How much did the camera set you back?

 

They are fairly cheap at about $50 from ebay. They have smaller ones too.

 

Are they just standard RCA out with a power and ground?

 

Yeah, one RCA with a power plug that you can either cut off and wire up or if you happen to have a plug to fit it, just wire that up and plug it in. I had a power plug w/ pigtail in my box of electical stuff off of something that fit perfectly, so I can remove my plate and unplug it quickly if needed.

EDIT: Here is my e-bay auction if anyone is interested. They have lots of other types with different sizes, viewing angles, and without night vision.

 

Great setup man, I like it. NC in the House!
Go Canes!!!

 

How do you like the night vision part? Does it work very well? I wasn't impressed with the night vision on mine.

 

Thats the same camera I have. Mines right at a year old with no problems. I did find that the tag lights would "blind" it though...so I mounted mine under the bumper:

 

It worked great when I tested it in my room with my VCR, like a very nice green lit screen where it was dark, but on the truck it doesn't seem to work all that great. I can turn off my lights so the taglight doesn't mess up the light sensor and it seems like it still doesn't work that well, but if I tap my brakes, the light from my brakes alone lights it up VERY well and it is easy to see.

 

Not trying to steal your thunder at all but I have some pics...this is with the camera mounted as shown above with the backup and running lights on.



This is the same picture taken through the back window.



IMO it works great with just a little light source.

 

Thats the way mine does.

 

That's pretty impressive there Ram... Which camera is that? Also, does that auto-activate when you put it in R??

I've looked at the Eclipse camera that is available for the AVN unit that I have but, I'm a little reluctant to go that route because of the size of it. I just think I'd struggle to 'conceal' it.

I'd love to have one back there but, I'm still struggling on where to put it.

 

Its the same "Ebay" camera mentioned above. It does come on and off when you put it in R....its triggered by a hot wire ran from the back-up lights. Infact that wire powers my camera and turns the HU display on. It was a lot cleaner install that way, BUT at the same time I don't have the capability to turn mine off and on with a switch. I figured I would never do that anyway because the camera is so low (and close to the trailer) you cant really check on something your towing with it anyway. I made my "housing" out of an electrical box from Lowes. I cut the right size hole in, painted it black and mounted it to the reciever hitch.

 

countyboy04, RamSS/T, Tuff4rd, all have the same camera I believe, Tuff4rd's is chrome though. It's the Ebay one that is in that link. It has a small light sensor that detects when to turn on the night vision and how much to turn it on, it is linear dependent on light conditions. The way they are wired for "auto-on" is just wire the power to the camera to the black/pink reverse wire that can be found in the passenger area wiring harness, or back at the taillight. With most head units, when the camera powers on, it automatically switches to that input because it sees the input once powered up. Works a lot like a VCR's aux inputs, it switches to that when it sees an input. Mine has a setting that you can title the AUX input to "R-CAM" and have it on 'auto' or 'normal' so it will auto switch or not auto switch when in reverse. It also has an option to reverse the camera input if the camera you are using is not already reversed (these are). Hope this helps!

 

All that is true except the way my HU turns onto camera mode. My Pioneer doesnt turn on when signal is present like described, you have to hook up a trigger wire to it. In other words when the wire is triggered (turned on..or hot) the camera screen comes on. I used the power wire for the camera (thats ran from the back up lights) as my trigger wire. I am not sure if other units are wired up this way or not, but I know Pioneers are.

 

Thanks you two... I appreciate it.

I guess I need to start looking into where I could mount it... I'd like to tie it into my Eclipse unit but, I need to do some reseach first...

So, rough and dirty, wiring would be as follows:

RCA plug to the Eclipse (that's a long RCA cable!). Power wire to reverse light in tail light assembly (this way the camera kicks on when the reverse lights are illuminated). Not sure if my HU will auto-switch to that source... I guess I need to do some reading.

THANKS AGAIN!

RP