Rearview Camera

Agree with you managerman. The work doesn't take a lot of time or knowledge; however $50 vs. $600 is a big difference.

 

Thanks to everyone's contributions to this great thread! I am in the middle of my install and have a little bit of confusion over grounding.

Do I need to run a separate ground wire from pin #15 in the connector to the connection off the backup light? It appears in the schematic I see the wire from pin #15 but in the actual pictures I don't know that I see it - is it necessary or is all the grounding handled through the wire in pin #16?

Thanks so much!

 

Run the wire from the pin #15, then connect it with the camera's ground (not the video ground) and then ground both of them to your car's body.
Pin #16 is for video ground and it should be done as well, but separate from pin #15.

 

Thanks for the info! I have one other question - is it really necessary to place another diode on the video power wire? I have already installed the diode on the camera power wire from the backup light and everything appears to be functioning properly.

If I do need the second diode on the video power wire - where does it go? I used the same camera as you - do I place the diode somewhere before the "splitter" that provides the camera power or on the short piece of the video wire that goes after splitter, terminating in the RCA connector?

Thanks again! I think I'm getting close!

 

You don't have to, vinny went with 1 diode if I am not mistaken and it worked fine for him. The reason I put 2 is because I wanted to keep my power sources separated from each other in any circumstance.

 

Hello everyone I'm new to the forums but I have been browsing here for the last few months and I've been watching this thread in great detail. I looked at the guides that mik and managerman have created and I already purchased the same camera that mik has and it should be arriving sometime next week.

I just have a question about the wiring setup. I'm not that knowledgable with electrical wiring so I'm sorry if my question seems silly >.< but I looked at mik's wiring diagram and it shows that the camera's power and ground wire are each split apart and they connect to both the HU and the backup light. So my question is how exactly do you split the individual wires apart so that they connect to the different sources? Would you have to buy separate wires and combine them to the existing power and ground wire?

Thanks

 

Once you will get your camera you will find two sets of wires in the box. The short one is for power from the reverse light, it consist of two wires, red (+12V) and black (ground). The long one with RCA (analog or composite) connectors on both sides will go to the HU. The long wire is going to have 3 cores inside, two insulated (red and yellow) and one not. The fourth one for power grounding (from the HU) purposes you need to pull separately, and you need to find one separate wire for it. You can use almost any small wire and you can find it in RadioShack or any store like that.

 

Oh alrighty then, thanks Mik

 

Anyone thought about putting in a front facing camara and using a toggle switch to select between the 2 sources

 

done! total cost: $46, I found a camera on ebay where I didnt need to lose one of the license plate lights, thanks to all on this thread for making this install possible!

 

^^
Great install

 

Do you have the link to that camera? I haven't purchased one yet because I didn't want to lose a tag light either.

SGH-T989 ? 2

 

yes, here is the link:

NEW SONY CCD Car Rear View Reverse Backup CAMERA For BMW X5 / BMW X3 BMW X6 X1 | eBay

 

Nice! How did you mount the camera to the car? Can we see close up pictures?

 

Thanks, just ordered one.

SGH-T989 ? 2

 

I took off the piece that covers the license plate lights and hatch opener button and drilled a hole in the bottom of it, and mounted the camera that way, it was actually the easiest part of the whole instal, there are 5 bolts that hold that piece in, and you also have to drill a hole through the hatch which is of course covered up once you put the plastic piece back on, the camera that I got is threaded and screws on from the top after drilling a 1 1/8 inch hole, I didnt take pics of that part of the install however

 

Ok my camera finally arrived a few days ago and I just finished buying the other necessary components today and so I plan to do the installation tomorrow or Sunday. I just have a few more questions before I begin, and again I'm sorry if they seem noobish :\

1. When I ground the ground wires to the car body, how exactly do I do that? I've also read that its possible to just tap them into an existing ground wire, but I don't know which existing wires in the car are ground wires. How did you guys go about this process?

2. After I connect the diode to the camera's power wire going to the reverse light's power wire, should I wrap the entire diode and its connection with electrical tape to keep it insulated? Or should I only insulate the exposed metal wires and leave the cylindrical diode exposed?

 

I just tapped into the ground wire from the back up light, the wire opposite the power wire, and on the diodes, I just taped up the whole thing, and mine is working fine

 

You don't have to wrap the entire diode (nothing will happened even if you do) but the metal wires should be insulated.

 

has anyone noticed that if you are in reverse, and you make a phone call on your blue tooth, the video feed changes to the phone call screen, I wonder if there is a way to make the video feed supersede any other function