And yes the brown and brown-yellow wires are the real video cable from the backup cam to the mirror. They are normally twisted together and surrounded by a shield wire but at the connector the three are split so they can go through the connector. They quickly recombine back into a video cable. The twisted pair and shield config reduces noise.

 

Alright, I almost have it all done. I used kenwood 6990hd with the maestro rr, maestro datalink wiring, and the last cable was an all01 cable. Crutchfield failed to put that as a required piece. I wires on my 2010 lariat for the backup camera were in the exact location as described earlier in the posts. I will have a completed video I. A few days if anyone wants it. Thanks for all the help. This forum has some pretty good contributions.

 

Oh where did you end up putting your gps antenna?

 

I stuck mine on the top of the dash between the tray and windshield, running the cable near the vent. See picture.

 

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Does anyone know which wire is for the Backup Camera on a 2014 XLT with 4.2" screen (as in, the backup camera plays through the 4.2" screen and not the rearview mirror)?

Thanks

 

Bump

 

Sorry for resurrecting an old thread for my first post, but I need a little help with this.

I cut the plug off the end of a video cable and there is one wire going to the plug and then just a bare wire wrapped around it. Am I using the right cable?

 

Yes this is called a coaxial cable (like for your cable tv) and it reduces interference. Simply twist the bare wire into a tight twist. If you are using my instructions from post #6 the middle wire of your video cable splices into the F150 brown wire and the bare wire splices into the F150 brown/yellow.

 

Ok, thanks, that's how I connected it. I'll have to double check the connection because I'm getting no video thru the head unit and I followed your instructions exactly.

 

I hate to ask the obvious but are you sure you have the reverse wire hooked up from your unit to somewhere in your truck? The unit is actually looking for a 12-volt input on that wire so you could also test by connecting the reverse wire from the head unit to 12V. Or my Kenwood has a button that turns on the rear cam input, you may have a similar button.

Otherwise you should make sure you have the right two wires at the connector near the e-brake. The video cable in the truck is a shielded cable - it has three wires that travel together in the same taped bundled. At the connector, if you peel back enough covering you can see the three wires emerge from their bundle, go through the connector and then recombine in a taped bundle. You only need two of the three wires: video+, video-. The third wire is a shield wire which wraps around the other two which the head unit does not need. Knowing this you should be able spot the two wires you need.

Also check your splices. If you used wiretaps, they may not have cut through to the cable. It may be your video cable wires are two small. I think I crimped spliced the video cable leads into 6 inch 18 gauge wires and then used the 18 gauge for the wire tap splice.

 

I am almost positive I connected the reverse wire. I have a Kenwood also and get no signal when I hit the camera button. If the camera is wired correctly, I should be able to view it without being in reverse, so I am thinking it is the connection I made to the video wires. The bare wire might not have a good connection.

I'll pull it apart again tomorrow and check it out.

 

Ok, I just checked and I did take the video cable wires and first splice into larger gauge wire. Here is a pic (sorry it is rotated):



In the middle you see a long piece of yellow heat shrink. Coming in from the right (top if rotated) and zip-tied is the video cable from the stereo. Within the heatshrink, I soldered a red wire to center video and a black wire to the bare video wire. I covered each with electrical tape then heat shrinked. Coming out the left of the heat shrink (bottom) I used wire-taps to tap the red wire to the brown wire and the black wire to the brown/yellow.

 

Splicing a larger wire first is a good idea. If the weather cooperates I should be able to get to it tonight.

On a different subject, but somewhat related, any idea if there is a way to get the climate controls available on the hu?

I have a 2011 Lariat, non-nav with the dual climate control. I'm using the maestro module with the Kenwood, but the option is grayed out. I'm guessing I would need to tap into some of the wiring going into the current controls, but not sure where to start. I've read thru some of the non-nav to stock nav conversion threads but couldn't find anything specifically referencing the climate controls.

 

No I haven't looked at the climate controls. My stereo doesn't support that. Not familiar with maestro, I used PAC.
On the video if you still have access to the back you can unplug the phono connector from the stereo and plug into a portable monitor to check your connection and cable pair. I have an old 9" TFT screen I use. Some portable car DVDs players have video in as well. But I agree if you have the button on your stereo that should work. On my unit I have to press and hold the button for 2 seconds to switch video modes.

I also used straight pins and alligator clips to test the wires before I wire tapped. Push the pins into the truck wires and connect to the video cable using alligator clips.