DIY gurus pls help! Wiring tips needed.

[Prosumer]

Can any DIY gurus please shed some lights on the following?

 

1a) I bought a reverse camera for my existing LCD HU which has such inputs; a reverse camera video-in and a blue wire that's label "reverse signal". Where exactly to connect this blue wire to get the signal from? Is this signal simply a 12V+ or GRND? (I may install an override switch to turn on this camera without engaging reverse gear too)

 

1b) Also, for the power input to the camera (which will be placed near the license plate) do I simply tap from the reverse lamp's wire (i.e. cut out the wire sleeves) or is there a more "elegant" outlet where installer always tap?

 

1c) Where do ppl normally run the long wire from the HU to the rear? On the side, normally it's run from the side of roof-top or bottom (underneath the scuff plates)?

 

2a) I've purchased a car DVR from overseas and decided to install it myself. Where do I tap power DIRECTLY from the car battery so there is no need to start engine to draw power? Ya, I'll install a switch too, just in case...

 

2b) In general, is there a "central signal box/control" where I can tap signals like door open/close, engine start/off, alarm arm/disarm, etc? I plan to link these to the DVR sensor input too...

 

haha, I know... ppl may say I'm but really it's part of the fun and I like to learn too.

 

Anyway, please give specific instructions as I'm quite a noob, but managed to open up my central dash board...

 

THANKS!!!

 

p.s. I'm driving a toyota altis 1.6

Edited January 10, 2008 by Prosumer

[Bearbear1494]

Here's my take on your situation.

 

1a) The Video Signal wire is most probably a +12V that detects when your reverse gear is engaged. This current will then tell the HU to automatically switch to Reverse Camera Input mode. Usually this wire is tapped from the gearbox wiring harness, but is too complicated for most DIYers. I would suggest that you use a multimeter to probe it & determine if it is indeed a +12V or ground. If it carries current by itself, means you can power the camera with it. But by right it should be a "dead" wire, so that you can tap it to your reverse lights (Positive wire). When the reverse gear is engaged, the lights come on & at the same time sends current down the wire to your HU, telling it that it should switch viewing modes.

 

1b) Easiest way to power it would obviously be from the reverse lights, so that the camera only turns on when needed. But should you want to bypass the reverse light circuit so that you can manually toggle the power on/off, means you should use a 3-position toggle switch. The center pin of the switch will be wired to the camera's +12V, either pin 1 or pin 3 will be wired to reverse light +12V & another permanent +12V supply respectively. The other supply will usually be tapped from the tail lights or straight from the battery, depending on whether your tail lights have a permanent power supply even with the key taken out. Again, use a multimeter to test.

 

1c) The wires should be run along the side of the vehicle, under the carpet, to your HU. If you have previously installed any amplifiers, be sure not to route the cables together with the RCA cables of your amp(s). Go from the other side if necessary, this is to prevent noise from entering your sound system.

 

2a) Run a wire through the engine firewall, fuse it with the appropriate amperage blade fuse or glass fuse. Add switch as needed. Ground can be tapped from any point of the chassis within the interior.

 

2b) There is such a box if you have an alarm system installed. That's the alarm control module. Usually located under the dashboard, close to the fuse box. But unless you have the manual that states which wire does what, I'd suggest you leave it to the professionals. A typical alarm wiring harness has over 40 wires leading up to a plastic connector plug, in various colors. Do not attempt to tamper with them unless you are absolutely sure which wire is for what purpose.

[Notsoblurr]

For wiring the reverse camera:

 

1) For the reverse camera power supply, the easier method is tap the wire from the reverse sensor wire (red and black).

 

The mechanic that install your reverse sensor have already stripped the cable for your reverse light to install the reverse sensor wire. So, just take out the black tape for the red and black cable (make sure you don't short them together, best is do one at a time) that they have joint and twisted your reverse camera supply to it. Tape with black tape and your reverse camera will work when you select to reverse gear.

 

2) For the LCD HU to display the reverse camera image, you need a reverse gear signal to the HU.

 

If your vehicle is a latest model, such as Toyota Camry or Wish, you just need to remove the HU from the in-dash and look for any small connector (4-pin if I am not wrong). When you select to reverse gear, one of the pin for this 4-pin connector will output a 12V signal. Use the signal from this pin to connect it to your HU reverse input signal (normally blue colour).

