TACO GARAGE - Any camera - anytime, plug and play, steering wheel controlled. 2020!

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...-controlled-2020.641850/page-40#post-23496145

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...-controlled-2020.641850/page-41#post-23575441

 

Wow, It's amazing... there's so much info in this thread

 

Yep, I am just waiting for FMT to tell me it's ready.

In the meantime, swapping to my old Grille.

 

I just finished my install a few minutes ago. I will try to post detailed installation instructions. I went through the passenger side, pigtail in the kick panel, 6 pin extension cable to passenger side front grille and a combo power + video cable from passenger kick panel to head unit.

I spent a lot of time at the grommet (small stool helps) and mounting the camera on my fake pro grille (cut an oversized hole and used a large washer).

I can’t imagine doing this without the 6 pin extension cable. It allows a single, thin cable through the firewall, and easy disconnect of front grille.

I’ll try to spell out step by step instructions with a few key photos tomorrow.

 

@daveeasa I am looking forward to this, I installed the kit (bought late Dec. ) I got but cannot get it to work for me, I am pretty sure I damaged the supplied cable trying to get it threw the grommet, so I have ordered the shorter one you suggested ( 6.5 foot) thanks for all the help.

 

Installation instructions for Germes Lab camera kit (steering wheel mode button for anytime camera) for 2016 DCSB (N/A for 2020+)

Additional items to purchase:
1. 3 foot / 1 meter long rca video cable (monoprice or your spare parts bin or take from an old vcr, anything will do, signal quality doesn't seem to be an issue even for very thin cable as this run is purely inside the cab)
2. 6 pin extension cable

$13 YQMAJIM Dash Cam Rear View Backup Camera Reverse Car Recorder Cable Extension Cord (6-pin 6.5ft)

https://www.amazon.com/Backup-Camera-Reverse-Recorder-Extension/dp/B07B6LBGZ9?ie=UTF8
3. Mounting bracket if you don't have a grille with a flat/level surface to mount to

Tools:
10mm socket, extension, ratcheting wrench
Philipps head screwdriver if removing the glove box
small wire cutter for removing excess from wire ties
1/2" box wrench to tighten the camera nut
Drill with 1/2" bit or dremel to cut hole(s) in factory grille if needed

Supplies:
3/8" flex loom
electrical tape (1 roll)
wire ties (I like black, small to medium size range)
heat-shrink harness or spiral wrap (optional)

Prep work:
1. Swap the short video cable you purchased/scavenged for the massively oversized one in the kit.
2. Crimp bullet connectors onto supplied power lead with a crimper (might be nice if OP did this for each kit so anyone without a crimper wouldn't need to buy one) Make sure they are on snug
3. If desired, use heat shrink harness, spiral wrap or electrical tape to make a single harness from the video cable and power cable. One end with have bullets for power, the other end a red plug. The video cable needs male ends on both sides so you can't mess this up.

