Hey guys my buddy just bought a 07 ram with a z2 and back up camera installed already so I'm not sure how the guy got this to work but he has a switch so that no matter what he is doing he can flip the camera on, were installing a z2 into my 01 f350 and I'm wanting to do the same thing it's nice to be able to just flip it on whenever. I'm not concerned with having my camera tied into the reverse I want to be able to do the same thing on my truck and be able to turn the cam on and override whatever is on the screen no matter what gear I'm in or what's on the screen... Thanks in advance for the help!

What u want can be had with a SPDT switch. The switch has 3 contacts. The common contact goes to reverse trigger wire on the AVIC. The other one goes to your reverse lamp, and the last one goes to a 12V ignition power.

Can I pick one of these switches up at radio shack? And you say this will let me turn the camera on whenever I want? Like I said I don't care if the cam comes on when I put it into reverse I just want to be able to view it whenever I flip the switch... Sorry if I come off like an idiot but other than hooking up my subs and amp I have absolutely no clue about hooking up things like this but the only way to learn is to read all I can and try not to ask to many stupid questions. Also can you elaborate on the full name for a SPDT switch, I just want to make sure I know exactly what I'm looking for when I go to pick up the switch. Thanks for your quick response by the way!

With the single pole double throw switch it will allow it to behave normally in one state, but in the other it will bring up the cam.

If u dont care for the auto cam view when in reverse gear u can use a simple spst switch and instead... U hook up the reverse wire from the AVIC to one contact and 12v igniting on the other.

Gotcha! Thanks for your help. Can't wait to get this thing installed! I have been playing with it in my buddies truck and really like it!

Ok I got the z2 installed and everything works great except for that I can't get the camera to come show on the screen, I got the switch setup so the cam only comes on when I flip the it on, when I do flip the switch the Tex saying the images may be reversed show up but the screen is black like its not getting a signal.. I have it hooked to the brown rear view camera input but I did have to use a different RCA cable because the one that came with it wouldn't reach the dash so I'm actually using one side of a Audio RCA cable because as far as I know they are the same correct? Just trying to get this figured out cause I can't see any reason it wouldn't work

how is the cam powered?

Tied it into a wire under the dash that has constant power with the key on, can't really remember what color it was