Okay so i am Brand new to this forum, and it has been incredibly helpful so far. But finally i am stumped. I got my reverse camera in the other day and installed it exactly how i am suppose to. Oh by the way, i have an AVIC-Z130BT

The hot wire is run to a constant 12V

The ground wire is Grounded properly

The video cable is run to the rearview camera plug (the brown one)

And then there is a wire that turns to a hot 12V when the truck is in reverse, well this wire is run to the back of the unit to the reverse gear signal input.

Butttt it won't work? I have checked EVERYTHING with a meter and it reads perfect, and the unit settings are correct too. The camera is turned on and i have tried both ground and battery settings. I don't get why it won't work. now i can plug the camera video cable into the camera input and select it from the scroll menu and it works fine, but i want it to work where i can shift in reverse and it come on automatically. Please tell me what is wrong and how i can fix it. Thank you so much.

Tyler

You should not feed the camera constant power, only ignition power since you don't want the cam to be on 24/7.

There's 2 camera settings (CAM=ON or OFF, CAM POWER=BATTERY or GROUND), make sure they are correct.

maybe the reverse input (reverse lamp) wire is not seeing the correct signal. You can connect 12V or GND (You need pick one on the units settings). Even if you don't have any camera, the unit should switch to cam mode as soon as it gets 12V or ground.

simple way to check is to apply 12V to the revese wire and watch the unit swith to cam mode.

I have done this, i have gotten my meter and checked one random wire that has a 12 volt charge and i have touched it to the reverse gear wire on the unit and it does absolutely nothing. while doing this, i have held the meter on that reverse gear input wire to verify that it received a signal change and it did. And all my other hook ups are correct. So this is just sooo confusing to me. I don't see why it won't switch for me if it is provided a 12V and i have all the settings correct in the unit (and have tried other ways too)

Try putting ground to the reverse wire and change the settings to GND, see what happens. Something could be wrong with your unit. Dunno if that wire has a fuse or a resistor inline, check it.

The wire does have a resistor in it. What would this mean? and yes i tried the reverse wire to ground and changed the settings and nothing, but the unit does have a resister in this line.

try by-passing the resistor by cutting a little off the insulation of the wire and do the tests again.

so are you saying to act like I'm ignoring the resistor, and just connect the wire to the side of the resister that is connected to the unit?, so it appears as if the 12v reverse wire is connected directly do the unit without going through the resister? i just don't want to burn anything up

yeah I'm wondering if the resistor is the problem, just by-pass it and see what it does. It won't damage the unit.

Okay so i tried that to, and still nothing. I checked the wire with a meter and the wire coming from the unit labels the reverse gear is constantly reading 12V. But still i have tried everything multiple ways and still have tried adjusting the settings both ways each time for testing and still nothing.

The HU is not providing the 12v on that wire, so it must be coming into the HU from wherever you connected the wire. Sounds like you don't have the tap on the right wire. The HU's reverse (B/U) sensor is just a sensor that detects (configurable) + or - current on that wire. If it is always +12V, then I'd guess you have it tapped before the reverse switch - so it is always on. Put a MultiMeter on that tap and the other probe to ground. What does it read - when in park and when in reverse?

Like the wire coming from the unit labeled reverse gear. okay, i disconnected my truck wire to the unit wire, so now it is just the plain wire coming form the HU only, and not connected to anything. But on the side of the resister closest to the HU, when i get the meter, it reads a constant 12V. Its like every time the head unit is on, it sends a 12V signal to the reverse gear wire. Is something messed up inside?

Like the wire coming from the unit labeled reverse gear. okay, i disconnected my truck wire to the unit wire, so now it is just the plain wire coming form the HU only, and not connected to anything. But on the side of the resister closest to the HU, when i get the meter, it reads a constant 12V. Its like every time the head unit is on, it sends a 12V signal to the reverse gear wire. Is something messed up inside?

Possible I a wrong on the HU not feeding 12V on that wire. It might, depending on the polarity setting. Have you tried gounding the hot lead (after the fuse/resistor to be safe) to see if the display switches to camera?

so you want me to try to ground the the reverse gear wire on the end (away from the HU) and then on the other side of the resister (HU side) try supplying the reverse signal from my truck and try that? i will try that today.

No, I just wanted to see if the HU could be fooled into switching to camera by grounding the BU wire (at the far end away from the HU). This won't fix your problem, just test the HU sensor.

Set the Camera Polarity to GND (Ground), then ground the far end of the B/U wire to chassis. See if the HU auto switches to camera and swithes back when the grounded wire is removed.

If that doesn't work, try reversing the polarity setting (to Battery) and testing it again.

Actually i have already tried that too and still nothing. I don't understand why the HU provides a 12V on that wire. But i have done exactly what you said and still nothing

U positive that's the reverse gear wire you're using? That wire should not have 12VDC on it when nothing is connected to it.

i am positive. It is the purple/white stripe wire right? If this is supplying a 12V and shouldn't, maybe i should call pioneer

Yup, violet/white according to the manual. Make sure it isn't blue/white (auto antenna/relay control). That would be +12VDC whenever the HU is on.

What car and cam do u have? I recently hooked up one in an 08 Vw and all I did was give power to the ign positive and negative at the back of the radio and plugged in the video. The radio should do the rest as long as the backup cam is not defective. Iff you have a a small tv that has a video in try feeding the cam with 12v and plugging it into a tv to rule out the camera being defective. My settings for BU cam is on battery. Same goes for having the cam running while driving. A lot of people think that they have to run constant 12v to the cam to do this. It was easy to pick up a reverse signal in my car bc I used PAC audio modules.

I have an 07 F150 and the cam i have is a nicer one that only has the positive, negative, and the video. But anyways no it is connected to the violet/white wire that is labeled, reverse gear signal an there it also carries a 12v signal on it by its self. Should i try the blue white to see if it is mixed up? i don't get why the reverse gear wire is providing a 12v signal when it shouldn't.

It's quite possible that the wire might have been inserted at the wrong slot on the connector. Do some research on what slot it should be in.

How in the hell is there no 411 on how to install a back up cam on this forum for the z11?

has anyone figure out the problem, i seem to be having the same issue happening. 

so not sure if this helps..... for the head unit to recognize your going into reverse when you go in reverse and give signal to turn camera on and show you video from camera you need to connect that wire for reverse signal to the wire coming from the car.  if you have a certain module like i have for my buick it will be labeled if not you must do some research to find the wire on your car that will give voltage when in reverse.


so you need power and ground for camera and connect rca to camera rca on radio

thats all camera needs to be connected to.

then if you go to settings forgot actual steps but there is like a diagnostic screen that will show you your gps signal speed sensor signal reverse signal.

go to that put car in reverse and make sure the reverse signal changes otherwise its not connected right.