Anytimebackupcamera.com Install- Front and Rear Cameras

This is from ABC's product page for the 2020. The view looking at the harnesses, not the head unit.

 

Okay, so if I'm looking at this diagram and then looking at the conectors on my head unit, the rear over-ride harness (abc-28) would get connected to the black connector on the far left, and then the video harness (ABC-VID) would get connected to the white one in the middle, and the grey connector on the far right gets left alone?

 

If you are looking at the FRONT of the head unit, you are correct. The right connector is not used.

also, I swapped them up accidentally and my head unit didn't turn on. But it didn't fry.

 

Thanks man! Working on the rest of the install now. Appreciate your help a lot . Really good to know that putting power to through the wrong connector won't fry what I assume is an extremely expensive part of the truck. Sorry you had to test that out on your own vehicle but at least now we know.

 

It was definitely terrifying for a moment.

I had assumed they were different because that's what every head unit I've seen is...nope. The center one is slightly different but somebody could probably Hulk one in and bend some pins. Hope you get it working!

 

Mine did that too. Try as I might, I couldn't get it to work with what was supplied. I added another relay to control the head unit trigger. Probably redundant somehow. I'm pretty good with wiring and schematics, but this one was stumping me on how to get it to work with what was supplied, and trying to power the front cam up only when activated via switchpro. So I added another relay (used normally open contacts for the head unit trigger). Works fine now, but still unsure of where I was going wrong. And got tired of screwing with it when a $8 relay I had in a parts box solved the issue.

I did not go anytime backup cam route though, just adding anytime front cam. And powering camera and relay via switchpros. So not applicable to those using the DPDT switch.

Worth the hassle and headscratching though. This front camera rocks. No more driving blind in breakover situations, and no more "inching up" to a car or obstacle in front only to find out you're still 3 feet away.

 

yeah when you said that the head unit didn't power on I was imagining how I would feel if that was me.

So I have this whole thing figured out, except this one snag. Looking at the diagram that someone posted with the lady pointing with the arrow, the two RCA cables in the engine compartment each have a pigtail that gets connected together. Well that seems really simple. Except on my kit, there is only one red pigtail on one e side. Does that get connected to the red wire and then straight to the battery?

This is the only part that I find confusing.

 

@NEIPA27 This might be a better video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTH6w7pColg

On your picture, you're going to connect those two red wires together and ground the black one somewhere (I did it by the battery). The other end of the red wire off the video cable, which is behind your head unit, will be connected to the GREEN wires. That is what powers the front camera when you push the switch to Front.

 

Ok, got it. For some reason, I was thinking that long red wire had to go to either the battery or the fusebox for power, but apparently they don't. I think I got that from some other video on Youtube where someone was connecting it to the EFI fuse, and not using the red pigtail at all. Back to work!

 

I didn't use the red wire from the RCA plug on my camera either.

 

Well I just tried it both ways, and no luck; using the red pigtail, and not using it. If I use it, I get nothing at all, no switch illumination either. If I don't use it, and hook the red camera wire up to the battery, the ring LED lights around the camera come on, but that is it. If I connect the red pigtail to the red wire AND the battery, I can hear the relay clicking, and the two amber lights on the switch both activate, but still no blue back illumination from the switch, and no camera functionality. The backup camera still works if I shift into reverse though. I've triple checked every single wire, and tested all the grounds with a multimeter. Wondering if I got a bad harness kit at this point.

 

Yep. Pretty sure this wiring harness is shit. The supposed 12-volt supply which is the red wire out of the ABC 28 is showing next to no voltage at all. Why do I feel like getting my money back from this company is going to be a lost cause?

 

Email Brian the owner and he’ll straighten it out for you, it will work

 

You're not alone. I too have the same problem and it is frustrating because I connected every single wire correctly per multiple video instructions. I spliced and crimped so many times using 2 different kits, 2 cameras, and same problem exists. I see no front camera after pressing forward on the switch and switching to rear does not even show the rear camera. The rear camera still works when shifting into reverse with amber light lit up on the switch. My switch's blue light does illuminate when turning on low beam BUT the two amber lights apparently does NOT light up either pressing forward or rear on the switch. If anyone knows what's wrong, please help!

DeusExMachina, can you do a tutorial with some pics/a short video of how you wired yours? That may definitely help some of us.

 

I can't get mine too work either, have reached out two times to them for help with no response.... Very frustrating .... Shout out to Deusexmachina for all the help though!

 

I'll post what I did again, I don't really want to remove my head unit and stuff, I think what I'm saying is pretty clear.

I mostly used the video for reference. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTH6w7pColg

This is for installation of the switch in a 2020 Tacoma in the center switch panel.

