Retrofit Reversing Camera - Coastaltech, Lockpick, Viewtech, Can-view

May 7, 2009

Hi :) - I'm new round here and considering buying a Prius, debating whether against my better judgement to buy new against scrappage on my 10 yr old Terrano or second hand - so if anyone wants a secondhand 7 seat Terrano or to sell a 1 or 2 yr old Prius let me know!

What I'm writing about, though, is whether anyone in the UK Prius community has experience of integrating an external video source into their Prius factory-fitted touchscreen, eg reversing camera to T3 or T4 or DVD for the children? In the US there is a product called ViewTech Multimedia which I think does it from http://www.coastaletech.com/viewtech.htm and there is one called Can-view from http://www.hybridinterfaces.ca/extvid.html - this used to have an external RGB video connection option but you'll see the website says is no longer available with this. Can-view does a whole load more and Coastaltech produce other products including the Lockpick range but I'm a bit confused as how these compare with Viewtech. I have written to Coastaltech today and I include their reply below.

Meanwhile if anyone knows more than this then your expertise or experiences would be most helpful.

reply from CoastalTech:

Thank you for your interest, however we do not process international orders, ship internationally, or take international credit cards/Credit cards without a USA billing address.

There may be 2 options for you:

1) Have the unit shipped to a US postal address and you would have to wire the purchase amount. (Any fees imposed by purchaser bank for wire transfers are paid by the purchaser. Generally, fees are between $15-35US)

You will need to send an email with:

Your name, email address, phone number, USA shipping address, what exactly is being purchased, and how you want the product shipped (UPs ground, UPS 3 day, UPS 2 day, or UPS next day)

Once we receive your email we will create an invoice for you and send it to you with the wire transfer information.

2) There are some websites that assist international buyers when purchasing from a USA only vendor. We do not recommend any particular one but have heard of bonvu.com and bongous.com .

bonvu.com has 2 options 1) is they will purchase the unit and reship it or 2) they will just reship and you can wire the purchase amount to us.

bongous.com will reship the product and you would have to wire the purchase amount.

*NOTE* We do not test any of our devices on non North American Vehicles. Furthermore we do not guarantee compatibility with a Non North American vehicle. Also the viewtech multimedia unit is no longer manufactured it was for the 00-03 Prius only.

Again thank you for your interest and have a great day

--

Please let me know if I may assist you further.

Brett

Coastal Electronics

Support@coastalEtech.com

www.CoastalEtech.com

1-800-507-2234

May 7, 2009

Meanwhile if anyone knows more than this then your expertise or experiences would be most helpful.

Welcome! If you do go ahead with a Prius, I hope you get as much enjoyment out of it as many of us on this website!

I have experience with another CoastaleTech product - the Lockpick3 which allows my front seat passenger to enter a destination on the Sat-Nav whilst the car is in motion. As indicated by their email to you, I purchased mine through a contact in the States, but I can confirm that it works in the UK Prius and have had no problems. I believe the installation for the item you are interested in requires a fair bit of dismantling of the dashboard, but there are many posts & links on the www.priuschat.com website to guide you through it.

May 9, 2009

Many thanks GreenJuice - I've had a quick look at PriusChat - there's certainly plenty going on there - I'm intrigued to know what the lockpick variants physically are like - are they a little black box that goes in series with inputs to your MFD screen or do you not have to dismantle dash for some of them - I must search PriusChat a little more to find out.

Another Americanism - I remember seeing an engine pre-warmer they had over there - has anyone used one here - I presume its 110 volts - we could do with an importer for some of these things!

Thanks for your feedback above.

May 9, 2009

I'm intrigued to know what the lockpick variants physically are like - are they a little black box that goes in series with inputs to your MFD screen or do you not have to dismantle dash for some of them.
Another Americanism - I remember seeing an engine pre-warmer they had over there - has anyone used one here - I presume its 110 volts - we could do with an importer for some of these things!

I posted some pictures on that website. Hover over the images to see the labels. The second photo shows the Basic Lockpick3, which is a little 'black box' installed in series to the device under your front passenger seat. Takes seconds, its not permanent and no dismantling of the dash required. Can easily be removed before your next Toyota service! I believe the Ultimate Lockpick requires a dash disassembly.

The engine block heaters in North America are really for much colder and sustained temperatures than here in the UK. However, I think our Prius's also suffer noticeable hits to fuel economy when outside temps fall below around 5 - 10C. Because some of my commutes are quite short (4 - 5 miles, 20 - 25 mins) I tried out a simple electric garage heater, on a timer, placed under the engine block over the last winter. At best I would say I was getting to Stage 2 of the warmup stages about a minute or so sooner when it was around zero outside, so not a dramatic result but noticeable. Enough to bring the mid-winter fuel economy close to autumn and spring figures. Proper engine block heaters may well do better, according to the posts you read over there. However, I'm still a little skeptical because of how quickly the energy from pre-heating appears to dissipate, particularly as soon as there is any demand for cabin warming - like when my mother-in-law is in the car! :lol: