Scrappy's Homelink visor butchery

I thought about getting a mirror with Homelink, but the cost stopped me and I don't really care about the auto-dimming feature. There are a bunch of these modules for sale on ebay but, I was concerned that the colors looked too far off from my PIP's plastic interior color. So, I took a couple hours and went to the local "pick a part" junk yard, with a small piece of my PIP in my pocket so I could compare junk yard grey interior parts with my PIP's Misty Grey plastic.

I found 2 grey Homelink visors, one whole visor from a 2000 Ford mini van and a very munched visor with a seemingly intact Homelink module in a 1997 Chrysler/Mitsubishi coupe.

They charged me for the "good" visor, $9.99 plus tax and some other junkyard BS fees, plus the $2 entry fee... around $14 total.

Unfortunately, this yard mostly had mostly older cars. Sometime, I may try their place in Wilmington that has a separate yard with only late model (2000 and newer) cars to see if I can get a module that should support the latest security codes.

<edit> I tested it today with my GF's rolling codes Genie opener and it works, so I may be doing this install on her Prius sometime soon </edit>

Pic of the final result, the Ford grey Homelink module in my PIP's overhead console




Cavaet: I was not concerned with support for rolling codes and don't know how to tell by looking at one, whether a particular module support rolling codes. I don't know what model year cars that rolling codes support became the norm.


I am pleased how mine turned out. But, to see an ultra-clean install, take a look at how this guy installed in his Tacoma. Other taco guys installed in their headliner, much simpler install in the thin/soft headliner material.
Homelink Install | Tacoma World


Pic of the two Homelink fascias on my OH console piece. Slightly different textures and colors, though both were close enough to be usable - I ended up using the one on the right.



Aftermath of the "good" visor



A view of the innards of a Homelink module. I circled the trouble spots in yellow.
Clockwise from top left...
- the 3 buttons on the circuit board - when mounting in a thick piece of plastic instead of a thin layer of foam/fabric, the rubber Homelink buttons won't be able to push these buttons. So, you have to do something about this. Some people glue little spacers on each button. I shaved my console piece and also used a spacer to lift that part of the circuit board so the rubber pushers make good contact.

- a couple of plastic "wings" at the top of the module cover that will need to be cut off.

- below that you can see two whitish things - those are the "trees" that hold the fascia to the module cover. These are sized for having only a thin layer of foam/fabric between the fascia and the module cover... something else you gotta fiddle with to make this work.

- the big yellow box marks an area of the module case that you need to cut off. The case is flat, but your console has a curve to it and this part of the case has to go for it to fit together in the Prii.

- another "wing" on the case that must be cut off

- finally, the wiring connector to the circuit board. I wanted to keep a removable connector so I modded this connector for it to be able to fit. A simpler solution is to just solder your power and ground wires to the circuit board itself.



This next pic shows the outsides of the Homelink module. You can also see the offending connector mentioned above and another "wing" on the case that locks the connector. That wing has to be cut off.



Another pic of the innards of the module and also the fascia. Here you can see the black rubber buttons that match up with the circuit board's buttons. The silver thing just above the fascia is the transmitter antenna.



Prii's console piece. Some of those ribs gotta go.




Here's a view of the console piece with the Homelink module. First glimpse into what sort of cutting will be needed.



This pic shows my console piece with holes drilled and I've just started milling it down to reduce the thickness. I ended up shaving about 1mm or so off where the module goes, so that the case, console piece and Homelink fascia snap together nicely.



Here's the Homelink fascia piece and the "tree" I mentioned. This is one of the reasons I am shaving material from the inside of the PIP's console piece, so the fascia, the console piece and the Homelink case will snap together and hold.




My hacked up module case.
#1 shows where I soldered a short length of crappy speaker wire to the antenna. W/O the wire, the opener worked from across the street during testing with a 9v battery for power. With the wire attached to the antenna, I walked 3 houses away (~250 feet), it opened and closed my garage door.

#2 sorta shows the modded connector. I basically ground about 50% of it off and soldered the power and ground wires to the connector. I also sanded about 5mm off the circuit board's connection point




The spacer between the outer module housing and the circuit board... makes the buttons a littlecloser to the rubber pushers. This was my quick and dirty solution. I saw on the interwebs that others have glued small spacers to the circuit board buttons. The arrows point to those buttons.




Wiring
I tapped the red wire (socket #20) in the map light connector, same as Toyota's instructions call out for installing the Homelink mirror.
There are 3 threaded holes up there, I used one for my ground connection.
That thicker black wire is USB cable that powers a dashcam.



A top view of the module in the OH console piece, I used some foil tape to hold my homegrown antenna extension.



A side view. You can see the curve of the console piece and the modded connector. Sorry for the bad pic.