Reverse camera wiring

[Lawyered07]

Finally got round to fitting my reverse camera this morning in the freezing cold but can't get it working. I've got positive and negative wires for the led which I've connected to the existing no plate lights so that's fine.

its then got the RCA cable with what looks like small power wire on each end as well. I've run the RCA to the head unit "cam in" connector but not connected the power wire to anything.

its also got another connector which runs to a red and black wire, which I have connected to the +/- on the reverse light. 

Im not getting any picture on the headunit. It's the erisin 2046gb. 

Is it that the wire on the RCA needs connecting to something? Thanks

[Lawyered07]

So I think the small power cable on the RCA is the trigger which needs connecting to the spare wire on the head unit and the reverse positive again. Is that right?

[Lawyered07]

Ignore me! I had connected the trigger to the wrong spare wire! Completely forgot about the spares on the head unit loom and was only looking at the rca loom. Must be the cold...

[dontpannic]

Be a bit careful with the triggers on the OBD box (if that's the one you're using). Mine originally seemed to work fine then after a month or so, the head unit would switch to the reverse camera (with a no signal screen) occasionally. I disconnected it from the CANBUS box and patched it directly into the reverse feed wires on the fusebox instead. Now it's perfect.

[bennno2005]

There will be a trigger wire coming from the head unit. You need to wire a positive to this connected to the reverse lights. This will tell your head unit when to switch to the camera channel.

You will need to connect the power wire for the camera to the positive feed on your reverse lights to (obviously to power it) 

Then its just the RCA cable that needs to be connected to the head unit to provide you with picture.

I struggled for a while but it was because I'd plugged the RCA into the Video in rather than the Camera in on the back of the head unit.

Hope that helps.

[bennno2005]

7 minutes ago, dontpannic said:

Be a bit careful with the triggers on the OBD box (if that's the one you're using). Mine originally seemed to work fine then after a month or so, the head unit would switch to the reverse camera (with a no signal screen) occasionally. I disconnected it from the CANBUS box and patched it directly into the reverse feed wires on the fusebox instead. Now it's perfect.

Just use the positive from the rear light and you can't go wrong. You need to wire in the camera here anyway so and you need to run the RCA cable the length of the car too so its no extra hassle.

[dontpannic]

1 minute ago, bennno2005 said:

Just use the positive from the rear light and you can't go wrong. You need to wire in the camera here anyway so and you need to run the RCA cable the length of the car too so its no extra hassle.

Yes and no. Ideally you don't want your power cable running the length of the car alongside an unshielded video cable or you'll get interference on the image - if you can test this before permanently installing the cable though and it's fine then go right ahead. 

The problem I had was that I actually ran the RCA cable the length of the car before realising that the signal from the CANBUS box wasn't totally correct so to rip everything out and run a power cable from the rear light too (mine's a touring - getting the cable into the tailgate was a MASSIVE pain in the backside) would have been a total pain. All I've ended up doing is connecting it to the power cable that feeds the reverse light from the fusebox end rather than from the light end.

[The_Judge_]

So, I'm attempting my usual car bodge this weekend and it's the turn of reverse camera. I haven't bought a standard E46 camera, a generic xtrons unit with two cables, one phono and one power.

The instructions say there are two ways of connecting as the OP suggests:

I'm going to go with wiring option 1 I think. So ...

1. Connect thin red wire on phono lead to thin red wire on black power lead
2. Connect the other thin red wire at opposite end of the phono cable + phone cable to matching bits I'm assuming at the xtrons unit (I'll come to that later ...)
3. Connect thin black wire on the end of the power cable to a ground source. Any suggestions??
4. Connect thin red wire on the end of the power cable to a 12V dc source, I'm assuming the best thing for this would be the supply to the reverse lights. Anyone know which cable this is in the set of cables leading to the rear cluster. Brown ones I think?

I am a bodger, so this is probably all wrong, please do shout ....!

Edited July 2, 2016 by The_Judge_

[Tim-Ci]

1)  Yes looks like it.

2) Yes I would look for a wire on your stereo that is a reverse trigger. Does it already switch to the video mode when you put the car into reverse? Mine does (an Android Eonon), as it has a wire connecting to the factory loom which has a reverse trigger wire, if yours does you won't need to connect this red wire. I would check the menus (Driving Settings?) to see if there's an option in there to switch to the reverse video, before connecting that wire.

3) I would do it on the stereo loom or car loom to that connects to the stereo connector.

