Prestigious Society Navi hack installed

i installed the newly released Prestigious Society Navi hack on my 2010 Pkg III today. pretty simple plug and play. hardest part is pulling the dash panels off to get the Navi unit out. remove the trim around the shifter, the cup holder panel, the trim piece around the navi unit and the trim piece around the start button. remove the four 10mm bolts holding in the unit, slide unit out slowing, have a partner hold the unit while you unplug the 3 necessary harness's. plug those 3 harness's into the unit provided, plug up the PS Navi hack harness's to the back of your unit. they provided a double side foam tape to stick the small black box to something in the dash to keep it from rattleing around. there is a great spot to stick it just under the Navi unit in the dash. i routed the switch with the buttons to just above the drivers knee where there is a blank OEM button plate. i drilled holes just above this area to pass the wire through the dash. you can't see the holes because they are above the blank dash button plate. i double sided tape the supplied button switch to that blank plate.

make sure you decide where you want to mount the button before you install the black box, this will save having to take the Navi Unit out twice. don't ask me how i learned this time saving suggestion....

link to pics because i can't figure out how to post pics on this website.

all the parts supplied from PS.
all the stuff on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

dash panels removed
trim removed on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

button location, looks better after i cleaned everything up. this was the test fit.
drilled holes above mounting position on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

press the button labled Navi, this allows you to have all the features of the Navi unit just like you were parked. everything works. you press the button again to go back to navi mode. if you don't press the button a second time, it will automatically go back to navi mode in 5 minutes.

i'll try to make a simple you tube video and post up. highly recommend this mod. easy DIY if you have some knowledge of radio installation.

Very nice install job, thanks for sharing! Just a quick question though, Prestigious Society on their site it mentions "3rd party video inputs which will enable video playback via the navigation screen", is there a video input on the module/harness at all? or is there input on the factory nav headunit itself?

Thanks in advance

thanks for the thanks.

the 3rd party video is for those that have aftermarket video feeds going to their screens. if you have a video feed, you can push the buttton and allow video feed to your LCD screen.

efusco, as you know the home made navi hacks are still a work in progress. this is a finished product. i am more than willing to try a home made device but i got tired of waiting on the home made finished product.

Yeah one can save 250 and use a DIY device. However it still involves wire cutting if I am not mistaken. If something goes wrong good luck on having the dealer cover your navi system under warranty.

Thanks for the write up. I got the part and will install next weekend, when my SO is out of town. She would be horrified to see me messing about with the car this way. What did you use as a pry tool? I'm wondering whether to break down and buy the actual toyota tool.

It's worth mentioning for everyone else's benefit that there is also a manual mode that allows you to put it in permanent override, but it involves holding the button while turning the car on. Very useful if you want to watch a movie instead of the road!

Their website mentions third party products exist for video playback, but isn't specific about how or where that would be plugged in. I would seriously like to set this up so a portable DVD player could be used with it, but only when not moving of course!

It is a lot of money, but is also extremely non-invasive to the car.

actually, not so simple. many tried the snip and switch and it didnt work. it still times out after like 30 seconds. apparently a bit more complicated than it appears. still $250 is too much.

as far as the install, its pretty low key. i have not installed it, but have taken the dash apart twice in attempts to get the cheap way working...i have failed

I wonder HOW you connect in the video feed (is there a video RCA jack?), and how you select it on the NAV? Or is this perhaps an "unimplemented" feature on this particular device for the Gen III?

As far as the "home made" device, there are two finished and fully functional homemade circuit diagrams posted on this thread: (might want to work from the last page backwards...)

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii...-override-speed-sensor-bypass.html#post904356

Granted, you need to build it yourself, but it's certainly doable for anyone with a bit of electronics knowledge. The parts are all pretty much all available at Radio Shack, and the total cost is about $30 tops. And yes, it does involve cutting one wire, and finding a 12V IGN source to power it. Now, if you're looking for a "kit", no one has put that together to sell....yet.

Not trying to promote one or the other - but there are working homemade versions. Mine works great - so does hawkmoon77's. It doesn't return after 5 minutes, but that's not a big deal, since I believe you'd notice that the position isn't accurate after a minute or two.

One question for you, RadioZero: What happens to the vehicle position tracking on the map when you press the "Navi" button? Does it still keep up with high speeds? Or does it "slow down" somewhat, and become jerky as the GPS signal updates the position? I'm curious as to how they got around this, if they did.

