I ordered the new Toyota XM radio (Toyota part: 86180-0W030) this week to try to see if it would display the full 16 character display with my 2005 package 4 (basic radio/no nav). Since I already have the Toyota Solara kit installed, I was able to pull the cable off the old tuner and connect to the new tuner (the connector matched my previous tuner exactly so I thought there was only a small risk). The radio worked, but again only 10 characters were displayed. Is there something I'm missing or is the 10 character limitation in the MFD itself? Any insight would be appreciated. Tonight I will try again, but this time I plan to kill the power to the radio/MFD with the hope that it will reset the 10 character display output. Thanks in advance, Jack
The guys at Vais (who make an aftermarket XM integration solution) claim that it is a limitation inherent to the Prius.....but I think that's bunk. If you have a CD encoded with CD text you'll notice that you can get much more than 10 (or 16) characters of information displaying on the title & artist lines.....so that tells me that the MFD is definately capable of displaying more than 10 or 16 characters. A better explaination I've read about is that the limitation is imposed by what digital info the Sat tuner is sending to the display. The current integrated Sirius tuners are only sending 10 characters per line, the newer integrated XM tuners are sending 16. Both of these seem un-necessarily truncated in my opinion, because the feed from the satellite includes much more data (like 30-something characters per line). The best thing would be if they made an integrated tuner that diaplays all of the data broadcast (using scrolling if necessary).....don't know why they haven't done this. From what I've read, you should be getting at least 16 with your setup.
According to their website, Coastal's Untimate Lockpick is supposed to unlock it so you'll have 16 characters.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(aaf709 @ Sep 15 2006, 02:44 PM) [snapback]320193[/snapback]</div> Interesting... it appears that Coastal has found a way to disable this 10 character limitation. Anyone have any ideas how this could be done? I really don't want to spend $229 for this one feature. Thanks, Jack
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(GeoGeek @ Sep 15 2006, 01:49 PM) [snapback]320171[/snapback]</div> I've done a lot of research on this and I agree. I don't believe it is the radio in the Prius, but the XM receiver. It appears that only the "Next Generation" portable devices support 32 Characters on a line. In an attempt to confuse the issue, a lot of the XM sales information lists 32 Character support, yea, 16 per line. From what I read, when XM was setup, it was 16 Characters. Sirius has always been 32 (36?) characters. For XM to expand they have to send the additional data in a different way, so it is always delayed and it is only for the song title information. My guess is that Toyota designed the XM receiver a couple years ago, before the "Next Generation."
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(BobR @ Sep 15 2006, 11:14 PM) [snapback]320388[/snapback]</div> I'm using the new receiver which other members have reported to display 16 character displays with the 2006 Prius. So at this point, I'm have to believe that there must be something else limiting the 2005 to the 10 characters.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jgranato @ Sep 16 2006, 11:32 AM) [snapback]320509[/snapback]</div> I have a 2005 Prius with the VAIS SLX and XM Direct. I have 16 Characters per line. The "Solara" XM Radio with the hockey puck antenna is limited to 10 characters. This is what I originally had. It sounded and worked great, but 10 characters simply became annoying. What I was saying is it isn't the radio but the XM receiver. The XM Direct is limited to 16 Characters per line. My hope is that a new XM Direct comes out that has more characters and I can replace my current one.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(BobR @ Sep 16 2006, 11:48 AM) [snapback]320514[/snapback]</div> VAIS has worked out this issue and Coastal is advertising a product to unlock all 16 characters (at $229) with the new Prius XM radio. Since I get only 10 characters with this same radio, there must be something still limiting the full 16 character display. What is it and how do I get around it. I really wish Coastal had a product that just performs this function. Jack
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jgranato @ Sep 15 2006, 12:33 PM) [snapback]320136[/snapback]</div> Answer: Even with the new XM radio, 2004-2005 and older 2006's vehicles will only display 10 characters. Thanks to another PriusChat member, aaf709, for finding a reference to Coastal's Ultimate Lockpick, I was able to finally display all 16 characters. In case you were wondering, the Ultimate Lockpick did nothing with the older Toyota XM radio (Solara). The price is a bit high $229, but it does provide some handly features. If your interested here is a link: Coastal Electronic Technologies Before you get too excited, check out the supported vehicles, i.e. the 2006 is not currently supported. Jack
Will the Coastal Lockpick unlock the text for Sirius? I have a 2008 and factory Sirius, and I only get 10 characters. Truly annoying. I would have gotten a Sirius receiver had I known this!
