Fix for difficulty seeing red arrows on Energy Monitor Screen in daylight (2010 Prius II)?

I have not received my Prius yet, still waiting.
I spoke with my sales person about the various "customizations" that I may need to change the settings on.
I said that seeing as how I would like to get to know my Prius a bit before I decide which settings I want changed, could he agree to make the changes I want during my first free oil change, and would he do it for free?
My contract gives me 3 free oil changes.
He agreed with out hesitation.
I WILL make sure it is mentioned on the final contract.

 

Did they honestly not put in an easily-accessible means of changing
something as basic as screen brightness??! Wth??
.
_H*

 

screen brightness settings accessed the same way as before.

 

What is the Eco Meter?

 

After reading the many threads on the subject of the inability to distinguish the Red Arrows, before taking delivery of our V, we asked that the "Meter" setting be set to +2, in hopes it would help make the Energy Monitor display more ledgible.

Having never owned a Prius before, and never seeing the Energy Monitor display in it's normal "0" setting, my wife had NO reference point, however, she describes the Energy Monitor display as now being "pretty much all white".

At our first oil change we'll have it changed back to "0" so we'll have a usable reference point.

David & LaDonna (aka Blind Guy)

 

Ah, very good... then it would be illustrative to see what the display looks like at -2.

And, to further complicate the issue, there is the interactive second half of that 'meter' setting that also has a range of -2 to +2, with a default of 0. My service department knew nothing of the settings and could not explain their affect on the display.

 

It's funny how we have to give information to the very people we should be getting information from. Well, actually it's not funny at all.

 

In the Owner's Manual we're told, "Your vehicle includes a variety of electronic features that can be personalized to your preferences. Programing these preferences requires specialized equipment and may be performed by an authorized Toyota dealership."

On page 583 the function is listed as "Sensor sensitivity for darkening the brightness of the meter, navigation system and instrument panel depending on the outside brightness" and the second half is, "Sensor sensitivity for returning the brightness of the meter, navigation system and instrument panel to the original level depending on the outside brightness" The custom ranges being from -2 to +2 and the default setting is 0.

Hope this helps!

radio

 

My wife and I had our V's "meter" set to +2 when we picked it up a couple of weeks ago, previously she had thought that most of the indicators on the Energy Monitor screen had become white, however, today, a cloudy overcast day, she said the Red Arrows on the screen were PLAINLY visible. Either the ambient weather conditions were favorable to this anomoly, MAYBE the new +2 setting REALLY helped or maybe this Thread means what it says "Difficulty seeing Red Arrows in Daylight"!

David (aka Blind Guy)

 

Thanks. I'm taking that modification off my list.

 

They must have Visine to get the red out. Fix is badly needed.

 

:drum:

 

I have had a 2010 Prius, version III, for a little over a month now. I have a great deal of difficulty seeing the red arrows myself. I currently have the default setting and the red is so dim that it blends in with the black background of the console. I've considered tinting the windows to make it easier to read. I know the eco meter (or whatever you want to call it) is more helpful, but it's still nice to see the arrows when you want to see them. With sunglasses on, it's down right impossible to see and the rest of the instrument panel becomes very difficult to read. Is this + or - 2 setting references on the last two pages of this thread the solution for this problem or not? I'm not able to interpret a clear answer to this.

 

I also want to be able to see the way-too-dim red features of the display.

It seems like the +/- 2 "sensitivity" settings determine when the panel goes into night mode, and when it comes back to day mode, right?

Where is the lighter/darker sensor for the external daylight/nightime light level?

 

Well, as I alluded to in post #16 there are actually two parts to this sensitivity setting. And to date no one including, I'm sorry to say, my local dealer/service department, has been able to explain exactly how these interact and what the effect of going from the default value of 0 to -/+ 2 would be.

One member was going to report back after changing one (or both?) of these parameters but we are still waiting to hear of the outcome...

 

It doesn't help (although it's nice to have for other reasons).

 

RevelationTravis;

Still haven't had the need to go to my dealer yet, so haven't been able to change the setting back to 0 from +2. However, reading your post makes me think maybe this +2 setting is the correct way to improve the ability to see the Red Arrows, since many are saying they can't hardly see them at all!

Since we had that value changed before we picked up the car, we don't know what the screen looked like before. Whenever my wife views the Red Arrows, she says they are distinctly RED, and NOT difficult to see. So maybe the increase in the value has helped.
* NOTE * The couple of times she's viewed the Red Arrows has been on cloudy overcast days, if you've had difficulty seeing the Arrows on cloudy days, then I'd say the increase to +2 FIXES that problem!

And on an additional NOTE, does the Energy Monitor Screen contain a large amount of white coloration in it? If so, increasing the value to +2 possibly enhances that color, along with increasing the brightness of the Red Arrows!

David (aka Blind Guy)

 

I have a 'III' I just bought on Friday and have no trouble seeing the red arrows on the energy monitor. They are certainly dimmer than the other arrows but driving around here in the LA sun doesn't seem to render then invisible.... Perhaps they made a slight change?

I have no idea when my car was made or arrived in Long Beach... is there a way to tell? (It has 9.1 NAV)