Success - Blu Logic & USA Spec PA15-TOY (aka "there will be blood")

I can report that adding the Blu Logic Hands-Free System ($170 from Toyota Accessory Warehouse) and integrating with a USA Spec PA15-TOY iPod / iPhone works quite nicely. My wife and I have a 2011 Prius II with no options from the dealer except floor mats (mistake, buy online).

Both of our iPhone 4s talk nicely with the blu logic and enable voice control and access to the iPhone contacts list. There was a brief scuffle between bluetooth and usa spec delivery of music to the head unit, but the usa spec seems to have negotiated dominance, resulting in great sounding music making it to all 6 speakers instead of crappy-sounding blue tooth music making it to just the front speakers.



So, I spent 3 hours yesterday installing the blu logic & usa spec items. I'll try to post some useful pix later. I ended up with an installation that almost cannot be seen (my appearance goal was pure stock Prius II with no accessories) Here are the tools you'll need if you get yourself into this:

• fingernails for dismantling the car trim pieces
• 10mm crescent wrench for disonnecting the negative terminal from the battery
• 10mm socket on extender for removing the bolts on the radio and in the center console
• snippers for trimming the excess length of zip-tie / wire-tie after affixing the blu logic and usa spec control modules
• towel to protect finish and wipe blood on
• attached instructions

Another project is to install some Polk DB651s speakers that I bought from Crutchfield. I did an exploratory install on the left rear door a couple weekends ago and am not happy with the results. I think the problem is that the stock speaker housing provides what I'll just call ignorantly "tuned port" qualities for the paper speaker. The Polk speaker is a near match in important dimensions to the factory speaker, so I'm plotting a hack to use the stock housing with the Polks. The mounting rings that Crutchfield sent are improper, in my opinion. I'll report on success or non-success as I get there.

more fun with cars...

 

brewcrew9 - I had purchased the USA Spec device awhile back for my old Tacoma. It worked really, really well in that beast with some replacement Polks, so I figured I'd try it again in the Prius. I haven't compared its specs to the Toyota device, but I've read rumors that USA Spec provides the devices to Toyota. Don't take that rumor as truth without confirming it for yourself. If you end up buying a USA Spec device, I believe that PA20-TOY is the modern model.

For USB v. Aux - In my opinion, and without side-by-side comparisons, the sound quality is better with the USB. When I plug in an iPhone, the iPod app screen is locked with a note that it is being controlled by an external device. I can press the "up-arrow / Type" button on the radio to transfer control to the iPod, and the "down-arrow / Folder" button to lock it back. When the iPod has control, I can still use the steering wheel control to navigate forward and backward in the song sequence.

A couple of pix of the USB plug in the center console are attached. I drilled a hole and cut a slot in the blank plug that came out of the hole for the blu logic button, then replaced the Aux plug with the blank to run the USB cable. The Aux plug is reserved for future use if need be.

 

Hey, so that iPhone 4 is pretty smart. I get in the car, iPhone hooks up to BluLogic with a notification beep, I plug the USB connector into the iPhone, and it knows that it has the option of playing my music through the USB connector or through Bluetooth. iPhone now gives me a button and the option to pick which delivery method I want. I pick. It seems to be learning, because after a couple of times asking me, it just uses the USB connection now. nice. pix attached.