Backup camera: where to tap power?

[heiser]

Backup camera: where to splice power?

I recently bought this android head unit and this backup camera.

I have the head unit installed and running great. I have the camera hooked up, routed, and mounted on the tailgate. The problem is that the camera power wire is not long enough for me to route back to one of the tail lights to use as the reverse trigger. Not only that, but getting wires in and out of the tailgate is a pain in the ass anyway.

I'm assuming the other installs didn't have this problem because they gloss over this part and just say "route to tail light".

Are there any wires that I can splice in the tailgate that I could use instead? I'm assuming it would have to be a constant power instead of a reverse trigger.

 

[Blu42]

I have that same headunit and I have installed a backup camera. Later when I have a free minute I'll post the details for you. Some parts were tricky with the hatch.

 

[heiser]

I have that same headunit and I have installed a backup camera. Later when I have a free minute I'll post the details for you. Some parts were tricky with the hatch.

Nice, thank you. I had so many tricky parts to this I'm ready to be finished with it.

 

[Blu42]

I'm going to over answer your question in the hopes it may help someone else.

That headunit does not fit without some persuasion. My dash kit also needed to be filed down to accommodate this HU to my dash. I ended up grinding the bottom of the Hu bezel/frame to get the fit I needed. Cheap HU for the features so it was worth it even if grinding a new HU was torture to me.

Follow this post here for really thorough instructions. I did my wiring a little different but this was a useful guide.

I used the same camera as the guy in that post. I started by installing the camera and then working my way towards the HU with wiring. I realized right away that I was not going to have enough wiring from the camera to install this cleanly though the hatch and grommets. (Fishing wires is what almost made me destroy humanity). I used fish tape to route wires through and it was crucial in my install.

Started above my headliner by running 24awg Black and Red from the driver side tail light access to above the headliner. From there the two wires were routed through the grommet in the hatch. Once the wires were in the hatch I continued to route down the drive side of the hatch (pain in the ass as it catches on a lot of stuff in a narrow channel).

Once my power and ground were in place, I began fishing the composite video cable(yellow plug) through the same path. This was super difficult, particular at the grommet. It is doable but take your time and go slow or you will rip the plug end off very easily. Once that cable was in place everything was connected/soldered/taped/zip tied within the hatch.

At this point I have 3 wires routed from my driver side tail light access hatch to my backup camera. I crimped on a very skinny male terminal connector to the power and ground wires (think male weatherpack pin but smaller gauge). At this point you need to identify the power and ground wires in the factory tail connector. Two people makes this easy, and safer, but I did it alone by putting my parking brake on and shifting into reverse so that my reverse light came on. I confirmed these wires by checking them again once I had shifted out of reverse. I slid the crimped on pins into the back(wire side) of the connector and zip tied the lines together. To clarify, the red/black lines are what power the camera. You still need a trigger power wire to signal the HU.

While fishing the video cable I had ripped the plug end off at the tail light side. No big deal as it played into my plans just fine. I soldered on a female plug end to that and added my second video cable. The second cable is necessary to reach the front. I used this video cable with integrated power wire to signal my HU and simplify my indash wiring. I connected my video cables together. Instead of ripping off the plug like a fool, you can simply use a male-female adapter or cable. The video power wire was added to the other red power wire in the tail light connector. When I switch to reverse, my reverse light powers the camera and triggers the HU. After that it was only a matter of routing the video cable from the rear light up the headliner and to the HU. I used a insulated male/female crimp connector to attach it to the Hu harness so that it was easily removed.

Tested everything and closed it all up!

Notes:
Got my fish tape stuck several times and almost had to cut it off at one point

Had to reset the latch mechanism on my cargo hatch. No way to manually close it all the way without the powered assist. Put a dent in the hatch trying to shut it with some force only to realize I'm stupid.

For your HU there are settings to adjust the backup camera (attenuation, image mirroring, etc)

For your HU the backup camera can switch on before it fully boots up

For the Joying HU I used their Toyota Highlander harness which allowed me to retain my Aux port. This can also be accomplished by other means but this was the easiest for me as it was all in one plug and play harness.

 

[heiser]

ah so you DID need additional wire to get from the tail light to the camera. Well shit. I was really hoping I wouldn't have to go through the pain and agony of fishing wires through the grommet and hatch again. I too wanted to destroy everything around me during that process. And all I had was a coat hanger, no fishing tape. Anyways, the 24 gauge wire worked for you ?


And I haven't taken my HU back out again, but do I need wire to get from the HU to the reverse cable in the drivers foot rest ? Or does that wire come included ?

