Back Up Camera - No Video

Geez! Hopefully better luck on the replacement...

 

I also ordered this backup cam as backup (no pun intended). Probably OEM or a clone. Just found this amazing item on AliExpress. Check it out! $30.38 60％ Off | YAOPEI 86790-04030 8679004030 REAR VIEW BACK UP CAMERA for Toyota Tacoma 2016 2017 2.7L 3.5L Car Accessories

 

I finally received the AliExpress camera and the replacement camera. The AliExpress camera could very well be OEM - I wasn’t able to tell the difference. I installed both the AliExpress camera and the other replacement. No video on either which leaves me to believe my backup camera is not actually bad. I don’t think the dealership would have any clue how to address this, maybe a car A/V installer could take a look?

I’m at a complete loss on what to do next. Maybe there’s another way to test the video wires? Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Anyways, here are the three cameras I tried today. AliExpress on the white box, junkyard camera on the right, and my stock one on the left.

 

next, we need to assume that something else is bad. either the wiring, or the head unit.

if i remember correctly from before-- you tested for camera voltage behind the head unit. so there's a possibility there's a broken wire, but because you've got an aftermarket head unit, first assume the head unit is bad-- that's slightly easier to test for.

the good news is that you already have the aftemarket rca adapters. the camera outputs a standard composite video signal, so you can test it with any spare tv/monitor/camcorder that has a yellow composite video input. just put the truck in reverse, and if everything from the dash to the camera and back is good, you'll get a video signal. if you get video at this point, it means the head unit input is bad.

alternatively, if you have an older video game console or dvd player with rca plugs on them, you can also connect it to the radio's input-- that will verify the video display input portion of the radio is working.


if you've done all that, and the radio's display is working, but you still lack backup camera video on the radio, then the next thing i would do would be to pull the camera, and the dash adapter, and then using a shorting jumper at either end, use an ohm meter connected at the other end across the shorted wires to check for continuity. if everything is good, you should be able to short any pair of wires in any order and the meter will show something close to '0' ohms. this will verify the wiring is good end-to-end on the truck.

from there, if one of the wires is bad, there's 2 options.

1. replace the entire damaged wire(s) from the dash to within the tailgate, eliminating any possibility of multiple breaks.
2. the highest wear point in the camera wiring is at the tailgate pivot. there's a high likelihood that replacing the section of wire from within the tailgate to a point within the harness just next to the spare tire mount. disadvantage to this method is if the break is somewhere else, all the work to do this will be wasted, and you'll either end up meticulously following the wiring all the way up inspecting for damage, or reverting to option 1.

if you do all that, and all the wiring is good, and the radio input is good, it again points to the camera, or perhaps the voltage adapter(i've seen voltage adapters working properly when testing without being connected to anything but the volt meter, but when something like the camera is connected, the voltage drops out)

 

Hey @soundman98, I really appreciate your thoughtful reply.

I had previously tested the head unit backup camera input using the front camera output and the input worked when in reverse. I also previously tested continuity from behind the head unit all the way to the camera harness in the tailgate for all four wires including video to the RCA. I tested 6v and ground with a multimeter off the camera connector pins I.e. one to each pin (power/black and ground/blue) measuring voltage and it read 6v. Maybe this is an incorrect approach?

Today, I reflashed the Maestro RR and updated the pioneer head unit, no changes.

I then used a spare camera harness and rigged up power/ground/RCA connectors and wired the camera directly into the dash (6v, ground, backup camera input RCA female) and voila, the camera works. All three camera I have on hand work. This means that Maestro is outputting 6v properly, ground, and video are ok in the dash.



At this point, I’m fairly confident I have a wiring issue somewhere, downstream of the Maestro RR and upstream of the camera. First step seems to be replacing the tailgate wiring harness (p/n 82182-04020 is this right for a 4-wire camera?).

Not sure exactly how I’d go about looking through all of the connectors between the dash and tailgate… maybe somebody has a recommendation.

 

Why not just omit the OEM camera entirely, and use a higher quality aftermaket one? Looks like you could remove the OEM camera from that bracket that bolts to the inside of the handle, and use any similar square type camera.

 

I’ll probably consider this after I’ve exhausted trying to get the OEM working with the factory wiring. I’m fine with the OEM camera and don’t see the benefit of a higher quality camera right now. I could just run the wires direct to the dash.

 

Even a 30 dollar Amazon camera is better. I've been looking into the Sony Bundles that Trailgrid Pro has, but they still utilize the trash OEM cameras (my truck has the worthless 360 system) Your Pioneer headunit should support AHD, whereas the OEM camera might not even be 480i.

 

yes, i recall you testing the wiring for power. but you didn't test for a break in the ground/negative wires. the method of creating a loop i recommended is specifically to identify if you have a breakage on one of the negative wires that can't be easily tested otherwise without cutting into the harness. right now, i'm against cutting into the harness because we haven't specified where the breakage is yet.

though perhaps the simplest solution to this whole thing would be to admit there's something wrong with the wire, and install something like this in it's place.

