I have a spare gauge cluster for my gen2 Prius. Best to practice on something other than your daily ... Anyhow, I noticed the display is a form of a heads up Display. Has anyone tried to make a proper heads up Display? My initial thoughts; - There is room behind the windshield defroster to cut a hole in. -It looks possible to cut the plastic around the gauge where the display currently reflects on to. Ergo, trimming both pieces and perhaps a piece of either flat black or gloss black vinyl for the windshield and theoretically we have a heads up Display? I believe the biggest challenge would be the display angle and to some degree, the ribbon cables which look to run right over that area. In fact that might be the hurdle that kills this ... Anyone try?
I don't believe the LCD panel would be bright enough to be projected to the windshield. Additionally, to be a true HUD, the reflective surface attached to the inside of the windshield would need to be transparent enough to see through. Otherwise, you are just making a larger and slightly raised display.
There are some apps letting you use a cell phone as a HUD if you want to try before cutting things. I like the HUD in my car but I wouldn't go through the effort of adding one as a retrofit.
Both of you make valid points .. Yes I would lose a small portion of the lower part of the windshield for the display to reflect on to. After taking it apart several times recently, it just seemed like a missed opportunity for the Toyota engineers. You were so close, I guess that would have been too fancy for the car in its time. I guess if I can salvage a dash from my local scrap yard, Ill try and work on one off the car to see if it is even possible. I think it would be a neat project.