In vehicle:
4. Remove head unit bezel (gently but firmly pull back from top right corner first)
5. Remove 4 10mm bolts and extract head unit (I placed mine on top of a large inverted cardboard box after shifting to 2nd)
6. Disconnect 3 factory harness plugs and connect them instead to female ends of kit then push male ends into head unit. It's not possible to mess this step up.
7. Connect Germes unit to other end of harness plugs and decode on a location for it. I placed mine in to the passenger side below the head unit location behind the hvac controls. I didn't zip tie it in place but I'm paying attention to potential rattling and will update if I decide it's necessary to secure it. Seems like it stays put pretty well in that space without locking it down.
8. Decide which side of the firewall you want to use, driver or passenger. I picked passenger as I was doing the 2LM mod at the same time and had to remove the glove box. I think you can go passenger side without removing the airbag and glove box but just loosening 3 of the 4 glove box screws and maybe the 3 airbag bolts then removing the bumper bar to assist with wire routing. You should also be able to route the wires to a kick panel without removing any trim at all and just a few wire ties to keep the cables off the floor. The passenger side has a lot of space to work with and is generally less utilized than the driver side so I would recommend that if you don't have too much trouble routing the wire
9. Remove door sill and kick panel on the side you've selected
10. Connect the combo power/video cable from germes and fish it through to the kick panel
11. At this point if all connections are secure you can push the harness back into the hole, feed the head unit back into place and secure it with 4x10mm bolts. I would leave the trim bezel off until you confirm everything is working properly though it's not a difficult item to remove later, just that you don't want to take it off and put it back on more than you need to.
12. Connect pigtail to power (red big plug) and video (yellow) then the control button (I'm planning to just leave my button stashed in the kick panel)
13. From the engine compartment, locate the grommet you wish to use. I picked passenger side and there was a beautiful grommet just begging to serve this purpose. I cut off the nose of the lower unused plug, Gently pulled the grommet out of it's location, pushed the 6 pin extension cable through (make sure you pick the correct end here, the one which plugs into the pigtail) and replaced the grommet. I removed the factory tape on the factory wire harness which I think was likely not necessary and made for more work re-taping that after re-installing it. It was quite difficult to push the 6 pin extension through this small hole but once the bigger plug part was through it was easy to pull more cable. From the engine compartment, push through the carpet mat and it should be visible in the kick panel. Replace the grommet and use electrical tape to seal.
14. Use flex loom to enclose the 6 pin extension and route to the front headlight then towards the grille, wrap with electrical tape every 6-8" to ensure the cable stays inside the loom. I kept it away from the radiator and tried to keep it low to avoid heat from the headlamp too. Probably none of that matters so much if it's in flex loom. Tape off the other end of the extension close to the lower side of the grille.
15. Drill a hole in your pro grille near the garnish or figure out a mounting location and bracket, connect camera (I did not use any shims) perhaps with one additional large-ish washer to ensure it is secure as the nut doesn't have a ton of purchase
16. Route the camera wire directly up, zip tie it off along the top edge to the side where the extension is, and connect it. I took my grill off to drill the 2 holes I used to get the camera positioned where I wanted it but I think you could probably leave it on just as easily, there's tons of space behind the grille to work and it's awkward to hold anyway, just be cautious about dinging your paint with a drill or dremel or whatever tool you use.
17. Zip tie the flex loom'd extension cable where possible to locations which make sense or to other harnesses.
18. Double-check the grommet is seated and everything is taped up at the entrance.
19. Connect the extension cable to the pigtail in the kick panel, power up the vehicle, test everything out, replace the head unit bezel and kick panel/door sill trim pieces.
20. Some sort of sticker or label on the grille under the hood to remind someone to disconnect the front camera at the left/right side when removing the grille? I guess this depends on how often grille removal is done.

Troubleshooting:
1. Extract the pigtail
2. Locate a 12V 200 mA AC-DC adaptor which has a positive pin
3. Connect your spare RCA cable, ac-dc adaptor, and the control pushbutton if you so desire to the pigtail, the other end to the camera
4. Plug the rca video cable into a spare TV which has composite-in or any video receiver (which will definitely have) or you can most likely find an rca to hdmi adaptor for cheap. Basically something to display rca video
5. Select the rca input on your tv/monitor, plug in the power adaptor, the camera should come on. Use the pushbutton to configure the camera by holding it to enter setup then click to change selection and long click to set it and move on.
6. If the camera does not function and you've verified your power adaptor is supplying proper voltage, you have a bag pigtail or a bad camera. I'm assuming a new camera would come with new pigtail and isn't oppressively expensive so I'd source one. Replacing an already installed camera once you have a good pigtail and 6 pin extension should be a 5-10 minute job.

EDIT: Install photos

 

Thanks Dave! This helps but for 2020 the Germes connectors do not work on 2020 trucks. Just 2016-2019.

 

@daveasa I have down loaded this and printer it,
wish me luck, this is my second attempt, I even bought a whole new " kit " and 6.5 ft cable so I could leave nothing to chance.

 

@jarbarian Good luck in your quest for the right parts.

 

Thanks for the reminder, noted in the top of my post. Still owe you guys photos but behind on work right now so will have to provide sometime later.

 

You mean getting the Germes module to work on 2020 Tacomas?

 

No sir, sorry sir, 2020 Tacoma would be fun but I only have one and she's a 2016. You are waiting on OP for help with 2020 for now. But I will provide photos of my installation choices and I suspect for the most part they _would_ apply _if_ you had a 2020 compatible Germes kit since _most_ of the installation pain is wire from Germes to the camera through the firewall and mounting of the camera. Connecting the germes kit itself seems as trivial as can possibly be.

