Posted by Ike on March 30, 2009, 2:32 am
That photo shows a simplified version of what I received in early 2004.
Coastal sent it to a meeting of a newly-forming Prius club as a
giveaway, and I was the winner.
Mine has four green LEDs to show state of braking, plus one red LED that
indicates engine running. It may well have been a prototype leading to
the current-generation device.
The Coastal people are clever and highly inventive, but often announce
before the engineering is finished.
Ike
Stan wrote:
>
>> Ike, that sounds even better than what I was looking for. I would be
>> happy to find something that shows when the friction brakes are
>> kicking- in, so showing regen would be an added bonus.
> snip
>
> http://www.coastaletech.com/brake.htm
Posted by Mr. G on March 29, 2009, 2:35 pm
Coastal does now have such an item listed on their site for the '04-09,
but it's just a photo of a device like Ike described. It says that it's
not yet in production.
(mrg@aol.com) says...
> Ike, that sounds even better than what I was looking for. I would be
> happy to find something that shows when the friction brakes are kicking-
> in, so showing regen would be an added bonus. I'd checked the
> CoastalTech site (even used Google to search it) but couldn't find such
> a thing. On Hobbit's page that links to his design, it mentions the
> Coastal 'vaporware' product.
>
> I'll drop CoastalTech a line to see if they have any to sell, even if
> it's not on their Web site. I appreciate the offer to sell yours, but
> the price is a bit rich for my blood. :)
>
> Thanks!
>
> (binarydotike@gmail.com) says...
> > Sure. I have a braking indicator on my '04, which shows regen, then
> > friction braking. It's a little module the size of a Zippo lighter.
> > Helps improve driving style and efficiency.
> >
> > It came from www.coastaletech.com, but they're probably no longer making
> > it as a standard product. Might do a quick custom run for you if they
> > have some parts laying around.
> >
> > I'd sell mine for the estimated cost of the extra gas I'll burn without
> > it, over the next 100k miles. Plus my standard $50/hour for the time
> > required to remove it. About $,884.50, I estimate, plus postage.
> >
> > In short, I like it!
> >
> >
> > Mr. G wrote:
> > > Does anyone know of a friction brake indicator for the Prius? I've
> > > spent a lot of time searching, but the only thing I've been able to find
> > > is a page from Hobbit that shows something he was experimenting with
> > > (http://www.techno-fandom.org/~hobbit/cars/bp/ ). I'm not against
> > > building my own, but the circuit on that page seems to be in the early
> > > design stages. And since it's tapping into the ABS circuit, I'd be
> > > concerned that introducing noise, etc. from an improperly designed
> > > circuit could have very bad consequences.
> > >
> > > A while back someone mentioned in a post (that I haven't been able to
> > > find again) about having added an auxiliary dashboard to their Prius,
> > > and mentioned a braking indicator. If such a thing exists, either in
> > > ready-made, kit or design form, I'd be very interested.
> > >
> > > TIA!
> >
>
>> Ike, that sounds even better than what I was looking for. I would be
>> happy to find something that shows when the friction brakes are
>> kicking- in, so showing regen would be an added bonus.
> snip
>
> http://www.coastaletech.com/brake.htm