 

[Blu42]

ah so you DID need additional wire to get from the tail light to the camera. Well shit. I was really hoping I wouldn't have to go through the pain and agony of fishing wires through the grommet and hatch again. I too wanted to destroy everything around me during that process. And all I had was a coat hanger, no fishing tape. Anyways, the 24 gauge wire worked for you ?


And I haven't taken my HU back out again, but do I need wire to get from the HU to the reverse cable in the drivers foot rest ? Or does that wire come included ?

Yes the extra wire is needed due to the hatch. The camera wires would be long enough if we didn't have to account for the hatch.

The video cable I linked to has a power line built into the insulation. This allowed me to tap power at the tail light and connect the other end directly to the hu reverse signal line. No need to tap into the kick panel harness and IMO much cleaner install due to that fact that I didnt tap factory wires. The hu will need to come out if you can't reach that wire to make the connection. I believe I left the reverse signal wire in position dangling below the hu and did my crimps by pulling out just the HVAC screen. You may be able to reach up behind and pull it down but it can be a tight fit and you don't want to force any of the wires at this point.

 

[Bluesky 07]

I read lots of posts and tried several spots - spoiler, tailgate, and bumper - with temporary wiring before mounting my camera. Chose under the bumper for the exact reason discussed here - I had no desire to mess with running wires through the tailgate.

Ran the wiring through flexible plastic mill conduit and zip tied it to the trailer wiring. The rubber grommet entering the body is under the driver's side cargo tie-down ring panel near the tailgate. The grommet pulls out easily, so I used an Xacto knife to slice a small slit in the grommet and fed through the conduit. If you keep the opening small enough, it's tight against the conduit but I used some sealer to be on the safe side.

Camera works great in that position too.

 

[heiser]

Yes the extra wire is needed due to the hatch. The camera wires would be long enough if we didn't have to account for the hatch.

The video cable I linked to has a power line built into the insulation. This allowed me to tap power at the tail light and connect the other end directly to the hu reverse signal line. No need to tap into the kick panel harness and IMO much cleaner install due to that fact that I didnt tap factory wires. The hu will need to come out if you can't reach that wire to make the connection. I believe I left the reverse signal wire in position dangling below the hu and did my crimps by pulling out just the HVAC screen. You may be able to reach up behind and pull it down but it can be a tight fit and you don't want to force any of the wires at this point.

That cable you used confuses me a bit. It seems like that would land me in the same situation that I am now. Or at least the pictures make look the trigger wire not look long enough to get from hatch to tail light. My camera female wires are very short (8 in or so ). I may just get wire since I can pick that up today and leave the rest of the stuff in place.

 

[heiser]

I'll post later with a final picture but it's finally fully installed and working. The trick for me was buying more wire. I bought a roll of 20awg wire from Napa.

Tailgate:
I started from the rubber grommet and worked my way "outwards". I cut two long pieces of wire for camera ground and camera power. I taped them to a wire hanger and fed them from the top hatch to the inside hatch on the drivers side. I routed them to the camera wires and connected everything together. I zip tied loose cables to other wire bundles and made sure nothing was loose.

Grommet:
Surprisingly not too bad. I didn't want to puncture the grommet with the hanger so I taped them to a long zip tie and fished the wires through the grommet into the headliner of the interior. Nothing special here.

Tail light :
I again used the trusty coat hanger. I taped the wires to the hanger and fished them down into the drivers tail light. Here I spliced ground into the white w/ black stripe. And spliced power into red w/yellow stripe. (Shown in the above guide link)

Head unit trigger wire:
I routed one wire from the "Back" wire on my head unit, under the steering column, along the lower left driver panel, and behind to the drivers foot rest. I spliced into the red w/ yellow wire. (Shown in the guide link)

And that was it! It's really not a difficult process in theory but damn if all that fishing wire through the rear hatch will keep you very busy.

Notes :
I had a much easier time fishing wire from the top to bottom of the hatch. Trying to go from bottom to top just was not working out.
If you can find fishing tape I'm sure it's much better. I couldn't find any so the coat hanger was the best I had.
Don't try to route wires through the passenger side hatch. It's not worth it.
I mounted my camera inside the license plate cover to help protect from adverse weather and hopefully not have to replace it due to water getting in the lens. However, there's not a lot of room to adjust it so make sure to get the angle you want before putting everything back together.
Set aside enough time to do the project in one sitting. I kept running out of time and had my hatch in pieces for a few days and taking that apart and putting back together is annoying.

 

[Blu42]

That cable you used confuses me a bit. It seems like that would land me in the same situation that I am now. Or at least the pictures make look the trigger wire not look long enough to get from hatch to tail light. My camera female wires are very short (8 in or so ). I may just get wire since I can pick that up today and leave the rest of the stuff in place.

Sounds like you got everything wrapped up. The best part for you is that its over!!

