Reversing Camera

[munchstagea]

I have been planning to do this for a while as I have the blank screen staring at me all the time, I thought I might be able to put it to good use.

Picked up a little 12v NTCS camera which actually has an infrared function (not expecting too much) but I might be able to get something of a useful out the back of the car (mostly below the tail gate) should also come in handy for reading the number plates of those whom choose to drive too close...

Anyway, jumped right into it at lunch time and plugged that sucker into some power and started working through the extra RCA inputs on the tuner box in the rear left-hand quarter panel, while flicking through the AV1 and AV2 options on the head unit. Absolutely no joy so far, not a thing!

Has anyone had any luck plugging an external source into these inputs? If so any tricks?

I'll try to do a DIY if I ever get it to work!

More questions to come I am sure, like: how do you get video to show while the car is moving?

Cheers

Luke

[GoldZilla]

Does the camera signal have to be converted to PAL? That might be an issue, and it's one I'd like to resolve should I ever choose to add a display and camera.

[yokotas13]

if it is an RCA wired camera, it should work fine (mostly i havent had a problem with mine in the past)

mount the camera

run the rca to the front of your car.

Hhook up the reverse wire from your headunit to the reverese source ont eh stagea (i have no clue, i still have to hook up mine) prolly for the reverse light wires depending on if they need a negative or positive signal

adn hten plug your RCA into the revers camera input

done!

and if you want it to run al the time

Plus it into the auxiliary plug not the reverse plug, and hook the power wire from the camera to a source that is only on for ignition sources.

Edited March 5, 2007 by yokotas13

[munchstagea]

Nick, Camera is NTSC and so is the factory TV/Navi unit, so there should not be any conflict there. You can get PAL cameras to match PAL monitors though so that would be no drama.

Grant, The "factory" TV tuner sits behind the the left hand trim in the cargo space, jammed in behind the 4WD computer. It has an additional set of RCA inputs (I suspect they are inputs) running into the unit. I have tried running through these but have not seen any action yet. I am about to go out and pull out some more trim panels so I can get a better look and see what I can find.

Powering the camera, yep simple as you have mentioned, the other question was related to the head unit and making it think that the car is in park and has the hand break engaged, shouldn't be too hard to sort those connections out but if anyone has them handy that would save a lot of wire probing!

Cheers

Luke

[munchstagea]

Ok, sorted out which RCA input is the correct one and tested. Got nothing so I plugged the Digital video camera in (wrong format being PAL) and got PAL image on NTSC monitor as expected. So screen/receiver works camera does not. Sending it back tomorrow, note: bloody good reason to buy locally, I can send it back!

More info and results soon I hope...

[yokotas13]

Nick, Camera is NTSC and so is the factory TV/Navi unit, so there should not be any conflict there. You can get PAL cameras to match PAL monitors though so that would be no drama.

Grant, The "factory" TV tuner sits behind the the left hand trim in the cargo space, jammed in behind the 4WD computer. It has an additional set of RCA inputs (I suspect they are inputs) running into the unit. I have tried running through these but have not seen any action yet. I am about to go out and pull out some more trim panels so I can get a better look and see what I can find.

Powering the camera, yep simple as you have mentioned, the other question was related to the head unit and making it think that the car is in park and has the hand break engaged, shouldn't be too hard to sort those connections out but if anyone has them handy that would save a lot of wire probing!

Cheers

Luke

Ohrly

Mine wasnt all fancy with factory TVs.

i haev a pioneer flip out lol

[joe26f]

same i bought a supposed ntsc camera off ebay and it didn't work so i cussed the bloke out, yet to buy another to get to work on the xanavi screen, i have the wireless one i bought mounted near the intercooler with the reciever in the car running to a hdd recorder i bought

[munchstagea]

same i bought a supposed ntsc camera off ebay and it didn't work so i cussed the bloke out, yet to buy another to get to work on the xanavi screen, i have the wireless one i bought mounted near the intercooler with the reciever in the car running to a hdd recorder i bought

Yeah it is going back today, I already have an apology from the seller (sale wasn't through ebay) so hopefully they can send me one that works!

[Duncan]

sorry can't help with the detail.

But I had a camera put on the tailgate, it is brilliant. I use it all the time to line up the trailer over the towbar, makes it a 1 person job.

Also you can get super close to the car behind when parking. These cameras are brilliant!

[munchstagea]

sorry can't help with the detail.

But I had a camera put on the tailgate, it is brilliant. I use it all the time to line up the trailer over the towbar, makes it a 1 person job.

Also you can get super close to the car behind when parking. These cameras are brilliant!

Hi Duncan,

Where is the camera mounted on your tailgate? That is something I still need to decide, was thinking about mounting it inside to keep it out of reach but will really depend on what sort of image/angel I can get from any given mounting point.

Cheers

Luke

[Duncan]

Mine is under the handle, just to the left to avoid the openy bit. Its out of the weather, and still gives a good field of view

[GoldZilla]

Mine is under the handle, just to the left to avoid the openy bit. Its out of the weather, and still gives a good field of view

I was looking at the back of mine last week and decided on using that same spot, but on the RHS (driver's side), and angled just a little towards the kerb.

Pointless now, because I went and bought a standard single-DIN head unit to replace the factory unit - I was so sick of the shitty radio reception and skipping CD player... Maybe further down the line I'll get a head unit with a display.

[Yunis]

Any possibility that you could post a pic up showing us what it looks like mounted

[Duncan]

yeah that could help....little black box at the top left of number plate

and this is what it sees....the fish eye effect is wierd at first, but its not noticably off centre when you are using it

[GoldZilla]

Nice work, Duncan!

[Yunis]

Thanks Duncan

[munchstagea]

Thanks Duncan,

Think I will follow a similar camera mounting approach!

Update: Original Camera is confirmed a dud, new one on the way.

[munchstagea]

New Camera has arrived, it works and has been installed.

Now I really need to know which wires to earth/bridge/power to override the screen switching off once you either release the park brake, or move out of "Park"!!!

Have had a bit of a poke around with the multi-meter on the "screen" loom but the signal could be coming from the tuner unit, or I was thinking even the dash lights??? If anyone has overcome this issue I would love to know how you did it!

Cheers

Luke

[chook]

ok, got some info, see if this helps:

see pic;

DISPLAY AND NAVI

32 Reverse lamp

33 Parking brake

34 foot brake

35 inhibitor (something to do with auto ??)

25 speed meter

my guess is track down 33, which i guess is on the back of navi unit or radio, check if it is earthed when park brake on/off and cut/earth appropriately. the unit on the upper right of pic is the tv tuner in the back.

Edited March 20, 2007 by chook

[jippa]

hey i have a jvc double din unit and hade to earth the park brake wire, was trying to power it up first but that didnt work. ?