 

Thanks! Did you see my picture of the 2020 plugs compared to the Germes plugs? Not a fit at all.

You don't have to call me sir. I haven't been in the Marines since Desert Storm

 

Yeah, too much Dr. Seuss Fox in Socks on my end, sad but true, I dream in Disney now...

Yeah, I dunno what's the scoop on 2020, seems confusing and I think FreshMex is trying to save everyone headache by confirming everything works. The Car Solutions page seems to imply if you have Etune 3.0 in a 2020 you should be able to use the 3.0 specific kit but I cannot tell from the photos if the plugs match what you have on the back. You could try calling those guys if MexTaco is too busy to take calls on this, they might have someone available who has certified the kit.

https://car-solutions.com/en/rfcc-c...m-for-toyota-touch-2-cy17-19-entune-3-0-link/

For me, the bundled camera + 10% discount made it preferable to buy from FreshTaco but it wasn't a significant price difference and I honestly think he could do a little bit more to make this fully plug-and-play ready-to-go (such as crimping connectors, sourcing the extension cable, shorter video cable, providing clear install instructions, etc). Those investments, which could be passed on to the users via slightly higher pricing but spelled out as time savers would seem to be exactly what this community would appreciate.

 

True, I have reached out to FreshMex a few times. I'll wait for him to figure this out as I don't feel like I have it pester someone to buy a product, especially if it isn't ready. I can wait. Would rather have it done right than rush him through it. Hopefully when it's ready and works he'll reach out to me. I'm sure eventually someone will have one ready that works. I just don't want the extra switch, I want the mode button options that the Germes Lab kit has

Also on that link, it says nothing about 2020 models.

 

The extra switch approach is awful. The mode and up/down buttons for control and auto on/off is near perfect. They really nailed it with the design of this product. And the harness is well done too. I do wish it had an option to come on automatically when pulling into a driveway or parking spot but it would need some pretty fancy image recognition for that vs bumper to bumper traffic. A tie into navigation would maybe be the way to go there and I wonder if it’s been considered or attempted. Probably too complicated to be seamless.

If you start at car - solutions . com and then enter vehicle info it takes you to the link I posted. I agree it doesn’t say 2020 explicitly though. My suggestion is/was, maybe give them a call? Maybe they have more time on this and/or more info from Germes? Might be worth the recon for the benefit of other 2020’ers. But maybe they are similarly busy and unable to respond to individual questions? And, worst case, maybe they tell you sure it works and send you the same kit which doesn’t? That would be infuriating. You don’t have to tell them you bought the kit elsewhere, they will probably assume you got it from them and are troubleshooting.

I had somewhat similar trouble with my lomax tonneau cover. It shipped with brackets for a Tundra but instructions for Tacoma, a rather confusing situation. I called in, got routed to tech support, and braced myself for a miserable experience. Instead, the rep was knowledgeable and immediately identified the problem and sent out replacement hardware.

it’s _possible_ that a new harness gets you in business. Seems more likely, though, that the control unit may need to be different as well though possibly just firmware. Really depends on the specifics of the head unit and signals involved. And I’m betting OP is not an expert on Etune head units.

 

I agree, Dave. I should reach out to Germes and see if they have looked at the 2020 model. Also, since I have TSS, it'd be simply to make TSS a part of the front camera swap below 15 MPH. I'll ping Germes and actually make that suggestion.

 

Hopefully an optional option. Would be very annoying/distracting for the media interface to keep swapping To the camera whilst driving in traffic.

You could just order the 2020 specific kit direct from the manufacturer, especially as you already have the camera...

 

I have the camera but Germes doesn't work for 2020 and they do not list the kit for 2020, just 2019 and earlier. I wouldn't mind if it swapped to front below 10mph that way I can see how close I am to the slowbot in front of me. Otherwise I have to push the button every time parking.

 

Exactly. It'd need to be so darn smart to avoid being annoying that I think this is pure wish-list stuff that would need Google-level awareness of intent to get anywhere close to helpful and that's a pretty scary level of knowledge to have.

Even an auto-on at 3mph would be super annoying in stop and go traffic.

Regardless, I think the design of the unit shows the attention to detail so I'd trust that support for 2020 Tacomas will get sorted out in due time.
Also note, the HQ is in Hong Kong which happens to have a little bit going on these days and may explain why it's mid 2020 without a clear answer to how to get your front camera going.