merlin9178

Hello, I've been searching now for a long time, and keep getting mixed answers, so I'm hoping that someone can help. Ive got a pioneer 7000nex, with the idatalink maestro, off the maestro there is a purple wire with a white stripe, off the HU there is the same color wire, these two wires go together. Ive read that some people tap the camera red wire into this, while others say do not , go to the accessory red. The purple with white is the trigger wire, does this mean that i don't have to tap into my reverse light at the tail light? any help will be appreciated.

Weatherman71

i always tap into the reverse light itself and the wiring upfront to the headunit.

merlin9178

So hot and ground at taillight, then into the purple with white stripe at HU, which would be the trigger wires to HU?

Weatherman71

hook the wires up at the headunit like u said.. i prefer to power the camera from the taillight .

merlin9178

Just an update, after countless hours I've figured it out, if you own an F-150, and want to keep the steering wheel controls you'll need the datalink maestro, the maestro has a reverse wire that is purple with a white stripe, the HU has a reverse wire that is purple with white stripe, this wire will have to be tapped into, the other end of that wire will go to the reverse light positive side, grounds go to grounds.

Wyo11Scab

iTrader: (1)

Depends on what year of F150. Older models are not compatible with Maestro

merlin9178

True, but I'm sure when you go to the I datalink website, and you put down your truck model and year, it will tell you wether it's compatible or not, mine is a 2014, and works great

12V Guy

Hi merlin9178,


The purple/white wire is a wire from the Maestro that goes to 12V whenever the truck is placed into reverse. We read the data from the truck and create this output so that running wires all over the truck is not necessary. However, this output is low current and only designed to trigger the reverse light input trigger on a head unit. As you pointed out, the wire on most radios is also violet/white.


You should NEVER connect your camera power wire to this connection. Only connect the two violet/white wires together. As for camera power, you are better connecting it to the red accessory output of the Maestro RR and connecting black to ground. Almost all aftermarket radios will let you switch to camera view anytime you want so you need the camera to be powered when the radio is powered (off the red accessory wire).


this is useful for watching a load in a trailer for example.


Hope this is helpful. While connecting the camera power lead to the Maestro violet/white wire may seem to wok at first, it will likely damage the circuit in the MRR and it will have to be replaced to fix it.

merlin9178

Thank you 12v guy, the only problem was, when I put the truck in reverse with your method, it wasn't working, only until I hooked that violet white wire to reverse light did it work, after trying many different ways, that was the only way that worked.