Wiring aftermarket reverse camera to switch

I've been waiting a long time to receive my cheap eBay camera from China, and it arrived today. My plan is to have the camera show on-screen by either shifting into reverse, or by punching a button in the cabin.

 

I have essentially three devices involved:

• camera
  
• switch
  
• display

...as well as associated power supplies (reverse light power, switched ignition power)

 

Here is the switch diagram:

 

http://i.imgur.com/zaggj.jpg

 

The switch has a red LED that I want to be ON when my camera is ON. To accomplish this, I'll connect the switch as follows:

• C1 to +
  
• C1 to camera power on
  
• C1 to display (to turn display on when camera on)
  
• NC1 to reverse lights on
  
• NO1 to +12V switched (from display)
  
• - to vehicle GND
  

 

Here's a photo of my camera:

 

http://i.imgur.com/DyeuFl.jpg

 

I'm going to need to pull two wires from the trunk lid into the cabin - one for "reverse lights on" (power to NC-side of switch) and one returning power from the switch to the camera. Hopefully, I'll get this done over the weekend. This is the only thing that's been holding me up from hooking up an amp & sub as well.

sounds good... if you take pics you could make an appreciated write-up.

Question for you, where does that mount at? Cause I thought all the ones on ebay were for the outbacks as they have a different plate bulb cover then the sedans do.

Question for you, where does that mount at? Cause I thought all the ones on ebay were for the outbacks as they have a different plate bulb cover then the sedans do.

I had every intention of including the product links, and then... I didn't.

 

Here they are:

 

Camera

Button

 

The camera replaces one of the license plate lights. It's supposed to pop right in. I won't know if it does until I get home & fool with it.

I had a busy weekend--I installed the reverse camera, moved my GPS antenna, removed the HK subwoofer and wired up an amp & sub. Easily the most challenging parts of this project were 1) pulling the power wire for the amp through the driver-side firewall, and 2) removing rear seats. I removed the rear seats as I was following the directions in this thread, but it should be made known (as it's not obvious in the first post of that thread) that it is not necessary to remove the rear seat backs to remove the rear deck! Remove the seating area, fold the seat backs down, then remove bolsters & move on to the rear deck.

 

Anyway, here are some photos of my process. I compared the size of the camera to the size of the license plate light; not even close:

 

http://i.imgur.com/MlNkxl.jpg

 

So I decided to the remove the camera piece & install that separately. I picked a spot on the trim panel that had access above it. This spot to the left of the license plate lights is the only area that has access through the metal of the trunk (you can see my fingers poking through:

 

http://i.imgur.com/i1Bh4l.jpg

 

Before going ahead, I wanted to make sure the camera worked. I moved into the cabin & powered it up with the cigarette lighter lead, put 12V on the Pioneer camera lead, and plugged in the camera; worked just fine:

 

http://i.imgur.com/PYbDwl.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/v1xwbl.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/j9YHRl.jpg

 

I went ahead & drilled a hole for the leads, and used silicone adhesive on the camera:

 

http://i.imgur.com/up5HLl.jpg

 

Next I pulled two wires from the trunk to the console. At this time, I also pulled one RCA for the camera video, and 2 RCA's with a remote lead for my amp. Also shown is a hole for the camera button:

 

http://i.imgur.com/6Y5ril.jpg

I don't have a ton of time to post, so I'm rushing this a bit. I removed the rear seats & rear deck, and because I've never seen a photo of the factory sub, I thought I'd share some:

 

http://i.imgur.com/7Vy6Wl.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/0cuipl.jpg

 

I removed this, along with the center seat belt (top, and both bottom receivers).

 

Next, I pulled my power wire for the amp. I used a 4-ga cable. I went up the driver-side of the car, since all of my signals (and the factory amp) are on the passenger side. I picked a spot in the driver-side footwell to pass through the firewall where the hood latch goes through into the engine compartment. Let me tell you... I spent several hours just trying to figure out how to get that wire the few feet from inside the cabin to the area of the battery. I was during this time that I beat my hands nearly to a pulp with reaching, tugging, feeding, and scraping my knuckles on every burr in the front left quarter of the car. Ultimately, I decided the best way to go was to remove the front wheel and well liner, and then feed the cable through the rubber grommet and up under the hood. Once I had the liner removed, the rest was easy.

 

Wheel well rear liner pulled off:

 

http://i.imgur.com/PcDOsl.jpg

 

Photo of the penetration from the outside (between the liner & the fender); you can just see the red of my power cable peeking through from the other side:

 

http://i.imgur.com/GFa3Vl.jpg

 

After pulling the cable through to the battery area:

 

http://i.imgur.com/im8YUl.jpg

 

Now that I've finished, I realize that I didn't take "completed" photos. The rearview camera works whether in reverse OR when the pushbutton switch is engaged. The sub works great, and is much louder than I need it to be. I'm not necessarily happy with the road noise I get through the new hole in the rear deck where the factory sub was, so I may seal that up. I'll come back to comment later, but I have a lot going on this week with work.

You have any other photos of how you mounted your camera?

No, not at the moment (but you can just picture it without the blue tape). After I get a wash, I'll take some finished photos--I neglected to do that because it took me a while to actually get the whole project "finished". I cross-threaded the bolt holes for the rear seat & had to re-tap them. I just did that a few days ago.