Looks like a good solution, for those who want to keep the installation simple and reversible (no wire cuts). Pricey, though.

ggood, i have the pry tools but they are not needed. if you look at the side of the shifter plate (by the drivers thigh) there is a small slit that is made for inserting the pry tool. you could use a flat head screw driver covered with duct tape (to keep from scraping) to pry it up. once you get the shifter plate off, the rest are done by hand, no need for the pry tools.

in defense of Prestigious Society (referred to as PS from know on), the have the added cost of the multi pin connectors and the sat cable connectors. the sat cables connectors are not cheap if i recall correctly. granted they aren't big $$ but there is still a cost there.

i watched the navi hack thead that was posted by Hawkmoon, i even exchanged a few PM's with him asking about his hack and other things. the guy is a great assest to the community but i didn't like the idea of cutting the factory harness and risking permanent damage.

the PS is a simple plug and play device. pricey? i paid for the convenience.

jayvee, i took the car for a spin around the neighborhood to make sure it worked and it did. i plan to make a quick you tube video to show how the device works. when i took the test drive i was traveling at a slow rate but the dead reckoning was spot on.

It may seem like a lot - but please not the companies name Do you really think a company with such a name would charge $50??? You can also tell your friends that "paid the Prestigious Society to fit your Prius"

FYI, a little googling turned up someone on a Lexus forum who had installed both the PS device and a VaisTech interface. I may e-mail PS for more info/suggestions on ipod/video interfaces.

Also, re cost - we are paying for convenience and removability. I don't need another hobby building electrical circuits. I waste enough time here on priuschat! The voice recognition is much better on the gen 6 nav, but still somewhat tedious to move through all the steps and still not always successful.

played with the PS navi hack today. when you push the override button, it freezes your location. when you push the button to go back to normal navi mode it takes approx 8-10 seconds to update your location. the 8-10 seconds was consistant regardless if you had it frozen for 1 minute or 3 minutes or whatever minutes.

fyi.

more fyi - just got back this response from Mark at PS re ipod and video interfaces:

"Glad to hear back from you. One of the common and popular kit is the iPod video intergratiom kit offered by VAIS Tech. Their integration kit not only integrate the iPod to the navi system it will also play the iPod video. We are unsure if they have the 2010 kit ready yet tho.

Another company that offers video/audio input is NavTool. We tested their system before and the video input works well with our override module.

Hope this info helps. Please let us know if you have any questions."

FYI, the only VaisTech device with a universal video connector appears to be the SoundLinQ2 (SL2Vu). The updated USB module coming out in October is the VML (MultiMediaLinQ). Honestly, it's not clear to me whether their their ipod interface is much better or faster than the Toyota one. Also, I can't really say there is any good reason to waste a lot of money or time on a video interface, given how cheap portable DVD players and even tvs, are.

I could see 250.00 if there wasn't such a install procedure needed to install the device.. this isn't exactly plug in play.... at least not until you've got the whole nav unit out of the car!

Does anyone have a link to the voice option?

NavTool has a video/audio interface for the Venza nav. I think the Venza nav is the same Gen 6 as the 2010 Prius.

Wayne

Thanks, I looked it up later but was too lazy to post. If anyone is interested, here's the navtool description:

NAVTOOL INC

The cost is $450. Ouch. I was sort of interested for awhile in this possibility, but can't think of a good reason for it now, especially at that price. The vaistech ipod video product might make sense to someone, but that is not the one being updated in October.

Navtool is not on my list of company to deal with unless I really have to. Help a friend put their system in a 4Runner, although the system works, but they advertised 100% plug and play with video in motion. We thought its a one stone kills two birds but only to find out wire cutting is necessary to have the video in motion. Also their instructions is horrible.

If you combine it with the PS plug in device, you can avoid the wire cutting. With the PS, you plug the PS in, then the OEM plugs into the back of the PS plugs. I assume the navtool would be plugged in between those 2 sets of plugs, and that the vaistech device would work the same way. You have to start up the car in so called manual mode (holding down the PS override button while you start the car) in order to keep from having to press the override button every 5 minutes.

ggood, when are you installing yours?
make note to push hard enough to hear a click when plugging everything together. i pushed once and thought it was good, but when i pushed the second time to confirm everything was ready for re-assembly, i heard a nice click. so, double check your stuff before you put it back together.

This weekend. Thanks, I'll pay careful attention for the click. I'll also make sure I've decided where to route the switch before I start!

I should add, as a warning to others, that I once attempted to mod my 2004 Prius and would up somehow getting a tiny piece of plastic lodged in a connector (apparently when I pulled it apart), which made it impossible to put it back together again or restart the car. It took a smart tech at the dealer, with better eyes than me, to find the problem (the connector was on a very short lead tucked under the dash).