$18 20 Gauge 4 Conductor Wire, 20AWG 0.5mm² Electrical Wire 32.8 FT PVC Sheathed Stranded low volTage Wire and Cable, 20/4 Tinned Copper Hookup Wire, Flexible Extension Cord UL listed

https://www.amazon.com/Conductor-Electrical-Sheathed-Stranded-Extension/dp/B0C69BFN8Y

the alternative is to figure out which wire is broken, then attempt to trace down where it's broken, and splice in a new section of wire across the break.

 

I did test continuity from the ground wire behind the dash to the ground pin on the camera connector. Are you suggesting something in addition to that?

 

my mistake-- i understood you only tested for voltage.

but that only makes things weirder, as then all the wires would be indicated to be correctly working, which they're obviously not...

 

I ordered a replacement tailgate harness (82182-04020) to try. Then I will pull my dash and re-do continuity testing if the harness does not fix the issues.

In the meantime, does anybody have wiring diagram and photos of what the wiring should look like on the passenger side of the spare tire? I have tech package with BSM and parking sensors. I clearly have another issue like loose wires and wires not properly secured to the frame. This is probably a relic from when my truck was repainted under warranty. Maybe @caribe makaira or @daveeasa ?

 

Passenger side has the tailgate lock and the camera connector, at least on my truck. The camera for me is 4 way but newer is 6 way, I’d bet your 2017 is probably the 4 way. The tailgate lock is an extra harness so likely not present unless you or the PO added it.

 

I believe BSM and parking assist are both driver side. BSM being 2 wires with plate lights 2 wires on the 4 way and then the 6 or 8 way for the rest? To be honest, I’m not sure I know what the names are for the detectors in the corners of the rear bumper vs the circular ones facing directly back, I think the small circles are called parking assist and the rectangular pads at the corners are BSM but I don’t trust my own interpretation as I have neither.

 

Ok, current status, correct me if wrong.
3 cameras tried, all test good on the bench, none work on the truck.
Harness probed at the tailgate connector showing 6v and clean ground
Pioneer and maestro work fine with front camera

now, from photos, you’re using rca for rear camera input? That’s where I am fuzzy on memory but I do remember there is front rca camera in and rear rca camera in which I thought was an aux / 2nd option separate from a primary option which I thought doesn’t feed through via RCA? I’d have to go look at my pioneer and maestro doc. I remember maybe a brown and a yellow and I see the brown so maybe you’re already all over this and I’m having trouble catching up.

One thing you can do is test the rca output with a tv or any rca capable monitor. That tells you if the camera is sending video or not, if it is then the problem is the pioneer not displaying that feed.

seems the reverse trigger is good if the pioneer changes screen and seems like you’ve tested 6v power really well.

maybe you’ve already tested at the rca output when confirming all 3 cameras are good?

 

• Correct. None of the cameras work on the truck *at the tailgate*. All three work at the "bench" (when I rigged up a spare harness and wired directly into the dash - 6V wire, ground wire, brown RCA in). See post #25 from yesterday.
• 6v, CV+, CV-, and ground continuity checked from camera harness in tailgate to dash. Can you describe "clean" ground?

• Yes, using yellow RCA from Maestro Harness to brown RCA female at Pioneer. I've verified this RCA input works.

• Post #25 shows neither of these is the issue. Okay, I suppose that I need to try this. Need to find something that can take composite video RCA.

• Reverse trigger works. Worth noting that 6v is always on to the camera in reverse or not.

• Since the issue occurred, I haven't had video out through the yellow RCA. Not sure how I'd go about testing this. I checked continuity to the yellow RCA's post and outer ring from the camera harness in the tailgate, but never actual video out.

 

So, ignition on or whatever it takes to get power to the camera. Then rca extension cable from the maestro output to a TV or monitor. You’d need one which can take RCA video input. Make sense? That is telling you if the problem is upstream (Pioneer side) or between tailgate and camera as currently suspected.

and I believe I read that you checked all the connectors feeding the maestro for bent terminals, poorly seated connections, terminals not properly seated in the connector, etc? You can ignore the 10 position and 6 position and focus only on the > 10 position connectors, I think only two others?

 

Right, so I just remembered that during initial testing, I took the male yellow RCA (backup camera video output) and tested it on the other pioneer input (2nd camera) and got no video in reverse or otherwise. The 2nd camera input works with my second camera. So i have actually tested the backup camera video output RCA and no video. I will still try on another device.

I've also visually inspected all connectors associated with the Maestro harness and I did not find any issues.

 

Replaced the 82182-04020 harness. Did not resolve the issue. Still waiting for a nice weather weekend to do some additional continuity testing.

 

Hi all. Did additional testing and found I had a bad ground at the camera. Ran a new ground wire to the frame and camera is back! Odd that only the ground would be bad! Thanks for your help!
@soundman98 @daveeasa @BLtheP