A Note About Back Up Camera Installation

Brutus63

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My back up works fine without the step down. If I understood the various schematics people have posted, the back up camera changes the view type depending on the voltage. I got 12v going to mine and it gives me the fish eye view. I had the same question you did @Brutus63 when I was doing my install because my harness said "install 6v stepdown" or something on it and was confused. Been running nearly 2 years on it and runs fine. Oneday if I upgrade my HU I'll try making a 3-position switch with the various voltages to see if I can get the 3 views again from the back up camera.

Wht do you mean you are on your 4th headunit? They keep ding on you?
Crutchfield thought it was in the wiring and they kept sending out new ones. Wish I had kept the last one the sent (upgraded model) and did the straight wiring like you mentioned.
Really miss the car play for sure.
Did you get all the steering wheel buttons to correctly work?
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Shinjari

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Crutchfield thought it was in the wiring and they kept sending out new ones. Wish I had kept the last one the sent (upgraded model) and did the straight wiring like you mentioned.
Really miss the car play for sure.
Did you get all the steering wheel buttons to correctly work?
I got volume up/down, source, track fwd/back to work. Pretty sure the phone buttons work as well but they seem backwards to me from OEM. I had to manually program the buttons so maybe I just messed that up. Maybe when I upgrade to a HU that has android auto/apple car play I'll try and get the 3 camera views to work and to remap the buttons.
 

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hey man, how does the relay work? was it a reliable power source? i have my camera intermittently going to the home screen and in the reverse feed on my aftermarket camera. I feel like the relay would solve the problem but im wondering if its a good permanent solution.
 

garrywadams

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Greetings all, new user picking up some of these old camera posts. Anyone in this thread ever get the voltage on the camera figured out? I've got a '17 Civic LX and just bought a Kenwood HU and the Axxess harness through Crutchfield to hook it all up. The Crutchfield pre-wired the harness, including the 6v stepdown. I've got a 7808 coming and I'm thinking if the 6v is wrong I can swap it out for the 7808 so the voltage coming to the camera is right. Any success stories here that can confirm one way or the other?

Also, if anyone has managed to get the 3 camera views working, I'd love to hear how you did it.

Thanks!
 

garrywadams

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Well, my HU is installed. I started with the 6v stepdown supplied by Crutchfield. My camera comes on when I put the car in reverse, but it kicks off after about 5 seconds and flips back and forth between the main screen and the camera screen.
Crutchfield is sending out a replacement kit to see if that fixes the problem.
I picked up a pack of 7808 and will try swapping the 6v stepdown for the 7808. If it's no better, I'll wait for the replacement kit from Crutchfield.
 


bikejog

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Well, my HU is installed. I started with the 6v stepdown supplied by Crutchfield. My camera comes on when I put the car in reverse, but it kicks off after about 5 seconds and flips back and forth between the main screen and the camera screen.
Crutchfield is sending out a replacement kit to see if that fixes the problem.
I picked up a pack of 7808 and will try swapping the 6v stepdown for the 7808. If it's no better, I'll wait for the replacement kit from Crutchfield.
How's the rear camera activated? Does it come on automatically when you shift to R? Or do you have to press a button on the HU?

I don't see how the wrong voltage could cause the display to flip between main screen and the camera. I mean if the camera voltage is incorrect, then you'd just see black screen, no? By "main screen", you do mean the HU home screen? Not the "main camera" view?
 

garrywadams

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How's the rear camera activated? Does it come on automatically when you shift to R? Or do you have to press a button on the HU?

I don't see how the wrong voltage could cause the display to flip between main screen and the camera. I mean if the camera voltage is incorrect, then you'd just see black screen, no? By "main screen", you do mean the HU home screen? Not the "main camera" view?
The main Screen of my HU.
When I shift into reverse the HU brings up the camera view. However after a couple of seconds the camera disappears and goes back to the main HU home screen. I have noticed that this doesn't happen if my AC is off. I'm thinking that the 12 volt from the backup lights is too variable for my HU. Rather than getting a consistent 12 volts if the voltage dips below say 10 or 11 v the HU turns off the camera and goes back to the main screen. I'm going to open it up this weekend and verify.
 

garrywadams

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Ok, quick update.
I pulled the Head Unit and checked the voltage coming from the reverse light into the HU. When the car is put in reverse, this should be sending a constant 12v power. Based on the fact that the camera kicks on and off, I was expecting to see a variable voltage coming from this reverse light signal. However, it wasn't quite what I expected. It will give 12v and then drop to 0v after a few seconds, and go right back to 12v again. Since this 12v signal is what tells the HU that the car is in reverse and triggers it to turn on the camera view, the result is that when the the reverse light power drops to 0v, the HU thinks the car has been taken out of reverse and the camera screen goes off. It's only off for about a second, though, and kicks right back on.

I think I've found a solution, though. I'm picking up a "delay-off" relay that I can wire in to continue providing power for several seconds after the reverse lights are off. This fixes a couple of concerns for me. First and foremost, it gets rid of the pesky problem of the camera flickering off and on. The second side-benefit is that I can set the camera to remain on for a short period of time after taking the car out of reverse. In my other vehicle, I use this to make sure my tail end is well inside the garage before closing the door. I put the car in reverse, which kicks on the camera, then put it back in Drive and watch the camera while I adjust my position. With the delay-off relay in place, I can set it to keep the camera on for a period of time (2 seconds to 3 minutes) after moving from R to D. 5-10 seconds should be about right.