Edited January 11, 2008 by Notsoblurr

[Prosumer]

Thanks for all the tips man, I've dig out an old multimeter from my store and will be doing some wire testing over the weekend

 

2a is a bit confusing to me due to unfamiliar terms. In general, does it mean I've to snake a wire all the way out to the engine compartment and locate those "fuse" near the battery to tap from?

 

Anyway, the idea of testing with the multimeter sounds great for a start, maybe can locate a wire somewhere near the HU area with current even when engine is off.

 

Hope I'll not blow up anything

Edited January 11, 2008 by Prosumer

[Prosumer]

Right, tapping the power from the existing reverse sensor is most logical! Thanks, will do that

 

Lots of connectors behind the HU, so I'll test with multimeter to see if there's one for my Toyota Altis'07.

 

Will report my progress here in case can benefit others here.

TQ!

[Notsoblurr]

Lots of connectors behind the HU, so I'll test with multimeter to see if there's one for my Toyota Altis'07.

 

As I did it myself more than a year ago, I have forgotten there are how many pin on the connectors.

 

There should be less than 3 connectors behind the HU, the connector with the least pins (if I remember correctly, it should be 4-pin) is for navigation unit. The first pin on this 4-pins connector is the reverse signal, it is a 12V output signal when you select to reverse gear.

 

If you do not have this connector, then you have to lay the reverse signal all the way from your tail light to the HU.

 

Good luck to you.

[Kwchan]

which car DVR u bought and how much?

[Bearbear1494]

So how's it coming along? Hope you've managed to make some decent headway. DIY is one journey that takes alot of sweating & cursing, some destroying of stuff & self-inflicted injuries before one learns. You just gotta love it man!

[Prosumer]

Hi all, sorry for the late reply. I was on a last minute trip over the weekend

 

I got the dvr from Korea from another trip, at one of the huge shopping center that has loads of car accessories. The model is Mobile DVR100. With the camera, damage is about S$600+.

 

Here's a picture:

 

Still testing the unit at home to figure out how best to wire it. Can record up to 640x480 VGA resolution, but clarity depends on the camera. I got a rather cheap camera so it's not up to my expectation. Will shop around for a better camera.

[Prosumer]

It's actually much more complicated that I thought

 

Arm with the test meter, I still did not managed to locate the reverse signal wire in the HU area. At the end, I've located a power line at the boot compartment where the reverse sensor/buzzer control is. On reverse gear, this power line will give 12+.

 

What I did was to tap this power both as camera power input, and run another wire (as signal-in) all the way back to the HU together with the video-out cable.

 

In fact, this extra "signal" wire is good, as it'll double-up as a camera direct power source at the flip of a switch. A diode is needed in the circuit... maybe I'll post a circuit diagram is there's enough interest.

 

My electronic lessons from school did not go the waste after all

 

The other major challenge for me is to run the wires all the way to the boot; finally I ran them via the conduct of the scuff plates and found an opening to the boot.

 

Figuring out where to mount the camera is also an issue. The only holes out from the boot cover is the license plate lamps. The other option is to run parallel with the reverse sensor's wire that goes inside the bumper; but this means camera will mount under-carriage. I decided at the end to mount in between the license plate lamps as shown in the pic:

 

 

However, it's blocking a little bit of the license #, top tip of "J". Dunno whether TP will jio me or not?

[Bearbear1494]

My 2 cents if you don't mind.

 

Firstly, I would prefer to wire the camera to a 2-position single pole (ON-ON) toggle switch, one to the reverse lights/sensor circuit, and the other to the battery. This would allow me to use the camera as a REAR-VIEW cam at a throw of the switch, while the other switch position would return the camera to reverse-cam duty.

 

Then, I would choose to take apart the boot-lid cards, then drill a hole at the license plate area between the letters "S" & "J", with a similar hole drilled on the license plate itself. Then mount the camera INSIDE the bootlid, with the lens flush with the top surface of the license plate. If need be, add a small piece of lightly tinted acrylic behind the license plate, to help mask the camera lens aperture better. Don't forget to seal up the hole with silicon or similar filler. You don't want water to seep into your boot. This would make for a much neater & professional-looking install, but requires that you bite the bullet & put the drill to work on the sheet-metal.

 

Anyway, if TP does make noise about you having a hole in your license plate, all you need to do is just replace it with a new one at a cost of around S$15. The new plate will mask the hole at the back.

