How To: Reverse Backup Camera for SV Model w/ OEM Telematics

[FLBoy]

When looking at the plug connector, the wires to be tapped are on the right-hand side (looking at the pins) with the connector snap-in on top, correct?

I'm not Ramius, but maybe I can help. It appears to me that you are looking at the pins on the front side of the connector, when you should be looking at the wiring harness (back) side of the connector.

Note that near the middle of his description Ramius stated "With the connector facing away from you and the connector right side up and looking at the wires, you are going to remove both the right side upper and lower wires, which are red and black, terminals 59 and 60." (Emphasis mine.)

Also note that in Ramius' last graphic showing the connector along with the entire system diagram, the connector is labeled "M84 Connector Harness Side."

Perhaps Ramius will confirm whether or not my interpretation of this is correct.

[asinclair]

When looking at the plug connector, the wires to be tapped are on the right-hand side (looking at the pins) with the connector snap-in on top, correct?

I'm not Ramius, but maybe I can help. It appears to me that you are looking at the pins on the front side of the connector, when you should be looking at the wiring harness (back) side of the connector.

Note that near the middle of his description Ramius stated "With the connector facing away from you and the connector right side up and looking at the wires, you are going to remove both the right side upper and lower wires, which are red and black, terminals 59 and 60." (Emphasis mine.)

Also note that in Ramius' last graphic showing the connector along with the entire system diagram, the connector is labeled "M84 Connector Harness Side."

Perhaps Ramius will confirm whether or not my interpretation of this is correct.

FLBoy, that would make sense, I feel stupid for making that mistake. I think you are correct in what I did wrong. I will put this project on hold for a while, but come back to it when I have time to fix up all of my wiring mistakes I made this time and try it again...Thanks for the response.

[Ramius83]

Ramius,

I attempted this upgrade yesterday and failed miserably. I started by tapping into the wires on the connector and connecting the rca cable (at this point I did not have the backup camera installed). When I started the car, I got an "i-key" failure warning and the headlights flashed.

I was hoping to see the screen turn blank waiting for a camera input when I put it in reverse, but it did not work...

I got spooked and ended up reversing all of the changes I made.

When looking at the plug connector, the wires to be tapped are on the right-hand side (looking at the pins) with the connector snap-in on top, correct?

I think I am going to give this up before I screw up my wiring any further.

Andrew

Sorry for it not working your first time, but don't give up, trust me, it is easy.......

First, we are working on the harness/wire side of the connector, not the front/face of the connector. Looking from the back, on the bottom, three pins over from the right, is a black wire. Cut that wire about 2" from the connector. Then, on the wire coming out from the connector that you cut, ground that wire to the frame and tape off the other wire as it is not used anymore. Put everything back together loosely and put the car into RUN mode. Engage the parking brake and place into reverse. The screen should go black, the reference lines will be there. If so, then continue.

On the other two wires, cut those about 2" from the connector. On the wires that you cut coming from the harness, tape them separately and tape them off and away. Connect the top corner wire, # 59, to the center RCA prong and the lower corner wire, # 60, to the outside RCA prong.

Then, coming from the camera you bought, connect the power wire to the reverse lights and the ground wire to a ground.

WAH-LA, it will work........

If you have any questions, please take a picture of what you have done and I will help from there.

[garsh]

Man, I never thought it would be so difficult to find a camera that doesn't have the "distance lines" included.

Also, does anybody know the viewing angle of the OEM camera? It would be nice if we could choose a camera that had the same viewing angle.

[Ramius83]

Man, I never thought it would be so difficult to find a camera that doesn't have the "distance lines" included.

Also, does anybody know the viewing angle of the OEM camera? It would be nice if we could choose a camera that had the same viewing angle.

Many after-market cameras that do come with the reference lines have a looped wire that can be cut to eliminate the reference lines. My camera did have the lines, they were blue, but there was a looped blue wire that was labeled reference lines. I cut that and the lines are gone. I would contact a few of the sellers and see if they can look into the packaging and/or instructions and see if those other cameras are the same.

Compared to the "factory reverse camera Leafs" that come in, I think that my camera has about the same viewing angle, if not a little wider. However, after a few weeks of having this setup, I have noticed that the full night time night vision is not as good on this camera as it is on the OEM camera. I would try to find a very low Lux good night vision camera. Again, if I re-do any of this in the future, I will go for a better night vision camera and a pivot/swivel camera so exact aimming can be done easily.

[garsh]

Many after-market cameras that do come with the reference lines have a looped wire that can be cut to eliminate the reference lines. My camera did have the lines, they were blue, but there was a looped blue wire that was labeled reference lines. I cut that and the lines are gone. I would contact a few of the sellers and see if they can look into the packaging and/or instructions and see if those other cameras are the same.

I bought one of these. I do not see any external looped wire. I wonder if I can open it up and find something internal?

Anyhow, I decided to go with a cheap camera for now. It shouldn't be too hard to swap out just the camera later if I want to upgrade.

[garsh]

I bought one of these. I do not see any external looped wire. I wonder if I can open it up and find something internal?

After opening it up, I found a small eeprom (24C08C). A little searching dug up this youtube video where somebody appears to say that they removed the chip to remove the lines (it's in Russian, and I was relying on Google translate). I decided to try cutting the power pin (VCC) on the chip, and that did the trick. No more built-in parking lines!

Hopefully I'll find some time this weekend to try hooking it up.

[davewill]

... I decided to try cutting the power pin (VCC) on the chip, and that did the trick. No more built-in parking lines! ...

I'd go ahead and remove the whole chip as was suggested. Leaving it like that will cause power to leak in and out of the chip's other pins. If you're lucky, either nothing will happen or the just the chip in question will get killed. If you're unlucky, other parts of the camera's electronics will fry after a while.

[garsh]

I finally got the camera installed.

The picture it's showing is mirrored the wrong way. The lines curve *away* from my direction of travel.

Sigh.

[Ramius83]

I finally got the camera installed.

The picture it's showing is mirrored the wrong way. The lines curve *away* from my direction of travel.

Sigh.

Can you take a picture of what you are talking about and post it up?

Is this after you modded the camera to eliminate the lines?

You can always disable the OEM lines and use the ones that came with the camera you bought.