Installing DICE, Lockpick and XM OEM Radio

I just thought I would drop this post into the mix to let people know that I have solved a problem with installing the XM OEM Radio, DICE Ipod controller, and Coasteltech Lockpick w/DVD kit(s) in my 2004 Prius #9 (NAV and 6 CD changer, but NO factory DVD changer of course!). I won't describe each of these options to you as there are enough expert posts showing what they are and how to install each of them individually, but I ran into a problem when I tried to install the last one - the Lockpick. Here's why.

The first thing I installed many months ago was the factory XM radio. A beauty to install, plugs directly into the back of the radio, no sweat, right where the blank hole was. Next I bought the DICE unit and put that in - with some grief having gotten an intermittent controller, but once again, the install was simple. The system came with essentially a "Y" harness to plug my XM Radio in and share another plug in at theback of the radio. Cool - somebody was thinking integration. Interestingly enough, the DICE comes with another plug, that goes nowhere, has only two wires to it and you ignore it for Toyota.

So - being the gadget nut that I am - I went for the Ultimate Lockpick from CT, that unlocks all the NAV, BT and such screens while in motion, as well as unlocks and provides simple AV inputs for DVD on the MSD. However, - it comes with a Y connector that is just like the DICE, so there is no way to plug in the audio feed cable (has 4 wires to it). Bummed.

Well, after some evaluation of the circuitry, I figured out that the CT was just wanting to tap the audio lines into the back of the radio, two feeds (L/R) with a associated grounds per feed. So what to do? I took the CT "Y" harness, removed 4 pins with the right color wire (red, white, and two blacks), then removed the extra socket from the DICE harness that went no where (remember), removed the pins and wires from it, set them aside and then installed the pins I just salvaged in the right places to match the DICE plug. Then I carefull stripped the DICE harness wires and soldered in the pigtails from the socket I just created. This is tricky and because of the limited wire sizes, and space, I would be careful here. In the future, I would probably just make up another Y harness to make this all easier, but I didn't have the female end to work with on this pass.

Lastly - the new pigtail we just created gets the Lockpic audio harness plugged in to it and Voila!, you have the audio tap needed to run DVD audio into the head unit. Now - there is a catch - you can use the audo isolator that CT provides you to prevent bleed over of the DVD audio into some other audio feeds (since the head unit doesn't control the external simple DVD player (Use your remote ctrl that came with it!), or you can just leave it alone and not connect another item to the patch cords, just stop the DVD when you are done watching it or want to switch to another source. The XM actually takes command and shuts the AV down I think, but not so for the IPOD because I piggybacked them together (hard wire). I chose the latter because I felt the isolator cut the volume a bit too much.

Anyway - this worked - got me out of a jam of having too many gadgets and having to chose which one to give up (NEVER!!- bring on the gadgets!), and although it took a couple hours, it was successful. There is a lot of stuff hidden in our Pri's - never ceases to amaze me - like the screen controls that come up for a DVD player - great stuff!

If anyone is interested, I'll put this into a list, or you can write to me. If there is a source for the plugs and sockets (the larger one that goes into the rear of the head unit), these patch lines can be fabricated and there would be no need to solder.

Enjoy -