As I'm getting ready to build my rear bumper / tire carrier I'm gonna loose the function of my factory backup camera.... Soooooo I've been looking at what it's gonna take to wire up a new camera back there.

I dug up the wiring diagrams for the nav unit and it shows the G20 plug (pins 21-24) being the ones that operate the backup camera. The list the following:

CGND - I am assuming this is camera ground

CA+ - Camera pos. voltage

V- Video Input Ground???

V+ Video Input Pos???


The camera I want to use is a Kenwood CMOS model which has a single "Yellow" video output cable. My question for those who know more than I, should I be able to cut this plug off and wire the pos and neg from this new camera to the V- and V+ inputs on the nav unit?

There is also the issue of the power and ground for the new camera. The ground is no problem. For the power, I may be wrong, but I read on a Tundra forum that the Toyota OEM cameras are powered by 6V input, I won't know for sure until I get a multimeter on it. If that is the case, I will have to use that circuit in conjunction with a relay because the Kenwood camera requires 12v for power. Any one know?

I searched the crap outta the forum and came up with some talk on the subject but no definite answers.

You electronic gurus wanna help a brother out?

You could ignore the positive and negative from the headunit and just tap a tail lights for your camera power. Although test the wires coming out of the headunit of course, I have a hard time believing they would power a camera with 6V...but who knows.


As for the video connection I'm pretty sure I have read the answer to that on here somewhere...hold on let me see if I can dig it up.


EDIT: Here is what I found:

I was thinking of hooking up the factory backup camera to an aftermarket head unit, which is here:Aftermarket Stereo


I have been interested in what you are describing for a while though, just have't gotten around to trying it. Here is a post (reposted from above thread) I posted a while ago regarding your idea. This SHOULD work...at least it makes sense in my head...ha.

Kind of interested in this, not sure if I am interested enough to make mine the Guinea pig though...

Taking Kingpins guide to tapping into the factory camera:
Kingpins New Truck
And Antmans guide to triping the backup camera feed on demand with a switch:
Rearview camera mod WITH NAV

It of course makes sense in my head that we could just cut those wires coming from the G20, splice an RCA female jack onto the G20 Plug end, and then an RCA male jack onto the camera end. Then we could just feed the video in to the nav with whatever we want. As long as we activate the backup camera feed with a switch like Antman has already done...

It can't be that easy...right?

Thanks for the input Jango! Right in line with what I was thinking!

Yup, for power I could tap into the tail lights, but I was worried about feedback when I had the camera manually on, I guess I could use a diode... hmm.

I have a video output for a digital camera that I could sacrifice for the test. I already have the "nav. backup camera switch on/off" mod done so in theory, I should be able to disconnect the V+ and V- leads on the G20 plug and splice in the stripped leads from the vid output cable on my camera. Might be worth a try.

I hope this works because I really really like my backup camera, sucks to run over little kids!!!

I was going to mount the Kenwood camera right in the middle of my tire swing out arm, good view of everything and safe.


***Edit - Just reviewed Kingpins Post - I didn't pay attention to that before because I glanced at it and saw that he was wiring the stock camera to a aftermarket head unit, but I guess it is all the same. Looks to me like it will work!!!!

It makes sense that this should work...but we will never know until someone tries. Keep us posted!

Hi SOcalTRAIL, any success getting the aftermarket camera to work? I'm in the process of attempting the same thing. I'm going to start with just connecting the video to the V+, and V- pins, and nothing to the CGND.
Dean

Any news on this yet?

well I was trying every thing. I have tried connect factory camera with aftermarket camera in line to see if I can run the aftermarket. Tried cutting the 12v to 3v connector to see if I can run the camera like that. than I was looking and I found this link

Subaru & Toyota Rear Camera Input Information

and then I gave up... Stupid JBL not Toyota cause I know Toyota dosent do shit like this. but any ways... unless you can find a camera that can give a only NTSC signal a with 6V input then you are good. Otherwise you are ****ed like I am...

I hope this helps.

The V+ should be your video signal. The V- should be the shield. All video cable is shielded to prevent noise from entering and combining with the video signal. Next is to check with a meter or scope to be sure. You might also look to see that any replacement camera is compatable with the output - voltage, frequency and signal type.

Don't give up!

The one thing I can comment on - the factory camera is said to run on 6v. Some guys use a diode to try and drop the voltage, but after reading a few cats just wired it in directly, I did the same. It works fine on the normal 12v!

With your new camera, it probably is a 12v, so just tap into one of your brake lights.

And there are cameras that list at NTSC/PAL, but can be configured to go in NTSC only.