I would like to reprogram my MFD

I haven't a clue of a clue.... but at this thread http://priuschat.com/index.php?showtopic=12236&st=120
the guy on here "Norm" seems to be an expert at playing with the software... if you can PM him he may be of assistance.... but that info may be privy only to qualified technitians to prevent people from screwing up their stuff and then trying to go to toyota to get it fixed!

 

Quick answer is, I doubt the source code exists outside closely locked doors at Toyota headquarters. But even supposing you had the source, what use is it if you can't access the CPU? There is no CPU port as such, what exists is more like the serial port on a desktop. You can talk back and forth according to strictly controlled messages and switch audio and video off and on, but you never get to talk directly with the CPU.

Longer answer is, we talk about the MFD but it is really the AVC-LAN head unit or ECU which happens to have an LCD screen and some switches attached to it. Pull it out of the Prius and stick it on a bench and terminate the AVC lines and it carries on operating as if it were still in the vehicle (other than it keeps wondering where the Air-Conditioning is)

I don't know what goes inside the Prius MFD but I can make some observations. The MFD certainly runs code but it doesn't allow any external access to that code. All it allows is the opening and closing of audio and video ports according to messages floating about on the AVC-LAN. There is no CPU interface connector to get at internal code, just the AVC bus which is strictly controlled. You can send messages the MFD approves of but anything that isn't already on its list gets shut out.

I am going to go out on a limb here and suggest that any apparently new screen presentations (i.e. ipod) are either new video generated externally and input via the NAV video lines, OR, they were already resident in the MFD at time of manufacture (for other product lines) and just haven't been invoked till now.

If anyone out there has managed to make the MFD display a new audio interface without resorting to either of the above two methods, please correct me.
( Why do I feel like the Coyote in RoadRunner waiting here while this huge weight hurtles down from above?)

 

:lol: :lol: :lol: Well your the only one I can think of that would know this stuff... but there could always be some sleepers out there.

 

i've learned today that there is a LOT of stuff that toyota keeps behind closed doors... people in the know sworn to secrecy, condition of employment, etc.

ahh, to have an inside connection. DH is in jax, at the port, for training classes this week, tells me all he notices because he's bored.

today he spent 8 hours listening to stuff he already knew. told me he learned a trick that would save him approx. 16 seconds a week. :lol: