Omnifi MP3 player install questions '06

Hello everyone,

I'm a proud owner of a new '06 Prius HI package (with JBL audio, VSC, etc). Loving the Prius so far. Only have 100 miles on it, but with my regular commute I already managed to get up to 39 MPG, and that's considering my commute is about 30 miles one-way, mostly highway and temps are around 34 degrees.. Plus I didn't change my driving style yet.. (still doing 75 MPH on the highway )...

Anyway, I had an Omnifi MP3 player (harddrive player with WiFi sync) installed in my previous vehicle. Now when I say installed, I mean velcro tape and ziptie installed. I don't like to make modifications to a car I know I will need to sell at some point, nor do I like voiding warranty etc. My previous car had a continuous 12V and a switched 12V outlet right next to eachother, so the power hookup was simple. The prius, however, does not have that, so I need to get the continuous power from somewhere..

From what I read so far, it would make most sense to pick it up with wire taps on the cables leading to/from the fuse box near the parking brake (drivers side). Looking at the 12V outlet mod on coastal it looks like they're pulling constant 12V from a green wire coming from that fuse box. I'm a little weary of just putting a tap on that since the pictures on Coastal don't match the wire colors coming from that plug on my '06 Prius.... So my questions to all you folks:

- What wire can I tap near that fuse box to get: +12V continuous, +12V switched, Ground, and possibly the headlight +12V indicator (so the display can dim automatically). What gauges are those wires? Just looking at the green wire, it looks like 18 or 20 gauge. Can anyone confirm this? The omnifi pulls a max of 2A from the continuous 12V (its fused at 2A itself). The ACC 12V is not used as a power source, just an indicator, as is the headlight switched 12V.
- Is there a better spot to do this? The little module that comes with the Omnifi to do the wiring needs to be near all the power connections, and also near the AUX in, so the drivers or passengers dash area seems logical.
- I'm not comfortable yanking the dash off (even with all the information posted on here, I'm afraid I'll void some kind of warranty and get screwed in the end.. This car IS expensive! ).. If there is no way to do this without yanking the dash, what is your experience with 3rd party audio installers? Or should I ask my Toyota dealer about installing this? What kind of costs should I expect? (this install is as simple as pulling the power from somewhere and wire tying the cables neatly. Since the '06 has an AUX in, no need to do difficult stuff with the JBL stereo.

Thanks for any suggestions you might have!

Robbert

 

Haha.. Yeah, I was expecting this question.. The only reason why I want the Omnifi in the car is not the lack of MP3 quantity I could put in the car, but the ability the Omnifi has to sync wirelessly without me having to do anything. I'm Dutch and I have some software on my PC at home to record my favorite Dutch morning radio show at night (they're 6 hrs ahead of us). I sync that show with the Omnifi before I go to work, and during my commute I can listen to it. Yes, I could burn it to CD as well, but that means I would have to do it manually every morning.. And I'm lazy.. Plus I have this Omnifi thing anyway, why not use it?

Robbert

 

Dan,

The unit powers itself up at night and syncs wirelessly with your PC at home through 802.11b. You never have to take the harddrive out, but since the car is off at night, it needs the continuous 12V to power the unit for the 20-30 minutes it uses to synchronize. I very much doubt it uses 2A continuous, in fact, since it's fused at 2A, I would assume it's closer to 1A peak current.

In any case, what I gather from your reply is that it uses the circuit at the drivers side fusebox for the lighter outlet only to energize a relay? And the power for the outlet is coming from another fuse box? That would be a bummer...

I would prefer not to have to dig through schematics to figure out how to do this. I was kinda hoping someone would have found an easy way to get to a constant and a switched power source, and could tell me what the wires look like.

Robbert

 

So if I understand you correctly, the little green wire is sized to carry 15A to the dash power outlet through a relay that is switched on and off by the acc-on signal? The reason I didn't want to tap into that green wire is that it's such a small gauge and I didn't think that it could be the right wire.. I did take my multimeter last weekend and measured the voltage on these wires while the car was off (have penetrating probes on my meter), and the green wire does carry 12V continuous, and so does a much thicker white wire coming out of the same connector at the fuse panel. Any idea what that could be? Also, is there any obvious spot to pick up a ground near the fuse box? Any idea which wire would carry that acc-on signal? (color, connector?)

Thanks!
Robbert