Here's a link to the relay I'm referring to:
https://www.qualitymobilevideo.com/bu509td.html

With a little additional testing, I confirmed that the camera flicker only happens when the A/C is running. I'm wondering if there's something pulling too much current causing the drop to 0v. Either way, the delay-off should fix it since it's pulling its power from the constant 12v and only using the reverse lights as a trigger for the relay.

I'll post back with success or failure once the relay shows up and I can test it out.
 
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bikejog

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That's weird. Are you taking the signal from the backup light as showed below? If so, it's connected to the battery thru a bunch of relays. So does your backup light also drops from time to time? The fact that it drops to 0V from time to time could mean that some of the relays are loose or about to be toasted or a loose connection in C24, 25, C4, G3 could also cause that. I would try find those relays and move them around and see if that helps. I would start with the under hood relay since it's probably most affected by engine vibrations.

Unless that's how the back up light is suppose to work. But drops to 0V for 1 second?

EDIT: Do you have LED backup lights installed?

EDIT2: There's no relay for the backup light in under hood. Just a fuse. But could be your transmission R switch, C24 for the hatch. yours might be different. It should measure constant 12V when not in reverse and 0V when in R.

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garrywadams

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The measurement I took yesterday was from the 12v reverse signal on the Axxess NAV harness that came with my HU purchase from Crutchfield. It is entirely possible that the 12v from the BU lights into the NAV is supplying a steady 12v and the drop is coming from the NAV, not the car. In fact, reading some of the reviews on the NAV harness, that's sounding more and more likely.

Besides the HU, Everything else in the car is completely stock. I haven't changed lights or anything else. I was just looking to get wireless Android Auto and keep as many of the factory features (camera, etc.) as possible.
 


bikejog

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garrywadams

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This one? https://www.crutchfield.com/S-FojClwi1ctx/p_1201731NAV/Axxess-XSVI-1731-NAV.html

One review says it might stay off for minutes so the delay relay might not help. Did they supply a schematic of the harness? You mentioned a 6V. Where's this 6V came from? And which pin is BU taken from?
That's the one. Crutchfield privies a wiring guide after purchase, but it just shows you which wires on the harness to connect to the harness that comes with the HU. It doesn't show the car-side of where each goes after it leaves the Axxess harness.

In my experience, the camera only stays off for a second or two at a time. It tends to click on and off, but it doesn't stay off for long. I've never seen it stay off for more than a couple of seconds.

The harness comes with a 12v to 6v stepdown (the little device with blue and black wires in the picture). It gets tied in to the purple/green on the harness which is where the 12v reverse signal is sent to the HU. The stepdown is spliced in to the reverse 12v signal. When the 12v reverse signal is engaged, the stepdown takes that power and steps it down to 6v, which goes to power the camera.

This thread here looks like someone else has used an alternate harness in place of the Axxess Nav with better results:
https://www.civicx.com/forum/threads/flickering-backup-camera-with-aftermarket-radio.39282/

Depending on how well the delay relay works, I may return the Axxess Nav for that.
 

garrywadams

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Well, the time delay relay has been in for about a week and it's working great. It wasn't difficult to put inline with the setup that was already in place. I ran the reverse signal into the relay trigger and pulled the 12v from the main accessory 12v line in the stereo harness. I essentially put the time delay relay in between the reverse 12v signal and anything that is looking for that signal (reverse camera 6v stepdown and reverse signal input on the HU). It's working just as intended.

Now if I could figure out how to toggle between camera views, that would be amazing.
 

bikejog

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Now if I could figure out how to toggle between camera views, that would be amazing.
Here's an idea. With two of the below circuit, you can get two sources of 0/6V output. So just route those to the BIT0 and BIT1 Signal using a multi-position mechanical switch or what not. You could also do this with an Arduino Every (the Every is the only Arduino that I know of that can safely power from 12V) and connect two port pins (configured as simulated open drain) to each of the 6V tab and control with one (or three) toggle switch connected to the Every. Each toggle will cycle between one of the three views. To get 6V output, configure the port as input. To get 0V, set the port output to 0V and configure it as output.

If you have a 5V output available, then you could use a cheaper STM32 Blue Pill board that has true open drain output.

Use a lower resistor value if you don't get 1/2 of the battery voltage out of the circuit.

EDIT: This circuit will not work with an Arduino because its ports are rated at 5V max. Connecting 6V to its ports would blow the microcontroller.

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bikejog

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Now if I could figure out how to toggle between camera views, that would be amazing.
Actually the one idea before this post doesn't work since 6V applied to an Arduino port would blow the micrcontroller.

Here's one that will work. BIT0 and BIT1 are the connections to CAMERA BIT0 and BIT1 signals. S1 and S2 are voltage controlled switches but you could replace them with mechanical toggle switches. When the switch is closed, the output will be 0V. When switch is open, the output will be 5-8V (1/2 of the car's battery voltage). Obviously, you could use voltage controlled switches for S1 and S2 and control it with a momentary switch connected to an Arduino Every. When the Arduino sense the momentary switch is pressed, it changes the state of S1 and S2 cycling between the three views.

EDIT: BIT0/BIT1 is pulled up by the camera so don't connect R1 thru R4 (remove them from the circuit) and it will work. See Post #34 in this thread.

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