HVAC display

this is the gen 3 forum, what year are you talking about?

 

He shows a 07 Prius by his name.

The gen2 mfd screen has a brightness and contrast control.

Page 238 of the owners manual has more details

 

Or maybe it's a gen 3 and in the right forum ... the gen 3 HVAC display is a narrow LCD strip with a green backlight.

I'm not sure I thought the backlight was on all the time, but I can check mine later. I also don't remember it as just one fixed brightness; at night it might respond to the dash dimmer like a lot of the rest of the dash does.

 

yes, i just saw the 07 in your info.

 

I better not get started, about Prius HVAC controls...

 

The later ones have neural networks, they might start replying to you.

 

I might hurt their feelings.

Seriously, the wife just about loses it, every time I so much as glance at the H/V controls while driving. A poorly lit display, required cus the "controls" are a uniform row of indistiguishable buttons, with vent mode in particular requiring concentrated off-the-road attention, squinting at a dim/dusty/tiny parade of icons.

Ah geez, getting started.

Attached is an example of what I'd kill for, was the system on lower end Honda Fits, till Honda axed it for North America. In higher levels it "upgraded" to a touch-screen disaster.

 

gm has all the hvac controls on the center touch screen, then duplicates them with manual switches below. not sure why the extra expense of the touch screen, but maybe it costs almost nothing to add them there, since you need it for nav/phone/settings/etc.

 

All gen3s are not the same. My model is quite easy to adjust temp and fan speed using the big multifunction dial.

 

that is nice, i wonder why the lift back never got it.

 

How does it know whether you're adjusting temp or fan speed?

 

You get temp by default. Slide it right and you get fan. Slide it left and you have air modes.

Push for AutoManual. However once you change the fan it goes to Manual which I prefer.

You can also change temp and Recirc on the steering wheel but that is not quite as tactile.

 

Nice! I wonder if a little 3D printing could retrofit that controller into a liftback.

 

I had a 2011 Prius 3 with the dim green HVAC control panel and I can't remember if it responded to the dashboard illumination control either. I looked at the display now and then, but mostly used the steering wheel control to make adjustments

Here is a grab from my user manual:



I think somebody did a mod and replaced the green LEDs with blue, improving the contrast greatly. Search is your friend.

 

I remember it being some sort of "fuzzy logic". What I thought was cool were the positive temperature coefficient (PTC) heaters that could provide a little heat right away on those very frigid mornings.