McCabe

Hello--

I'm a noob when it comes to car repairs (I did a few repairs, replacements, maintenance on my old Civic) etc. and I don't know much about wiring. I recently purchased a Boss BV9386NV head unit for my truck to replace the factory unit. Today, I successfully installed the new head unit, as well as a backup camera, which is wired to the HU.

Currently, the camera is set up to turn on when I shift to reverse, but I have to manually tell my head unit to goto the camera view, which works perfectly. However, when I first installed the camera, it would activate on the monitor immediately upon shifting to reverse. After doing a couple disconnects/reconnects so I could tweak the setup, it will no longer come on automatically and override the BOSS operating system on the monitor. What did I do to change that? ADDITIONALLY -- How do I get it to stay on, at all times, even if not in reverse, so I can bring it up on my monitor any time I want?

Again, I'm new at this stuff but after a lot of research on the internet, including reading lots of informative posts here, I've managed to get this thing mostly set up. Just trying to get the camera right. What am I doing wrong here? Any suggestions? Any help at all is appreciated.

• I bought the standard wiring harness adapter, but I taped off the three steering-wheel control wires, as well as the amp turn-on wire.
• I have the red wire running from the HU-end of the RCA-video cable connected to the reverse wire on the radio wiring harness.
• I have the RCA video cable running from the HU, across/through the dash, down to and through the kick panel, along to that rubber grommet on the floor, to the left of the driver's seat. From there, I just have it strategically twist-tied underneath, where it then reaches to the rear bumper and connects to the camera. The red wire connected at the camera-end of the RCA cable is not connected to anything and taped off.
• Running from the rear license-plate camera, I have my ground and hot wires running to the driver-side tail-light reverse -/+ wires.

EDIT: After doing some more reading, it seems I'm supposed to connect that red wire at the HU end of the RCA cable to a reverse wire on the truck? Why do I need to do that if it the other end of the RCA cable is wired to the reverse tail-light? If I connect that red wire to a reverse wire in the truck, which I will need some guidance with, is that wire now telling the head unit that the vehicle is in reverse? Is that why It doesn't come on automatically and I have to manually tell it to go to camera view, because the HU is not getting that power signal from the camera, just the video signal?

Also, still trying to figure out how to wire it so that the camera is constantly on, allowing me to switch to it whenever I want, while still retaining the ability for the monitor to display camera automatically after shifting to reverse.

EDIT 2: So it appears that's exactly what I need to do; connect the "reverse" wire on the HU wiring harness to a reverse wire from the truck - which is what I need help with. I've read that for F-150's slightly older than mine, the reverse power wire is the black/pink wire, which can be accessed at the driver's side kick-panel? Is this the case? Tomorrow, I will use a tester to find that wire and do it. Thanks for reading all of my nonsense rambling, and thanks again in advance for any help you can provide.

Wyo11Scab

iTrader: (1)

You can also connect it to the same wire you have hooked to the backup lights in your taillight
"The red wire connected at the camera-end of the RCA cable is not connected to anything and taped off"
Connect this red wire to the same one going to your backup light

McCabe

Gotcha, I will do that. Thanks for the response.

McCabe

Everything is working nicely now; my HU switches to camera-view when I shift to reverse.

Now, I need to tackle the question of how to keep the camera permanently on so I can switch it to whenever I want, not just in reverse.

Can I run the HU trigger wire straight to the reverse tail-light (or if I can find the reverse wire in the kick panel) and then run a lead from the camera to the tail light, and then another lead running to the HU reverse trigger and constant (or should I use the yellow, switched wire?) I guess I'd be undoing my current setup but it sounds like thats the easiest way to do it. I fiddled around with that idea the other day with a friend and in our attempt, we would power on and the HU would immediately go to blue screen and freeze there. So we undid that setup and went back to how it is now. So my question is were we doing something wrong or is it possible this HU is not configured or designed to receive the constantly-powered video override nsignal, and therefore couldn't boot it's firmware? There are no camera settings in the HU.

Wyo11Scab

iTrader: (1)

I think you need a relay of some sort. I know it has been done before. Use the search function