Seeing that there is no tech area for the plug-in area of the forum, I must ask this somewhat general question here. Having just taken delivery of a pip I am wondering if there is any way to turn on the rear view camera when you are moving forward? It would actually provide better vision over the rear view mirror. Has anybody accomplished this?
Did I post my question in the Fred's House of Pancakes forum by mistake? Yikes. I thought I asked a serious question.
They might have just been giving you the benefit of the doubt. Call me "old school" but maybe you ought to be driving while you're driving. I'm thinking that there's either a VSS input for the RVC, or there's an input that tells the RVC that "reverse=true" and supplies 12VDC to the RVC. I'm thinking that the latter is true rather than the former, which means that you'll have to employ a solution that's somewhat different than the (other) scofflaws that try to use the NAV unit while the vehicle is rolling, by spoofing the VSS signal into the unit. As a matter of fact.....I'm pretty sure it would almost have to be the case, since the camera has to be operational while you're moving in reverse. Break out a wiring diagram for the unit and look for an (R) or (Rev) labeled pin in the connector that's plugged into the unit. Take a meter and look to see if you get 12VDC when the gear selector is in "R", and 0-vdc when the gear selector is in "D". Then.....all you have to do is manually supply +12VDC to this input via an SPST switch, and hope like hell you figured it out correctly. You.....er....may want to wait until the vehicle is out of warranty before you go tinkering with the wiring harness - or - do your work veeeeeery carefully and just turn it in as a warranty claim if you let the magic smoke out of the RVC unit. Short answer: No. Normally car companies do not like you to be able to use the RVC while the vehicle is zipping down the interstate. It's not that they're buzz-kills, and I'm sure that you're (*cough!*), an excellent driver, but they have sniveling, bed-wetting attorneys that won't allow them to get their butts sued in court if somebody who isn't an excellent driver augers into a ditch, or runs over somebody's kid because they were driving distracted. Them's the breaks!
Oh, I do get it. But saying one should just drive and ignore what is behind you then logic would dictate the elimination of the rear view mirror. No? And things in that RVC really look better as compared to the RVM. Everyone knows about the horizontal bar blocking your vision in the RVM. I certainly am not going to trailblaze this idea but merely asked if someone had already done it. I already have installed the Prestigious Society modification which works well for the GPS/video. It is interesting that the modification was made in Japan where the car is actually made. It turned out to be a plug and play device which took an experienced tech 15 minutes to install. No switches to install either. Obviously, the technology in this vehicle is outstanding. I was just looking to see if there might be another product I wasn't aware of. Looks like there isn't. Your method to chase this down sounds reasonable. Thanks for sharing it. Cheers
Seeing the angle of the camera I really don't see how this could be used as a substitute for a rear view. You can only see about 15' behind the car, and its fisheye as well (distorted) I guess it would be good to read a license plate behind you while at a stop light. I could see it very handy if you have a luggage rack on a hitch, or a bike rack and want to see the contents while moving forward. I would use that. I would think you would need to override the reverse wire with a switch.
Thanks for the link but the Plug-in is a Gen III. It would work on my 2006 Prius Hybrid, however. (grin)
This. Next time the OP is in for service he should also have his humor module replaced under warranty. <--- for the humor impaired.
Apologies for reviving an old thread, but it beats starting a 2nd one about the same topic Did you ever come up with a solution? It's something I would like myself.
If the methods devised for the Gen II don't work, someone will probably have to do the same thing that was done then, for the Gen III. In other words, get a copy of the technical specs from the Toyota website, trace the wiring for the reverse sensor to the MFD, and add a bypass switch into that circuit.
on my Prius 2013, I can activate my rvc by forcing the headlight on and put the indoor light dimmer at minimum... the rvc comes on! I don’t know if it works for everyone or only a glitch on mine!
