Prius CAN View V4 Mounting options

Here is a short review of the Lilliput In-Dash screen with the Can-View.

I have only used it for a few days and I so far like it.

Pros...
1. I HAVE CAN-VIEW!

2. It is out of the way

3. Does not give that STEAL ME I'M AN EXPENSIVE LCD SCREEN look to would be thieves when the screen is
retracted.

4. Can be used with a PC which I plan to do later

5. Screen pops out when you turn on the car. ( only if you press the close button on the screen and NOT press the power button on the screen to close it before you turn off the car )

6. Nice clear screen when you can see it. ( See below in the cons )


Cons...
1. The screen is very hard to see during the daylight and when the sun hits it, all you can see is the dot matrix of the touch part of the screen. The LCD does get brighter after about 15min which helps out a lot but since this is a touch screen these problems are expected.

2. I'm getting a few false touches or I should say some touches that are being registered on different parts of the screen than where I actually touch. I'm going to hook up my laptop to see if I can get it to false touch to see if its the screen or the Can-View. This false touch only happens maybe one or two times a trip and I think its because I press different places too quickly.

3. Kind of hard to install in the Prius.


Here is a video of the screen in action.
Screen in action


Here are some pictures and some very crappy drawings I did to give you an idea of the mods I had to do to get the screen to fit.


Here is what the top view looks like. I put black electrical tape around it to cover up the ugly gray metal case.



Side View



Bottom view. Here you can see my tape and the color of the case



I routed the cables just like the other Can-Views do along the bottom edge of the driver side door. I had to buy 6ft VGA and USB cables to make the run from the dash to the Can-View. There was enough room under the big plastic molding beside the E-Brake to hide the connector ends of the extension cables.



I put some velcro on the bottom of the Can-View to keep it from sliding around. I used Duct Tape to keep the velcro seccure.



I put the Can-View beside the NAV unit with the programming port facing out for easy programming. I tucked the wires under the NAV.



This is a <strike>rough</strike> BAD drawing of the plastic face for the map box. There is a small angle at the bottom of the opening. ( this is in RED )Its about .25 of an inch at most. If you cut along this angle this should give you enough height for this screen to fit. You will also have to shave down the sides of the opening.



This is another <strike>rough</strike> BAD drawing of the radio and its brackets. The RED arrows are pointing to the holes used to secure the LCD to the bracket. The holes beside the arrow are the ones used to bold the radio bracket to the car.



Here is yet another <strike>rough </strike> BAD drawing of the rear of the radio/LCD unit. The blue arrows are pointing to the small screws represented as blue dots. The red rectangles represent small plates that have holes drilled in them to allow the small screw to fit through and a larger hole for a bolt to fit though.


If I ever take the radio unit out again I promise to get pictures.

 

Wow!! :lol: :lol: Very nice job theForce!! well done. I don't think I'm gonna tackle anything like that anytime in the near future..., heck i'm just getting around to putting the pipe insulation in my front grill.... :lol: :lol:

 

great job. you just made an easy decision much much tougher.

 

After looking at what theforce did, I wondered if there was a way to get the benefit without making a permanent modification to the car. This is what I came up with. I just eliminated the stock mount. The only difficulty was that I needed to fabricate the nuts which went into the back of the monitor as I could not find any to purchase which were the correct size. It is not rocket science.

Edit: the fingerprint cleaned right up.

 

OK here is my semi final mount. First if you think that working with Plexiglas is difficult think again. Cutting the pieces is easy and they are fused together. I used a clear PVC pipe "cement". It actually dissolves the interface between the two pieces and fuses them together. A cheep tool is all that is necessary to cut the shapes. I have one piece from the hard ware store the 4 inch angle iron. I also found out that the bolts to attach the screen were hard to find so first I used the one I had! The one on the provided mount. At that point it was attached but could move around the bolt. I added a stabilizing rest on the bottom, and it works very well. I have not solved the routing of the various cords as yet, as you can see, but there is progress!

OK here is my semi final mount. First if you think that working with Plexiglas is difficult think again. Cutting the pieces is easy and they are fused together. I used a clear PVC pipe "cement". It actually dissolves the interface between the two pieces and fuses them together. A cheep tool is all that is necessary to cut the shapes. I have one piece from the hard ware store the 4 inch angle iron. I also found out that the bolts to attach the screen were hard to find so first I used the one I had! The one on the provided mount. At that point it was attached but could move around the bolt. I added a stabilizing rest on the bottom, and it works very well. I have not solved the routing of the various cords as yet, as you can see, but there is progress!

 

Ha anyone tried overhead mounting? For example, to the driver's sun visor?

 

Wow, that looks really nice when finished!

I would think, that once you remove the bezels, you ought to be able to mount this radio directly in an 'ISO-mount' configuration... isn't the 'frame' shown in your picture, an ISO slide-in adapter? I'd sure hope that space had a frame around it!

(also see http://www.installdr.com/TechDocs/999015.pdf )


Are there any auto radio installers on here that can shed light on this?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(theforce @ Jan 5 2007, 06:47 PM) [snapback]371614[/snapback]</div>

In hindsight, would it be possible to attach/install it against the underside of the dash, just below the map box, and avoid all the whacking and hacking?? Might reduce the chance of injury from a dremel, whatever that is.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(driverlee @ Feb 14 2007, 12:45 AM) [snapback]390036[/snapback]</div>

Has anybody tried this? Possibly with making a custom fiberglass case for the Lilliput screen so it all looks like a part of the dash. It looks as if there's room if the screen was tilted up and without interfering with the cupholders or the underconsole drawer.

 

I really wanted to replicate what theforce did with his install of the retractable Lilliput screen. It looks so cool! However, I was too intimidated to ever attempt such a job.

After installing the Ultimate Lockpick 3 yesterday, I realized I was 90% of the way towards duplicating what theforce accomplished. I had to get all the way to removing the radio to install the audio input for the Lockpick and had the faceplate off of the map box. I could see how easy it would be at that point to remove the inner part of the map box. Cutting the face plate of the map box may well be my biggest challenge.

Between the instructions that came with the Lockpick and the tips so generously offered by theforce, I think I just might be able to do this!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(theforce @ Jan 8 2007, 05:00 PM) [snapback]372795[/snapback]</div>

What, if anything did you do to power the Lilliput unit? Use a power source from the car, or is it powered from the Canview?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(driverlee @ Feb 25 2007, 07:46 PM) [snapback]396435[/snapback]</div>

I tapped into the power outlet line that runs behind the radio.

 

B) What about a vidio projection to the windshield? My daughter came up with this. A little joystick controller could be mounted somewhere to control the menu....

I would like the CanView data, but the pristine simplicity of the dashboard gets severely mangled :wacko:. Maybe I should just get a MacBook to ride on the passenger seat? (is this possible to use a MacBook with CanView software?)

Thanks

 

As I would be installing the canview primarily to control a PHEV conversion, I'm not sure I will actually look at it that frequently and don't want it messing up my nice clean dash. Has anyone done a less obtrusive install or have ideas for one? IE in the glove box or console? Maybe even just not mounting it at but having the wires somewhere convenient to plug-in when needed? The CANVIEW works without the screen hooked up, right?

Thanks.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(John L. @ Jan 25 2007, 08:18 PM) [snapback]380929[/snapback]</div>

I have a 7" touch LCD mounted in the visor of my Honda Insight, I don't use it much, it works with a small PC, but I find that it's difficult for the eyes to shift focus from the road/dash to the much nearer visor. It's nice in that it's concealed when flipped up, but probably not the best location if you plan on watching the screen a lot. A location closer to the other dash components will probably be much better.