[Prosumer]

This is a learning thread, so feel free to chip in

 

Ok, here's the circuit diagram of my setup. Not sure if it's same as what you described but when I flip the switch, it'll power-up the camera as well as giving the signal to switch to the LCD display. That's the "manual override" to view the rear camera, otherwise when it's off (or even on) the reverse sensor power supply will power up the camera and give the signal (automatically on reverse gear) instead.

 

 

Only 2 wires needed to run through the body; the video cable and a long cigar lighter power cable (which is fused) of equivalent length.

 

Nowadays, I'm more attentive to look out for such reverse camera but hardly see any leh, except for SUVs but even then some mounted it underneath one of the left/right license plate lamp effectively taking it out of action.

 

Haha... ya my setup will probably invite curiosity and then vandalism/thief...

 

Okie, do I need special kind of drill for the job or will my handy home drill works? Never cut through metal before, only bricks Any special drill bit needed for such a large hole?

 

Alternatively, I can drill the hole at the bumper, right between the two sensors. Or maybe replace that Toyota logo... hehe.

Edited January 19, 2008 by Prosumer

[Tanjkp]

Wow ! Very impressive but exp for ur reverse cam. The local one with rear view mirror monitor costs ard

[Prosumer]

No lah, the reverse camera cost only S$85 bought from Sim Lim Tower. The $600+ damage I mentioned above is for the Digital Video Recorder (DVR) system, nothing to do with the reverse camera.

 

I plan to integrate all these cameras together, even to record from the reverse camera and perhaps also on "motion-detection" using the stock reverse sensors . Slowly one feature at a time, I already plan out by just modifying the circuit above a bit. Then I'll be able to record on the move, record as needed and record on motion detection (when car is parked).

 

But your wireless camera and receiver from US sounds interesting. I believe can double up as a those covert/spy thingy. Hmm.... a good addition to my overall system. What's the model number, can buy online?

 

BTW, that's why they say don't install wireless cameras at home for maid watching, as there is no security at all; anyone with a receiver nearby can "view" into your home...

 

And talking about home surveillance, I've setup a standalone wired IP camera which is viewable from http://prosumer.homeip.net (but the dyndns thingy seems not to work well)

Edited January 19, 2008 by Prosumer

[Bearbear1494]

Yup, pretty much the same idea, only that my circuit doesn't make use of a diode & has 1 additional wire from the battery directly to the switch. The switch has 3 pins, so I'll use the center pin for the camera +12V IN & HU Signal IN, pin 1 to reverse circuit +12V, pin 3 to battery +12V. Yours is prettier & probably easier to wire, but I prefer to have 1 single fault zone, which is at the switch itself. Your circuit has 2 fault zones, one at the diode & the other at the toggle switch. So if the circuit somehow malfunctions, you'd have to troubleshoot 2 areas.

 

For the drill bit, I'd recommend using a standard HSS (High Speed Steel) bit. Drill a smaller hole first then slowly enlarge it using bigger sized bits until you get the size you want. I would stay away from using a hole saw unless it's a very high quality, reinforced/carbide tipped one. Same goes for a fostner bit. Remember to use a touch-up paint marker to fill in the exposed metal area where the drill bit has touched, else rust will set in.

 

Mounting the camera behind the bumper would also work well, but usually requires that you remove the bumper so that you have easier access to the camera mount in order to work on it. The use of screws are infinitely preferable to mounting tape as the underside of the bumper is subject to water splashing & road debris. Where the use of screws are not feasible, epoxy is your next best friend. But note that the removal of epoxy (should you want to dismantle the camera in future) can be a real biatch. Apart from this, nothing much else holds the camera mount more securely.

[Prosumer]

I've taken a look at the task involved; it's more than one layer of outer steel for my ride, there's another internal layer of thicker "chasis steel" just behind the license plate. So I think I'll skip this drilling idea for now and move on to my DVR connection first

 

Will update later.

 

Thanks!

[Prosumer]

I'm attempting another wiring feat:

 

3) Auto side-mirror flip close/open on alarm arm/disarm. In the market, there is a "controller" being sold which does it, but I can't help wondering if it's not just a very simple wiring task?

 

For my stock ride, I simply press an on/off button switch which trigger the side mirror to flip open or close. So isn't it as simple as finding out which existing alarm wire will toggle during arm/disarm and just wire it to a relay switch to simulate a human pressing on that button switch? Why is a "controller" needed (which cost like $80 to $100+) then?

 

Anyone got it working by DIY or am I again?

 

Edited January 21, 2008 by Prosumer