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Old 02-20-2009, 02:40 PM   #1
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GPS and backup camera installation

I just finished installing a replacement GPS and backup camera in our van and thought that I would share some ideas/solutions…

(I had SMB install a Pioneer GPS/backup camera several years ago but the system was first generation, the monitor was getting hard to see and the DVD player wasn’t reading the DVD all of the time. Plus, my wife’s father gave us his Garmin nuvi 5000 and Audiovox backup camera which he had removed from his Mercedes before he traded it in a couple of months ago…)

BACKUP CAMERA
Camera wiring – The camera incorporated a “license plate” mount. I fabricated a bracket for the backup camera from aluminum plate and angle stock and mounted it in the rear Reunel bumper where it would be protected. Before I mounted it, I checked out the view from the camera by hooking everything up to a “jumper battery” to make sure that the location selected wouldn’t be compromised. (Click on the image for a larger view)
[album:2fat6gqm]4021[/album:2fat6gqm]
I drilled a large hole in the back of the bumper for the cable (the hole had to be large enough to pass a connector through it). To make sure that this connector didn’t later come disconnected, I slipped heat shrink tubing over it and shrunk it, forming both a good physical connection and a waterproof connection. I put the camera cable in split loom corrugated tubing and used wire ties to tie it to the existing corrugated tubing feeding the after-market SMB backup lights. I kept this corrugated tubing as high as possible when feeding it under the van and then fed the camera cable into the van in the area under the sink (EB-50 design). From there, I fed the cable past the grey water tank and behind the refrigerator to get to the back of the driver’s seat. I assumed that I would need to feed the cable under the carpeting to reach the area under the dash but discovered that the plastic Ford entry step snaps off, revealing a “wire tray” for much of the other Ford and SMB wiring. It was thus easy to use this tray area to get to the dash area under the steering wheel.
[album:2fat6gqm]4025[/album:2fat6gqm]

Reverse shift wiring – The backup camera needs a 12v + source when the van is shifted into reverse. The installation instructions say to tap the 12v + feed to the rear backup light. This sounded like a lot of work. Instead, I realized that the after-market backup lights installed by SMB include a switch on the knee panel under the steering wheel which allows these lights to be turned on and off manually (so that they are available if you want to walk around the back of the van when parked). I checked voltage on the wires on this switch…the center wire obviously fed these backup lights while one wire was the feed from the battery (12v + on all of the time) while the other wire measured 12v + only when in reverse. I used suitcase connectors to tap into both of these wires since I needed both for the camera. I also needed a 12v + ignition source and found that on an orange wire…on our van, it seems that red is battery 12v + while orange is ignition 12v +. The ground was easy….I tapped into a black wire connected to the steel panel behind the knee panel.
[album:2fat6gqm]4027[/album:2fat6gqm]

Feeding the wiring to the overhead console – Thanks for suggestions on the forum a couple of weeks ago, it was much simpler than I had feared. The pillar panel cover just snaps off after removing the screw/snap provided for the windshield privacy curtain at the top. I removed the old wiring (from the old GPS/backup camera)…it did not go “through” the overhead console but was forced into the space between the windshield and the overhead console…I did the same thing. I shoved the GPS wiring in place first (it is smaller) and then the large cable feed for the backup camera, figuring that the large cable would help hold the other cable in place. (I also found a red/orange/black three-wire assembly in the console but both the orange and red wires were battery 12v + wires.)
[album:2fat6gqm]4026[/album:2fat6gqm]

Mounting the backup camera monitor – The backup camera monitor came with a dash-mount assembly which wasn’t going to work if attached to the overhead console. I gave a lot of thought to fabricating some type of X-Y-X mount from 1” aluminum rod but, fortunately, found a much easier and better solution while wondering the hardware store for a couple of hours…it is a Speaker Mounting Bracket under the Ace Hardware label and sold for about $5. It is intended (obviously) for mounting speakers on a wall or ceiling but worked perfectly for this application. I was able to mount the backup camera monitor directly to it, screw the bracket to the front of the overhead console, and then adjust it so that the monitor was in perfect alignment of the driver’s view.
[album:2fat6gqm]4023[/album:2fat6gqm]

GARMIN GPS
Compared to the backup camera, installing the Garmin GPS was easy. It came with a cigarette lighter plug and I was concerned about cutting that cable but a call to Garmin assured me that the cable didn’t include an antenna or anything. (The wiring in the cable is conventional…red for 12+ and black for 12-.) The GPS was fitted with a suction-cup bracket…I disassembled the suction cup portion and mounted the attachment post to a piece of 1/8” thick aluminum using a couple of long screws. The aluminum plate let me mount the GPS bracket to the plate and then use self-tapping screws to mount the plate to the underside of the overhead console, making sure that the resulting installation didn’t interfere with the passenger-side visor. The wiring was fed down the windshield pillar and tapped into the 12v + ignition wiring and ground. I was a little concerned that the location selected for the GPS unit might not pick up the satellite signals but that isn’t a problem (it was on first generation GPS units).
[album:2fat6gqm]4024[/album:2fat6gqm]

Here is the completed installation:
[album:2fat6gqm]4022[/album:2fat6gqm]

HANDHELD GPS
We also have a handheld Garmin 60CSx on a dash mount that I use for off-road situations, checking elevation, and making sure that we don’t travel too long without a stop to get out and walk around. It has been powered by a cigarette lighter plug which was plugged into the cigarette lighter but I decided to get rid of the cigarette lighter plug and hardwire the power end at the same time as I was doing everything else. This turned out to be more of a pain than I figured. I cut the plug off with a couple of inches of cable left so that I could check the polarity of the wiring…well, the plug is also a 5v transformer! So….instead of cutting this cable, you need to have a way to plug it into a cigarette lighter plug which is then hardwired. I bought a cigarette lighter splitter from Kragon Auto and cut off one of the female plugs with the wiring left long. I wired that plug into the 12+ tap (I wanted this GPS unit to stay on when the van is turned off) and 12- tap and then plugged the fixed GPS male cable cigarette plug into this female plug.

As with all of my projects, I spent a lot of time thinking about how to do this, how I might fabricate a bracket for the backup camera, how I might run the wiring, how to find and test the needed voltage, etc. The actual work didn’t take that long…

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Old 02-20-2009, 07:42 PM   #2
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Re: GPS and backup camera installation

Great write-up Jack. How is the view from where you mounted your camera when on reverse? We have a camera as well (mounted on the rear window), but with an Aluminess box, it is almost useless for seeing anything back there. Thanks for sharing!

Ray
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Old 02-20-2009, 07:53 PM   #3
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Re: GPS and backup camera installation

Our original backup camera was mounted in the rear window (but no Aluminess box), no doubt because of the lack of water-proof cameras at the time. It did work well for backing up to a trailer but was compromised by dirty or wet windows, etc. This location is better although a larger monitor would be nice. But, when backing, I'm really looking for people walking behind me in parking lots, the hidden post at the campsite, etc. This unit has a button to allow the driver to turn on the camera at any time, as long as the button is pushed...it is very strange to push it and see a Peterbilt bumper a couple feet away at a traffic signal....! <g>
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