Rear View Camera

[garyswaggerty]

I had a X920BT installed a couple weeks ago. Other than the already stated issues with the VR, I love it.

This week I had an Audiovox rear view camera installed. When I put the truck in reverse, the camera comes on as expected and all is good. However, when I try to view the camera while in Nav mode there is no picture only a half black screen beside the Nav screen.

I called the installer and reported the problem and was told that you either got it one way or the other. I find that hard to believe, so I thought I come ask the experts.

 

Is this true? Can you not have the camera operate in both modes, or did my installer just not connect everything correctly?

 

Thanks in advance.

Gary

[rac4avic]

I'm wondering about this also. Would it make sense to tap into a different line rather than the reverse/backup light, so that I can have the camera always on, or on whenever I do something else (like turn on fog lights)?

[averen]

You should be able to have both. But it depends on how the installer installed the camera. If they wired the camera power to your reverse trigger wire then it will only work when in reverse. The camera should be powered from an auxiliary input and the reverse trigger should tell the HU to switch over to video. It sounds like your camera is powered by the reverse wire.

 

Hope that helps.

Jared

[rgarjr]

yeah it sounds like the installer did a half ass job and used the 12V reverse lamp to power up the camera.

 

Get on his ass.

[VBLUE42]

Take it back and demand that he do it right so you can get rear view. It should have been wired as the instructions say. This is all to common with installers these days.

[Ixian]

How lazy is this? It's not like that they didn't come across a 12v ACC power line when they installed the thing. Hell they could have just tapped it right off a fuse in the fuse panel like people with Radar detectors have been doing for decades.

[garyswaggerty]

Thansk for the replies.

I called the installer and told him what was said here. He said that they could get it to work both ways but it would cost me another 20 bucks for a relay or something.

 

I'm not familiar with any of this stuff. Are you guys just saying that all they need to do is wire the power to a 12V supply that is not the reverse light. And then both will work?

 

Thanks,

gary

[averen]

For the camera to work how you want it to work it needs to be wired to auxiliary power so that it's always supplying video when the car is powered on.

 

The head unit needs to be connected to the reverse wire so that it knows when the vehicle is put in reverse and will switch over to the camera. However the camera is always supplying video, the HU just isn't showing it 100% of the time. So now you can go and click on the "Rear Camera" option on the HU and it will switch to the camera input (which is always supplying video.)

 

It sounds like the camera is currently powered by a reverse triggered wire (likely tapped into from the actual reverse lights on your car). So the camera is ONLY providing video when your car is in reverse.

 

To do it correctly the installer should hook up the camera to auxiliary power and hook up the HU reverse signal to a reverse triggered wire. The only bad part is that this will make your camera feed video all the time (whether you're watching it or not). You shouldn't need a relay since the reverse signal on the HU can be set to ground or battery depending on what type of reverse signal your vehicle outputs.

 

What model/year truck is this in?

 

Jared

[garyswaggerty]

It's in a 2010 Dodge Ram.

The installer asked me to print out your instructions so they'd know what to do.

[rgarjr]

Yeah dude, it needs power from a 12V switched source. There may be a source near the rear of your vehicle, but if there isn't any, they need to run a wire to the front of the vehicle.

[averen]

I just installed something very similar on my 2009 F-150.

 

I looked at the install instructions for the camera...guessing it's this one or similar:

http://mobile.audiovox.com/backupcameras/?sku=ACA200W

 

If they followed the instructions then they connected the power wire for the camera to the reverse light on your truck. They need to move that wire to an auxiliary source and they should be good. I'm guessing the reverse signal from your truck is good if the HU automatically switches over to the camera when put in reverse and switches out automatically when put into any other gear.

 

Looks like that should be it...find an aux wire in the back and they're done. Shouldn't take long provided they can find that wire...which can be easy or hard depending on the truck. There might be something in the trailer harness.

 

Jared

[garyswaggerty]

Cool.

Now it makes perfect sense to me....at least enough to explain to the installer.

 

Thanks for all your help....I'm supposed to drop the truck of Monday so they can fix it.

 

Gary

[VBLUE42]

To put it simply, the red wire on the camera should go to the red wire from the head unit.

 

The black wire from the camera should go to the black wire on the head unit or other ground source.

 

The reverse wire on the head unit should go to the reverse light circuit of the vehicle.

 

Do not let them charge you for this shit. This is the way the instructions that came with the camera should say to hook it up. You already paid for a camera install and it should have been done this way to begin with. No relay is required for this. If you have to, talk to a manager and tell them you will never go back and you will tell everyone you know to not do business with them if they try and charge for to do this right.