Reverse Camera Install (E53)

[fenj66]

[quote="james8whippy"]
Hey Guys,

Does anyone know if this relay would be suitable?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/12V-40AMP-4-Pin-Relay-with-Base-4-Terminals-/160869834803?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item257496e033

Thanks!
[/quote]

i should think that will do nicely!

[james8whippy]

Perfect Thanks!

[jaynana]

welcome aboard bullylad

if i'm not too late to the party, i used a camera like this one. fitted in nicely into a round hole. you even get the hole saw. only the plastic trim needs drilling.

the cam works well and allows me to gauge relative to the car as  it shows the bumper slightly along with my  tow hook .

i wouldn't muck around with the number plate light just in case the mot rules become stricter and become an issue... regardless the left and right number plate lights would look out of balance...

re. the relay - i'd fix a relay anyways as that isolates the circuit which is the better thing to do.

tricky part is the amount of panels that have to be taken off and the wiring.. also make sure that you tuck in the wires nicely so that they don't rattle inside the panels later on. i taped all the wires although inside and also tied them along the way.

great mod. send pictures 

oh btw re. scotchlocks: usually great, i've used all over (amp/sub, webo, reverse cam power feed etc..), have had no issues so far. did not use for the reverse cam video feed - the wires were too flimsy for scotchlocks so i didn't want to take a chance and soldered it to avoid any kind of nonsense.. it was easy enough to do as the 2 pins that go into the socked for the  video feed had to be newly sourced as well from bmw. so the soldering could be handled outside the car without breaking my back in there!

[Reusch]

Are these any good 160947392900 on e-bay.

[jaynana]

the benefit of wireless is great if the wired alternative is to  run a wire all the way to the head unit at the front of the car.

with E53s the benefit is less because the video module is in the boot and all you need to wire is into the boot.

therefore i discounted going wireless when i did this mod.

said that, wiring that much itself is the biggest job in this mod, so might be worth it.

one question though - how do you power the camera? in the advert it says:
'3:Connect the built-in license plate light of the camera to where the stock
license plate light was connected to get the power.'

should work if the + of the number plate light is permanently on and its the negative that is switched. i'm not sure.

other potential  issue could be interference..

[Reusch]

I think the wired version then for me.

[bullylad]

Many thanks for the advice Jaynana. I too had narrowed my search down to the same camera as Reusch which is the wireless version of the one you pointed out.

Going to have a think about wireless v wired option. Only problem seems to be getting a day without it raining long enough so I can take the panels off and route the wires?

[Steamyrotter]

And if you are mad (??) then put an extra switched feed in so that you can link to a camera on the back of the caravan / trailer etc...

Must admit a lot easier with an after market setup.

[jaynana]

does the camera go off when the trailer is hooked?

is there any way to prevent that?

i have a (tiny) ERDE 122. never hooked it up after fitting the reverse cam so i don't know.

pretty sure it will be helpful to have the cam working when the trailer is hooked up..

[Steamyrotter]

As its an after market install i ran 2 feeds to teh front so that the reversing cameras can be selected, by a toggle switch, to display on both front monitors

That way i can select which camera i want to see when reversing, or when towing the passenger can keep an eye on the road behind the caravan.

Didn't bother connecting that to the rear screens as why would the back seat passengers want to see what i backed into??!!
:'( >:D

[marlin758]

Back in post 34 Wilkoturbo reports a problem .

I have exactly the same problem in that with the  ignition on and car in reverse the camera works perfectly , start the engine however and the screen alternates between the camera and whatever screen was displaying ( sat nav, phone etc. )  at approx 2 second intervals .

Anyone any ideas ?

[Steamyrotter]

First thing i'd check is the supply to the camera under those circumstances.

Inadvertantly wired mine to the IBUS supply and had some funny responses from that...!!!

[marlin758]

Thanks , it must be something like that .

I have been puzzling it out and think that I may not have actually connected to earth the wiring that goes from pins 30 and 86 on the relay , pin10 on the tv module and the negative to the camera in Sanj's  diagram.

I'm not certain but  think that may be the case.

I have just been out to check but decided it's too cold to start removing the spare wheel etc. and I can't get in the garage for rolls of loft insulation ( don't ask )  :-[

[marlin758]

Yep , that was it ! Put an earth in and working great .

Thanks for a really useful 'How to' Sanj 

[jaynana]

Alternate method of activating the reverse camera based on the PDC rather than on the reverse light

I had previously done the reverse camera mod as per the tread, it all worked fine, except i noticed an occasional flicker on the screen. others have noticed running lines across the screen. This flicker/running lines come up only when the car is started. NOT when the key is in position 2 with the engine off.

some have suspected NTSC/PAL issues. I suspected the BMW bulb check, but eventually found out the reason to be very different.


Reason for the flicker/running lines: when the engine is running the LCM continuously sends a PWM to the lights. Purpose of this is to regulate the light output whilst the input voltage varies with the alternator, other electronics coming on/off etc. the PWM sends the relay mad!

Outcome really depends on the characteristics of the specific relay.. most often its not a problem. in my case i had an occasional flicker on the screen. When i dug up into the boot where the relay is mounted, i realized that the PWM made the relay go 'TRRRRRRRR'.. when the car is started and put into reverse, which is what was causing the flicker.

Solution Implemented:
Switch the auto-activation of the reverse camera from the reverse light to the PDC.

Pros:
- its a clean +12v feed with engine on/off, so no flicker/running lines
- camera can also be manually activated with the PDC button

Cons:
- none really.. other than the screen stays in reverse camera mode until you drive off and the PDC gets switched off automatically

How:
Everything remains as documented in this thread, except, where i had previously tapped onto the reverse light wire, instead, i now tapped onto the PDC 'on' wire, at the PDC Controller.

here's how:

remove the black socket (X300) going into the PDC module, shown below:

Brown/White wire, going into Pin 7 is what i'm after, shown below:


Tap onto this, and power the relay with this.

job done! now I have the reverse camera working off the PDC instead of the reverse light!


Other changes i did:
1. PCB Relay
whilst investigating this, i was also given a caution against using standard automotive relays. this is because they draw a certain amount of power and the LCM transistors proving power to the reverse lights could 'feel the pain'.

so i bought this sort of PCB relay, mounted it on a PCB and put it in a box, as below:


the PCB relay has about 300ohms of resistance compared to the 40ohms i measured in my outgoing standard automotive relay. this would put minimal additional load on the PDC controller.

2. manual override/activation switch
i used to have a real problem when i hooked up my ERDE 122 trailer to the car because the trailer wasn't  visible from the side mirrors or the rear view mirror! worse - if the reverse camera is linked to the reverse lights it gets deactivated when a trailer is hooked up.

figured a manual activation/override on the reverse cam would be ideal! i ran a wire from the relay's output (which connects with pin 17 in the video module) to a switch on the dash, fitted as below:


hidden in the ashtray when closed (plus already had a hole there as i had my aux audio input port there.. which i got rid of..)