It would definitely depend on where you are connecting the cables together. I had intended to use that cable from the beginning so when I ran everything I had all my connections in the tail light. This meant I could easily tap power.

After cables get fed through its super difficult, as in dont bither trying, to adjust them back and forth. you're pretty much stuck with the position you got.

The reason I used 24 gauge wire was that I had some on hand, wire barn bundles, and it was still larger gauge than the other wiring from the camera. The time it took was unexpected. Two straight days just for a back up camera but like I said tricky. Problems came up that I just didn't anticipate.

 

[MikeyMike]

I'll post later with a final picture but it's finally fully installed and working....

Make sure you roll the tail gate window up and down a few times so nothing is in the way. The first time I rolled the window down (before I buttoned up), the window hit the wire. Good thing I had some slack in the wire.

Glad to hear you got it figured out. Wish I read about this earlier because there is a decent youtube video available:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBzoD97BcHQ&feature=youtu.be

...The time it took was unexpected. Two straight days just for a back up camera but like I said tricky. Problems came up that I just didn't anticipate.

Took me 2 days and about 9 hours combined all together. Had trouble trying to feed the wires through the round grommet (with the license plate lights) for some reason. Then it took me a long time to try to take the driver's side cargo panel off so I gave up on that. Tucked the wires underneath and it worked out great. :shrug:

 

[nick_rabbo]

Does anyone have a picture of the head unit installed? Looks pretty neat.

 

[NinjaOne]

I read lots of posts and tried several spots - spoiler, tailgate, and bumper - with temporary wiring before mounting my camera. Chose under the bumper for the exact reason discussed here - I had no desire to mess with running wires through the tailgate.

Ran the wiring through flexible plastic mill conduit and zip tied it to the trailer wiring. The rubber grommet entering the body is under the driver's side cargo tie-down ring panel near the tailgate. The grommet pulls out easily, so I used an Xacto knife to slice a small slit in the grommet and fed through the conduit. If you keep the opening small enough, it's tight against the conduit but I used some sealer to be on the safe side.

Camera works great in that position too.

Got a picture of where you mounted yours? Still trying to decide where I want mine.

 

[vastano]

I recently bought this android head unit and this backup camera.

I have the head unit installed and running great. I have the camera hooked up, routed, and mounted on the tailgate. The problem is that the camera power wire is not long enough for me to route back to one of the tail lights to use as the reverse trigger. Not only that, but getting wires in and out of the tailgate is a pain in the ass anyway.

I'm assuming the other installs didn't have this problem because they gloss over this part and just say "route to tail light".

Are there any wires that I can splice in the tailgate that I could use instead? I'm assuming it would have to be a constant power instead of a reverse trigger.

I know this thread is 6 months old, but I wanted to give a tip for a trick I use.
Most cameras come with a red wire integrated into the Yellow RCA/video cable. Rather than tapping into the Red/Yellow wire in the drivers panel for the trigger wire, use the wire thats integrated into the video cable.

- On the camera side, connect it to the +12V of the camera wiring.

- Connect the +12V and ground from the camera to the reverse bulb on the taillight.

- Use the red wire integrated in the video cable as your trigger wire.

 

[runnyeggsham]

I know this thread is 6 months old, but I wanted to give a tip for a trick I use.
Most cameras come with a red wire integrated into the Yellow RCA/video cable. Rather than tapping into the Red/Yellow wire in the drivers panel for the trigger wire, use the wire thats integrated into the video cable.

- On the camera side, connect it to the +12V of the camera wiring.

- Connect the +12V and ground from the camera to the reverse bulb on the taillight.

- Use the red wire integrated in the video cable as your trigger wire.

Anyone get this? I am not sure why you would connect the ground to the reverse light wire along with the power wire.

-So on the camera side, he is basically splicing the red wire from the power (red) and ground (black), to the red wire on the yellow RCA cable and connecting it to the reverse light wire (red w/yellow stripe)? In other words, he just spliced the red wires together?

-Where does the red wire on the yellow RCA, splice to on the HU side?

 

[vastano]

Anyone get this? I am not sure why you would connect the ground to the reverse light wire along with the power wire.

-So on the camera side, he is basically splicing the red wire from the power (red) and ground (black), to the red wire on the yellow RCA cable and connecting it to the reverse light wire (red w/yellow stripe)? In other words, he just spliced the red wires together?

-Where does the red wire on the yellow RCA, splice to on the HU side?

Yes, the power for the camera AND the reverse signal that needs to go back to the head unit can be the same wire.

Splice the power for the camera and the red wire from the RCA together, then splice an extension for the power/ground down to the taillight. Tap it into the taillight. Then youll run your RCA + Red wire to the headunit. The red wire will be your reverse signal wire, rather than finding the one in the kick panel.