I posted this before but it got erased. Anybody know how to take the center console out? I want to hide some devices and wires under the center console that fits between the front seats. Is it easy to do? Thanks for your help.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(rwithop\";p=\"70883)</div> It's very easy. Take a look in the Knowledge Base area at my article on installing the NAV speed sensor defeat switch. There are pictures and an explaination.
A: Remove the seats B: I believe the console is attached with 4 screws, two on each side. C: There should be a wire you will have to remove that is connected to the Power Outlet.
You don't really have to remove the seats. When I installed my iPod2Car kit, i ran the wire to the center console, and I got it out without removing the seats.
Thanks guys, (and Evan as always.) Yes, it is very top secret indeed. It is a government funded project to bring specially equipped Prii (is that the plural for Prius?) into the battlefield. Actually it is for the insurgents. If they are going to blow up cars on the roadside, they should at least be environmentally friendly about it! No...not top secret. I am building an interface for my MP3 player, through the touchscreen. I am also building an XM satellite radio interface. The MP3 player interface is pretty much done and I just got the XM working, but have a long ways to go. Then all that is left are the rocket launchers. Ryan
Very cool! I'm interested in doing something like that for a carputer based on the mac mini. I would like to avoid a separate touchscreen and use the MFD even with its low resolution. Which MP3 are you using? Please let us know how the project goes. The rocket launchers will be useful for those stubborn and hard to clear traffic jams.
Yes, rocket launchers would be handy, but I am not finding too many other people interested in adding it. The Mp3 project is going well. I am using a Creative Jukebox Nomad. It has 20GB, better battery life, better price, and better audio output than the iPod but is not nearly as pretty or slick interface wise. The software/hardware I am putting together can run any Creative, Dell, Rio, or iPod device. I saw that Coastal Dave seemed to have worked out the touchscreen commands with his little video experiment for the iPod. I have thought about the mac Mini concept but thought, "Gosh that is a lot of money to dish out...few hundred for the video adapter, few hundred for the mac, few hundred for the iPod." There has got to be a better way. Anyway, I will post my progress on the site with pics as soon as my video controller comes in. How is the mac Mini project progressing? What are you using to control the iPod?
LOL on the rocket launchers... Agreed on the cost differential re: ipod and creative, etc. not too mention the costs with respect to getting a carputer going... still having issues figuring out what to do about power (standby) for the macmini Right now, I'm waiting for parts to arrive. I've ordered the Xenarc touchscreen (as featured in the GTI writeup for the macmini), and auxbox unit with abtoy wiring. My plan is to re-purpose the touchscreen to my media pc when coastal dave has a touchscreen solution for the MFD available OR if one is not forthcoming from coastal, possibly rip out the tuner+cd changer and put a carputer with the xenarc in front of it where the tuner/cdchanger used to be. When I get the touchscreen/auxbox I plan on using my powerbook as the computer in my prius for a little while until I get the macmini (it suddenly occured to me that the laptop charging and battery system is ideal for my use in a car). If I like how that works out after a brief test (with the powerbook tucked out of sight, etc.) then I will go whole hog and figure out something final around the macmini Re: the ipod, I don't need it if I have the computer in the car running itunes already (it took me a while to realize that! ) so I will save my ipod for when I workout or am otherwise mobile (away from my prius). I will post a complete summary when I get it all put together (possibly with work in progress if I can get the time to do that).
Similar to what I'm doing. Cheap laptop under the passenger seat. Putting the laptop in "hibernate" mode, so it doesn't need power when I am not in the car, but can reboot rather quickly. Yes, you can use iTunes directly out of the computer, instead of using a portable mp3 player. Three things to consider though: 1. Is your hard drive big enough to fit all of your songs and do you want to have one more place to keep your collection updated? 2. Will you be able to customize iTunes to be wasy to use while driving? 3. Most importantly, the sound coming out of your computer will be seriously degrading when compared to a portable audio device. You would have to buy another piece to digitally enhace the audio and provide a new output. Good luck. Sounds like a fun project.
thanks - all good points. ...so, I've run into problems already! The xenarc arrived today and I hooked it up to my powerbook. It looks awesome!! After the awe wore off, I fired up iTunes and found myself squinting at the teeny, tiny lines of the song and play lists. Definitely not the interface for the car! Sheesh! I see what you mean (literally) about item #2 in your things to consider post (the HD is plenty large at 80G re item #1). Now I understand why Matt Turner added the Griffin knob thing. Re item 3, a box that I think contains auxbox arrived and I will try that on the weekend - I'm hoping that the audio will sound okay played through the cd changer port from stereo out on the powerbook (I will let you know). Finally, a new wrinkle in my plans appeared (actually several) but the main one is this: as I mentioned I was hoping that I could sleep the power book and then let it run on its own batt until the next time I needed it.... however, the xenarc seems to keep waking up the powerbook on its own. I'll have to call them to see what's up with that (I have the latest drivers installed, etc.)
Techogurl originaly posted about the mac mini a while ago. I believe she's working with Dave to get something integrated into the prius. I'll have her log on for an update.
P.S. Got the XM radio working through my laptop today. My initial program didn't work...took 30 secs to change the channel, but I have it worked out now. Yes, text has to be really BIG and really clear in the interface. May still be doable in iTunes, as I believe you can change font size in the options.
For those of you working on DashPCs, check out http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dashpc/ for tons of good info. The Xenarc referenced here is a relatively small (suitable for in-car use) touchscreen monitor. http://www.xenarc.com/product/700ts.html
also, the lilliput touchscreen has equivalent functionality to the xenarc (it appears) but the xenarc has been written up more and is easier to obtain (no waiting, etc.) but costs $100 more or so. Some pages show the lilliput to have only 800x480 res while others compare it to the xenarc - I couldn't tell from the writeups. The xenarc definitely has OSX support which was important for me and I couldn't determine if the lilliput worked with OSX or not. Here's the link I originally found for the lilliput fyi: http://www.translinks.com/lilliput619.htm
Xenarc screens have been good for me and I am on my third one now. This time it's the 700-IDT, the in-dash touchscreen. I bought their first gen touch screen around 2 years ago, which served me well until the touchscreen conked out. I bought their newer version of the 700TS in Nov04 and it got a bit nicked when my Spec-V got totalled. I could've used it for the Prius, but I decided I wanted something to be able to be more discreetly stored so i got the in-dash screen. I'll post pictures up once i get it installed, which should hopefully be in the next week.
