs, playlists or albums. In D2 I can move from playlist to playlist whether it's by genre or my own. In D3 I can move from album to album. In D2 and D3 I get playlist and album headings respectively, rather than album name. In D5 if you use the previous/next on the steering wheel it toggles you between SEL:IPOD and AUX1. You must have SEL:IPOD selected or you won't get sound and the car controls won't function. At least that was my experience once when I was exploring. I was wondering if that could be the cause of some of the problems I've read about. Also, I noticed that the DICE instructions specified what firmware you should have for your particular ipod. I am going to make sure I don't upgrade my ipod firmware since it works perfectly now. I am leaving the DICE unit in my glove box to keep everything out of sight. I don't like pinching the cord by closing the glove box on it either. My husband made a thermal pouch for my ipod to keep it from getting too hot when I leave it in the car. I am thrilled!!! Thanks to everyone for their helpful posts and especially to Danny.
That's beautiful. I'm sure everyone can agree - no don't need a professional installer for the DICE/VAIS. If you get tired of having the unit in your glove box, there is a nice cavity in between the upper and lower glove boxes that the DICE fits nicely into. I applied weatherstripping to both sides of the unit and slid it into the cavity where it fit nice and snugly. It's been there for quite a while (I've had it since beta).
Congratulation Pricilla! My installation went as smoothly as yours, and the thing seems to work perfectly. I found that the panel below the lower glove compartment is easily removable, has enough space toward the left side for the DICE unit to fit, and there's a nice opening for the iPod wire to come through (I usually put mine in the flip-open ash tray holder). I'll have to check out the space between the glove boxes, though...
I put mine in behind the far right A/C vent cover. There was room there and I could get to it easily by removing the lower glove box. I then routed the iPod cable into the lower glove box. There's a good opening in the back on the right.
Can you not actually play video through the MFD with it? Has anyone tried? And if so, does it play videos while in motion?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(seanyob @ Aug 3 2006, 11:14 AM) [snapback]297089[/snapback]</div> Nope, you can't.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(seanyob @ Aug 3 2006, 01:14 PM) [snapback]297089[/snapback]</div> I doubt there is enough disclaimer in the world to cover playing video on a driver accessible MFD, either from Toyota or Dension.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Vagabond @ Aug 3 2006, 10:38 PM) [snapback]297526[/snapback]</div> So what's the point of the video iPod dock? I still need a video controller as a "middleman"?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tideland Prius @ Aug 4 2006, 11:21 AM) [snapback]297793[/snapback]</div> Sorry - I missunderstood the question. I didn't read the posts above it. I'm not really sure what the plan is with the video dock. I'll ask, but it's gonna have to wait til monday or so.
sure. It'll be nice if we could skip the controller ($300 if I remember correctly) and just have the video iPod connected to the dock (and of course connected with the video output too) and have the dock recognise that and play music and video on the MFD directly.
