Can anyone tell me what color wire is the trigger wire for the backup camera on the factory navigation unit? I'm looking for the wire that turns the nav screen to the camera screen.

Thanks guys.

 

Try searching the electronics / radios forum....or ask there...plenty of guys have picked these nav units by now...they should be helpful there...

 

I was thinking of this yesterday. Would be cool to use an uplifter switch to turn on the back-up cam on the screen when not in reverse. Is this what you are planning on trying?

 

It is what I plan to do, although I am running out of upfitters.

I dont have the NAV, though, so I'll be tracing out the paths via another method.

 

I believe it's a little more complicated. In fancy GPS's like the Garmin nuvea 5000, you
feed power to your camera when you switch to reverse, the video then can trigger the GPS to switch from it's normal mode to display the backup video instead.

 

Why don't you buy a Ford Lockpick?

 

I am interested in finding out more Ford picklock. er lockpick

 

What's that??

 

Yes, just not going to use a upfitter switch.


From the research I've done, it's not. The camera has power and is on whenever the truck is on. There is a trigger wire that runs to the nav that when power is applied it changes the nav screen to show the camera. Give power to that wire and the backup camera is shown whenever you like.

Why spend $250 when I can do it myself for free? I don't mind cutting wires. There has already been multiple wires cut/spliced for various reasons to include -

The dome light operates on a upfitter switch only.
The cargo light operates on a upfitter switch only.
The door open/key in chime has been disabled.

As soon as I find the wires-

The backup camera will work on a switch as well as reverse.
The gps antenna will be on a switch to be able to unlock the nav while moving.
Hopefully the traction control system will be disabled permanently.

I'm sure I'll find other things to mess with. I've only had this one a month so far.

 

I'd like to bid you a word of caution with your warranty here. Electrical problems are monsters and if you've gone in and modified the factory wiring you could be in for a ride. I have steer'd clear of the factory wiring with everything I've done. Any add-ons are their own system - the only common point is the battery bank. The switches, jacks, lights, plugs, etc are all completely independent and fused separate. I removed my Upfitters even and put my own switches and wiring in there.

On an operational note, be careful with the GPS antenna. I am not exactly sure how it works but if you are tapping in to the RF portion of the wiring running through a switch (or operating a relay off of an upfitter switch to isolate the voltage) will throw out the impedance match of that system = decrease the sensitivity. If there is a remote GPS receiver and the data cable between the screen unit/computer and the GPS receiver you could lock up one of the components in disrupting the data stream. They could have a handshake type operation where if one fails to acknowledge the other it freaks.

Last quick note - the speed sensing might not be just off the GPS, it could be the speedometer too.

Make sure you do your homework on what ever route you take. Good luck with it and let us know how it goes. Its always interesting reading the "how to's".

 

In looking at the ACM module on the schematic, it looks like there is only a communication bus to convey the video camera on state.

 

So does the video run on the bus or is it a separate signal?

 

Much of the information in the truck is coded on the CAN communication bus that runs between different subsections of the truck. Think of it as the internet in your truck. So whether it is the fact that you turned your windshield wipers on, so then your headlights come on. Or you shift in reverse and your backup video camera starts working, the CAN bus seems to send those connections rather than discrete wires. But the video itself is not transmitted on the CAN bus. It is in a separate coax cable that runs the length of the truck. The coax has pigtails soldered on to the ends to convert it back to discrete wires.