So, I bought one of those $20 back-up camera's off of E-bay:

I have a cigarette lighter outlet in the back of my Highlander, so instead of tapping into an existing 12v wire and ground wire, I bought a cigarette lighter Y cable that you can just solder the camera's wires to, like this:

Well, when I turned my unit on, the little fuse part of the camera (circled in the picture) started burning. Does anyone have an idea as to what I did wrong?

I doubt I mixed up the positive and negative wires, but even if I did, it shouldn't have burned, right? The power input for the camera is a DC 12v 60MA.

Is there anyway for me to fix this without buying a new camera?

It's 12 volt? Usually small devices like that are about 5volt....

2 things i can tell you.

1. I have the same camera but mine mounts to the license plate and it works fine with f series so you either did something wrong or got a bad camera.

2. wires are positive and negative for a reason so you could have smoked the camera reversing polarity

i have the same camera that purchased on ebay for $23. i have not physically installed it on my car yet, but i did try to hook it up on my bench with 12v regulated power supply with my f-series and its working fine in reverse-wire engaged mode (give 12volt to that reverse wire on the f-series), or menu selected reverse mode. Images are fine, and the 7 infrared LED does its job as well. Pls check your polarity first. But since you have smoke coming from that in-line fuse, fuse is probably broken now, so you might need to cut that off and attached another fuse to try it again.

i just checked my camera, at 12v, it consume a mere 0.05amp during operation. also, the "little fuse" that you mentioned is not a fuse. its just a plastic molding to joint the power and camera wires. also i have a suggestion for you. just use a 9V battery to hook up the camera for a test run. hook up the RCA yellow wire to your TV and see if it works. mine is stable at 9V. the rectangle household 9v battery is capable for this 50ma application. if this give you no signal, i would open up the camera housing by 4 screws, and hook up the positive and negative directly on the solder board, because i think at this stage perhaps your cabling is shorted.

i just checked my camera, at 12v, it consume a mere 0.05amp during operation. also, the "little fuse" that you mentioned is not a fuse. its just a plastic molding to joint the power and camera wires. also i have a suggestion for you. just use a 9V battery to hook up the camera for a test run. hook up the RCA yellow wire to your TV and see if it works. mine is stable at 9V. the rectangle household 9v battery is capable for this 50ma application. if this give you no signal, i would open up the camera housing by 4 screws, and hook up the positive and negative directly on the solder board, because i think at this stage perhaps your cabling is shorted.

Great suggestion, thanks.

Guys - those who got this camera - is it a reverse image one? It doesn't say on their ebay page.

How is the quality of the image?

Guys - those who got this camera - is it a reverse image one? It doesn't say on their ebay page.

How is the quality of the image?

I have ebay Item number: 110353799828 and the picture is great for $20 plus shipping.

I have a Highlander too. Where did you mount this camera?