1) Between the two radio harnesses and the switch harness, connect ALL the same colors together with two exceptions:
1a) Connect the two greens with the red pigtail that comes off the long component video that you run from the engine bay to behind the radio. I used a male/female bullet connector, combined the two greens and crimped to a female bullet. Then put the male bullet on the red wire off the video cable.
1b) Crimp the two black wires into a ring terminal to use for ground.
I highly recommend soldering, but butt connectors will be fine. Give both ends a tug before assuming they're secure. Wrap all connections in electrical tape or heat shrink tubing.
1c) Wrap the whole harness in electrical tape or automotive wire wrap. It will be easier to deal with.
1d) Check all pins are secure in your ABC harnesses. Gently tug on each wire. If they move, push the pin back in with a small screwdriver from the back until they click.

2) Run the yellow video cable from the engine bay and through the firewall. Give enough slack to reach behind the head unit.
3) Remove the vent assembly around the head unit.
4) Remove the head unit mounting bolts, 4x 10mm.
5) Slide the head unit forward, resting it on the shifter if necessary. Disconnect all harnesses from the back of the head unit, do not tug on the wires. Set the head unit aside.
6) Reach through the hole behind the dash and pop out a lower switch blank. If you cannot get your hand in, you may need to pop out the heated seat/HVAC controls panel. You must partially remove the kick panel under the steering wheel to free this panel.
7) Run your switch connector through this open switch hole and connect to the switch. You may lock the switch into place.
8) Run the yellow video cable behind the head unit, you should be able to see behind the lower steering wheel panel and easily feed the cable to the space behind the head unit. Connect to the video ABC harness. Connect the red pigtail from the video cable to the green wires.
9) Ground the wires from 1b to a spot behind the dash. There's a 10mm bolt on the lower right side of the head unit hole that will work. Remove the bolt, slide the ring terminal over, and re-tighten bolt.
10) While looking at the back of the head unit, connect to the ABC harnesses as follows:

11) Reconnect all harnesses to the head unit, including the new ABC harnesses to the correct sockets on the head unit.
12) Slide the head unit back into place but do not bolt it back in yet. Make sure all harnesses are plugged in from any panels you removed. Turn the key to accessory and test the switch. In the Rear position, the rear camera should be shown. In the Front position, you will see blackness until the camera is connected. Turn on the headlights to verify backlight works. If this works, you should be good and can put the interior back together. Turn the truck off before doing so.

13) In the engine bay, connect the red pigtail from the video cable to the red wire connected to the camera power harness. Bullet terminals or male/female spades are a good idea.

(Picture stolen from NEIPA27)

14) Crimp a ring terminal to the black wire from the camera harness. Ground this to the battery or other ground on the chassis.
15) Connect the video cable (that you ran into the truck) and the power harness to the camera harness. Connect the camera. Place the camera in a safe spot with a view of your engine bay.
16) Turn the truck to accessory and press the Front camera button. You should see your engine bay!

17) Disconnect the harnesses from the camera and determine a spot to mount it. Reconnect when finished and bundle up out of the way any excess video wire. Enjoy your camera!

 

@NEIPA27 Its possible that ABC sent you a different type of camera. The camera that i got from them came with a weird nut that wont get tight, i emailed ABC about it but no response. I got frustrated so i ordered a camera from Amazon, now this camera came only with 1 red wire (your issue) im confuse about it at first but then i figure it out. If you only have 1 red pigtail, you dont have to connect it just leave it alone, tape it to its main black wire or something. The power source for the camera will be coming from that red/black rca wire, the one that is connected to RED rca.

Is there a way that you could upload a picture of the entire wire with red pigtail to confirm my comment?

 

I finally got mine working. my problem was I had the connectors in the back matched up wrong. I see you have a 2020 also. The shity documentation they provide does not show the back of the head unit like it does for the 2019 in previous installs. I'm going to attach a file that shows my head unit and I'll tell you exactly what I did with the connectors that fix the problem.

Looking at the picture that is hopefully attached, you see 3 connectors in a row: black, white, gray. The harness with the red and orange wires goes where the grey connector is. The other connector goes where the white connector is. The black one is not used.

When originally I hooked it up, I had the orange and red wire connector where the black one was. The head unit functioned flawlessly in this configuration, but no voltage was coming out of the wires, so the kit didn't work at all. Switching them to the above configuration made the kit work.

Of course then the image was mirrored and according to their "instructions" snipping the green wire would reverse the image. Snipping the green wire did nothing. so I snipped the white wire. That causes the image to reverse but also got rid of the guidelines. At this point in the customer service experience I'm just going to leave it.

 

You have a 2020 as well. I just posted a photo of my head unit with an explanation of how I rearranged my wiring harness. Is that how you have yours?

 

it seems very common that they randomly send you different cameras. I got the one with the nut with a notch taken out of it, I think that's the one people are referring to as the one that doesn't tighten. Here is the rest of my wiring assembly. The little black connector on the right is what plugs into the camera, and then goes into yellow and black AV cable style connectors. from the red connector, you see a red wire which is what I connected to the pigtail of the backup camera cable. And the black wire goes to the ground. Once I got the harness connectors in the correct position on the head unit, this configuration worked for me.