power steering hacking

I have a 2006 prius, and am wondering if any one knows where the power steering is located at, how hard would it be to get to, what am I am looking at as far as being able to switch to some sort of drive by wire for the steering.
I know its on the column some where I am just wording how much of my dash I need to disassemble to get to it.

one step to getting my Prius to drive its self.
going to use rang sensors
GPS and line fallowing cams to track the road.

My plan is to get the car to stay in among lines of a free way during good weather and have a somewhat self driving car.
I am just finishing up on the adaptive cruse control using a custom ultrasonic Distance Meter. I will have some plans up for it as soon is I get it working right.

I am running all this off the Make Controller Kit and programing for the time being in processing
for its grate A/V libraries.

If any one wants to help or know of any one else attempting this with there Prius let me know.

why not pull off the wheel and attach your equipment directly to?

the only other problem i can think of is the VSC.. it likes to follow the steering wheel. it may flip out if it gets steering commands from the wrong spot.

That's what the Mythbusters did. A contraption with gears, a chain, servos, an actuator or two, maybe a couple of sensors. Just let me know when you are testing, so I can stay off the road.

This is not what I am looking for.
The prius has Electronic Power Steering and I am thinking that it would be simpler to just tap into that.
My plan is not to have a full time drive by wire.
The plan is to have the ability to lets say flip a switch and instead of having just cruse control but to to have the car keep its self between the lines.
Manley for long strait roads.

You cant remove the wheel for you still need it for general driving.
but that did cross my mind but why use more hardware thats already there and connected and nicely stored away for you?

i found this: http://techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/car...ng/800/eps.jpg on this forum: http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-technical-discussion/39163-power-steering-prius.html

i'll see what else i can find.

you do know that the lexus LS has a system like this. It's lane assist. I think it's available in europe but not the u.s.

what if you could attach something to that nylon drive gear.. like another drive that's switchable?

http://www.autoshop101.com/forms/Hybrid17.pdf

Hope your application will have a very good fail-safe feature, or people will be killed.

Ken@Japan

ooooookay......... be afraid. Be very afraid.:scared:

I'll hide behind Bear, here.

Oh, and be sure to post video on YouTube... this is what it's for.

Ok will be waking up early tomorrow to try to find the "Torque Sensor".
I will try to "steer" with my laptop, im thinking i jsut need to see how the "Torque Sensor" output there there should be no need for additional hardware, but maybe a plug assembly for the final clean up.

thanks for the PDF.

O and lexus!! the fact that they remove all the really cool stuff form the prius in the US and the lexus get them...

A word of caution:
I believe full "drive by wire" systems are illegal in many countries; and I suspect the usa to be one of them.
Beware of legal, as well as technical, hurdles. A really big "cut off" switch and a person in the seat at all times might help here..

Otherwise, it sounds like a pretty cool project!

The plan is to have some sort of mandatory button to be depressed and yes there will all was be a driver in the seat. Good point on the laws. I have a privet road I can test on but to test it on the public road might require some sort of permit or something...
Any one know the laws in Oregon for testing experimental automobiles?

great plan
the prius already can park itself so wy not ( with somebody behind the wheel ) drive to

legal? no.. it's not legal at all. it won't be legal until the DOP stamps it for road use.

what it takes to get that... no clue.

keep it on your private road untill you "perfect it" that would include having the system on trying to steer towards a line and have the car steer back... then again.. this could be a huge safety issue still.

the lexus is designed with the distronic and the new anti crach wave lengh sensors... so that car knows what's in front of it. how far.. how fast the car is traveling.. driver input, and line placement.. plus drivers head position. now that's a secure sytem.


good luck... post anthing you find. i'm definetly curious.

After hunting around all morning for the "Torque Sensor".
I found one set of wires coming off the steering column that I can only assume this is it. but I have no why of getting to it to confirm this without removing the steering weal. The other place it could be would be servo motor which has 2 mane power lines as well as 4 small wire going up to a box labeled 89650-47102 EPS LH this box all so has 2 black and 2 white wires coming to it, as will as power in wires.

This photo show that connector I can not enplane think its the sensor I am looking for, don't know the pinout for it.


Hear is the power steering that brown cord is the Power add the green one is the 4 wires, they both go back up to the EPS box. I am thinking there some sort of rotational sensors to feed back to the EPS box in the same way a hobby servo dues.


hear is the EPS box you can see the power coming in big white and white/black to the far left then the output power cable to the PS raped in brown plastic and then the black and wight wires and lastly the 4 PS(sensor?) wires. I am thinking it might be simpler to just build a new EPS box to go inbetwen this box and the PS. Using a few realeays for safty and some and interject my own commands to the PS.
any one have any way of getting a hold of the schematics for the EPS?

FYI,
Following list is some fail-safe feature written on the Toyota Tech manual;

torque sensor malfunction: inhibit power assist
motor over-heat: limit power assist
motor drive line short: inhibit power assist
motor over-current: inhibit power assist
EPS ECU over-heat: limit power assist
EPS ECU temp sensor malfunction: limit power assist current to a constant value
EPS ECU malfunction: inhibit power assist
speed or rpm signal malfunction: power assist current to a constant value
low supply voltage: suspend power assist

Ken@Japan

there is a site you can go to. it's a toyota tech site. for 10 dollars you can access it for 24 hours and get all the info you want. I think it's Here.

Ok something interesting thing happened
putting car back together after confirmed that every thing was working and that there where no "lights" on that should not be.
I diced to diconect the "unknown plug" and see if it was in fact the "torque sensor" truing back on the car I get an VSC light. but the power steering is still functional.
So I am thinking the "torque sensor" may be the 4 wires in the green plastic?
Do not know what the "unknown plug" is for, but seams it has something to do with the VSC?

Thank you the best $10 I Have spent.