4) Yes, there is a wire in the factory loom behind the stereo on mine that has the reverse signal, this has a matching wire on my Android Eonon loom. If you have the manual for your stereo it might reveal which wire is the one.

Edited July 2, 2016 by Tim-Ci

[Tim-Ci]

I fitted one of these wireless ones a couple of weeks ago, very happy with it: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/222053359261?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

I needed to dremel my boot handle a bit and use silicone sealant to stick it and keep water out, which was messy, but other than that I had not problems.

[The_Judge_]

1 hour ago, Tim-Ci said:

1)  Yes looks like it.

2) Yes I would look for a wire on your stereo that is a reverse trigger. Does it already switch to the video mode when you put the car into reverse? Mine does (an Android Eonon), as it has a wire connecting to the factory loom which has a reverse trigger wire, if yours does you won't need to connect this red wire. I would check the menus (Driving Settings?) to see if there's an option in there to switch to the reverse video, before connecting that wire.

3) I would do it on the stereo loom or car loom to that connects to the stereo connector.

4) Yes, there is a wire in the factory loom behind the stereo on mine that has the reverse signal, this has a matching wire on my Android Eonon loom. If you have the manual for your stereo it might reveal which wire is the one.

Thanks Tim-Ci, I have an XTrons head-unit and now an X-Trons camera. Saying that though, there's not much though that seems to match in terms of wiring .. ! The unit does already go automatically into camera mode when I shift into reverse, obviously it only shows a black screen at the moment. 

I've run and tucked the long phono cable through (top part of the connection diagram) to the front of the car so just need to connect all other wires tomorrow. The cables coming from the back of my headunit include a female phono so that is I assume where I will make connection (6) in the diagram. If I were to make connection (2) then it would be to one of these wires (but like you say it seems my unit already knows when I'm in reverse anyway - I'm guessing 'Back'Cable'):

So that leaves the conundrum ... ground (black cable - connection 4) and +12v dc (red cable connection 5) . These connections don't run far enough to reach the head unit at the front, so need to be done at the rear of the car. I'm thinking of grounding on the reverse light cluster for ground, the +12v is for the led I believe and so ideally the same cable powering reverse lights ...

 

[Tim-Ci]

I wouldn't make connection 2, as your unit goes into camera mode when in reverse there's no need, and you don't want to add a voltage back into the car's loom as it sounds the car wire is connected to your head unit like it is acting as the trigger.

You want to look for a cable labelled "cam in" or similar to connect the phono plug to.

I think the +12V needs to go to the reverse wire to power the camera, but that there's no separate LED wire. The guide I followed said this "The blue/brown line to the backup light is positive and the brown (is always in BMWs) the ground. "

Good luck with it.

[The_Judge_]

Brown being ground actually makes sense come to think of it, since thats the wire you tap into and ground to fix the faulty rear light clusters (if you've ever had to do that fix ..)

[The_Judge_]

Tim-Ci - as you said, I didn't need to make connection 2 and in the end the wiring was easy. I removed the bulb holder next to the number plate and removed some of the black sheathing round the wires:

Which clearly showed the middle wire (brown to be earth) and I opted for the wire feeding the reverse bulb as my +12v (i.e. blue/yellow).

Thanks for your help - simplified things ...

[Tim-Ci]

Glad you got it sorted. Are you happy with it?

[The_Judge_]

Just now, Tim-Ci said:

Glad you got it sorted. Are you happy with it?

Can't seem to get the graphic lined up with the edges of the car but yeah it's not bad, it survived the jet wash yesterday too (!) 

[Tim-Ci]

Luckily the left hand graphic bar on mine lines up with the left hand rear tyres, which helps line the car up (but it's not a saloon like yours) . Not sure how you could adjust how it lines up other than moving it left or right across the car, but the trim position and space would limit that I would have thought.

I mounted mine in the passenger side number plate light hole by the way.

Edited July 5, 2016 by Tim-Ci

[The_Judge_]

My issue is the drivers side. It allows me to get too close to objects on my side, I've tried three different positions and the ideal position seems to be in the actual boot handle but can't do that (!) ....  but I can live with it so very happy. Thanks for al your help dude

 

[michaelcbarr]

On 1/18/2016 at 10:49, dontpannic said:

Be a bit careful with the triggers on the OBD box (if that's the one you're using). Mine originally seemed to work fine then after a month or so, the head unit would switch to the reverse camera (with a no signal screen) occasionally. I disconnected it from the CANBUS box and patched it directly into the reverse feed wires on the fusebox instead. Now it's perfect.

