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Mac mini in the Prius

By Joey J. Barrett

October 2006

From the time I purchased my Toyota Prius in May 2005 I became overcome with the urge of hijacking the factory installed monitor for my own viewing pleasures---of course, I had a million ideas of what I could plug into the thing. With a single google search, "video prius", I quickly found a company (Coastal Electronic Technologies, Inc.) that was already in the process of putting together a device capable of interfacing an audio/video feed with the vehicle. At the time the device was still in the production phase, but it's price range and it's capabilities demonstrated on their website was something I was willing to wait for. Other companies offer a similar product, but none nearly as cheap or with the most simple installation instructions that even a novice could follow---granted you have to give it to Toyota for building such an innovative, well put-together machine.

Within a short time Coastal Tech developed an entire product line available for customizing your Prius. Everything from auto door locks to EV (electric only) mode to a navigation enhancement (gets rid of the "I Agree" every time the car turns on and allows use of the navigation features while driving), to bluetooth enhancement (allows a bluetooth cell phone to be dialed while driving) to an XM radio interface. Of course these features are not for the average moronic driver.

Today, Coastal Tech offers all these same products but the one of interest here (to this article) has been combined into one product called the LockPick. This a multi-functional product that combines the navigation/bluetooth enhancement features plus an audio/video interface to the vehicle. The "Ultimate LockPick" was my choice for the installation described here. It has all the features except for the rear view camera input. I purchased mine in August 2006 for $247.39 including tax and shipping.

Now before the LockPick from Coastal Tech was ready (Summer 2005) I figured I would browse to see what could interface with the RCA audio/video connections besides the usual DVD player or console game. Yes, I wanted to put a computer in my car, I just couldn't imagine one small enough to make it fit cleanly and be worthwhile. The PC market had some rather small computers available by the current desktop standards of the time, but they were all still to bulky to hide in my car. That being the case, I figured I might as well buy a laptop so I can be more mobile and just plug it in when I drive. This was all before I stumbled onto Apple's Mac mini.

Once again, Apple has out done itself and designed a powerful desktop computer in a 2" x 6.5" x 6.5" (HWD) foot print. When I got to my car with a ruler I could see that the computer could literally fit in the center console. For $599 with a 1.42Ghz PowerPC, 512MB of memory and 80GB of hard drive space, I was more than confident this was exactly what I wanted for my car. More over, Apple sells a DVI to video adapter for nineteen bucks which solves the video interface problem. As you will see, it turns out this was the ideal purchase because what I discovered later, while sitting in the car dreaming of the day it would be installed, was that the computer could be placed in the head unit in an unobtrusive manner behind a flip-down door replacing a useless plastic holder---what luck!

The process described below does not detail all the instructions required for installation---I pick up where Coastal Tech's installation guide leaves off. The overall installation process took me 9 hours including plotting and shopping for the required cable connections. Nothing in the process is too difficult, only taking the time and being generally careful with your electrical components is necessary. There is however two wires to be soldered---I haven't soldered since I was a kid so I practiced on some spare wires before I did the real thing. Beyond that, it was rather easy, and so I hope the guide is useful or at least interesting to those who are tech buffs out there.

Note: During the writing of this article I found someone who has done a more complex version of this installation to include touch screen features (kudos!). You can find that article located here. For those of you who want to type and surf the web off hot-spots while driving (or parking), this installation will suit you fine.

Step 1: Understand the Components to the Installation