Ls400 Mk4 Nav Unit Hacking

[fred81]

Hello all,

I notice a company used to offer freeview/tv conversions + updated sat nav for the LS400 unit. However it looks like they have disappeared off the Internet.

Does anyone have any technical information on the screen installed in the MK4 LS400? My plans are to implement a reverse camera with a recording facility, then potentially upgraded audio functions.

The above are fairly simple to acheive using a computer (Raspberry Pi or some other SoC board). The rear of the unit does not give any clues and is using properietary connectors thus investigation will be needed.

The following documents reveal a few clues, but nothing concrete.

http://www.fujitsu-ten.com/release/2001/20010106e.htm

http://www.fujitsu-ten.com/business/technicaljournal/pdf/9-2E.pdf

http://www.fujitsu-ten.com/business/technicaljournal/pdf/7-4E.pdf

If the system uses composite then that would require little work to get custom input displayed. If using TMDS or LVDS then it's harder, but stil doable.

Anyone have a spare/broken unit for dissection?

Any info greatfully received!

Regards,

Tim

[ChrisM]

If you find someone with a spare i'd be interested as the drivers side temperature display backlight has died on mine,

and I don't fancy trying to fix it without having a backup unit that I can use.

I presume that the car won't run without the unit installed, and I use my car on a dialy basis.

I saw some advertised on the famous auction site, but extremely silly money was being asked for, and I believe one had the same fault as mine.

There's a financial threshold for annoying faults and actually fixing them !!

[fred81]

Try giving the display a tap tap tap, the light went out on mine and after a furious tapping it came back and has stayed on ever since...

[ambermarine]

Fred81

I purchased a spare unit the week after I bought my mint 98 mark 4 as I considered it an acchiles heel .I got mine and it is working for £64 They are listed at £5400+ VAT off Lexus so the liklehood of obtaining one is remote, but good luck .

[fred81]

Don't suppose you'd be up for whipping off the casing and taking a few photos would you?

Regards

[Mybikes a cx500]

MY car came with a Garmin GPS that uses the screen, so it's certainly do-able. Is it perhaps obvious from the old GPS unit in the boot, what cable the video feed is from?

[PEPE]

Try giving the display a tap tap tap, the light went out on mine and after a furious tapping it came back and has stayed on ever since...

How furious was your tapping, Tim? I have the same problem as as soon as I read your remarks I rushed out to my garage and starting tapping with NO results!

Pepe

[fred81]

Hi Pepe,

I just tapped it as hard as I could without hurting myself, it took a few goes but the light now remains on. The same hasn't worked for the other displays though.

Cx500, your LS400 came with garmin built in?!

I suspect the video signal is some form of component RGB...more investigation is needed.

[fred81]

More info on this! Head on over to http://www.clublexus.com/forums/build-threads/715165-intro-97-toyota-celsior-4.html

[fred81]

ps, managed to get a spare full nav unit for about £40 off the bay - buy it now! crazy

[goldtop]

Hey Fred, just wondering if you got any further with this? Am wondering and wandering down the same path myself.

[ColinBarber]

Many years ago I looked at the possibility of installing a reversing camera on my 1998 GS300. The boot mounted Nav unit sends a composite signal to the main display unit - I was able to tap into that and feed in a NTSC camera which displayed fine, a PAL signal had trouble syncing.