@dontpannic can you share your wiring diagram for this?  I am getting EXACTLY the same problem and its driving me insane!  Checked all my wiring and cant find any faults - the unit worked perfectly for 6 months but has started intermittently switching to "no signal" which also cuts out my music.

Thanks.

Mb

[dontpannic]

Hi Michael

I found the info here:

http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=927113

(sorry to link off to another forum!) - drop the fusebox and behind it are three (I think) blue wires with yellow stripe. Any of these three are live when the car is in reverse. So I simply cut the pink cable between the CAN box and the headunit, then run a wire from the headunit end of the pink wire through to one of the blue/yellow trigger wires behind the glovebox. It completely solved that issue for me.

To make it slightly less annoying, in the Driving Settings, set the reverse attenuation to 0, that at least won't mute your music.

[michaelcbarr]

Thats fantastic @dontpannic - thanks for the help!

Time to dust off the wire cutters this evening

mb

[michaelcbarr]

On 08/02/2017 at 11:58, dontpannic said:

Hi Michael

I found the info here:

http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=927113

(sorry to link off to another forum!) - drop the fusebox and behind it are three (I think) blue wires with yellow stripe. Any of these three are live when the car is in reverse. So I simply cut the pink cable between the CAN box and the headunit, then run a wire from the headunit end of the pink wire through to one of the blue/yellow trigger wires behind the glovebox. It completely solved that issue for me.

To make it slightly less annoying, in the Driving Settings, set the reverse attenuation to 0, that at least won't mute your music.

Huge thanks to @dontpannic - i made the wiring changesthis morning and its a perfect fix.

Thanks again.

Mb

 

[dontpannic]

Great to hear

[ADT]

On 2/8/2017 at 11:58, dontpannic said:

Hi Michael

I found the info here:

http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=927113

(sorry to link off to another forum!) - drop the fusebox and behind it are three (I think) blue wires with yellow stripe. Any of these three are live when the car is in reverse. So I simply cut the pink cable between the CAN box and the headunit, then run a wire from the headunit end of the pink wire through to one of the blue/yellow trigger wires behind the glovebox. It completely solved that issue for me.

To make it slightly less annoying, in the Driving Settings, set the reverse attenuation to 0, that at least won't mute your music.

Sorry don't mean to hijack this thread.

 

I had the exact same issue. First month after installing the camera it was working fine, then it started to occasionally go to the black screen with "No Signal!" 

This started to increase and now the camera will only work about once each month, probably even less. As soon as I saw your method of solving it I gave it a go myself. I tapped my trigger into the blue/yellow wire in the fusebox. I still get the no signal message unfortunately. 

 

I have so far tried a new camera, re-wired everything from scratch and even bought a new RCA cable from Erisin. Can you suggest anything else that may be the issue? It's driving me nuts!

 

Edit: my wiring was like this before: camera power, earth and trigger tapped into the reverse light. then the video cable and trigger (trigger integrated into the video cable) are connected to the unit at cables 3 & 10 (please see the attachment).

Now after seeing your post I connected the trigger wire that I ran from the fusebox to cable 10. Still get the No Signal message (or sometimes I only get a green screen). 

 

Does it matter how thick the trigger wire is? I used a really thin cable (I took out the trigger wire that came with the camera, which is integrated with the video cable).

 

I hope all of this made sense!

 

Edited February 24, 2017 by ADT

[Tim-Ci]

You could always try temporarily running a thicker wire to the fusebox. The camera's onlydraw a minute current, approx. 0.1 amps, so I would have thought a thin cable should be okay. A thin cable might get a higher voltage drop though compared to a thick one. My camera got upset with the voltage supply to it when I wired it to the rear sidelights.

Another thing it could be is the connector on the back of the unit for the reverse camera video feed. They can be very weak. The connector for the aux. audio input on mine had a loose pin inside so the audio would drop out on one side. Never pull on the wires when you disconnect those plugs! I had a spare connector in the box for one of the accessory leads, that fitted in the audio port with a bit of trimming, so I soldered that plug on to replace the damaged one.

If you give the connector and wiring for the reverse camera a wiggle it might come to life.

Also one of my rear USB ports stopped working, a wire had snapped just by the connector, probably due to me pulling on the wires when disconnecting it. I managed to repair that with solder and insulation tape.

Edited February 24, 2017 by Tim-Ci