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Hi all
Put a rear view camera in my 90 series, there is a similar thread in this but I used a different camera so I thought it worthwhile you seeing this installation too.
Firstly, it was cheap. Got the whole lot off ebay out of Hong Kong. Just go onto ebay and do the following searches:
Camera - type in 'Prado camera' and cameras for all the series will come up. 90 series camera costs aorund $30. The camera will replace one of your number plate lights. Get one that comes with an AV lead.
Screen - You have plenty of options. I went for a little folding one. Type 'folding monitor' into ebay and a heap will come up. Pay around $30.
You only need two other things, a switch to turn the monitor on and off, and in my case an AV extension lead as the one supplied was not long enough! Both of these are cheap off ebay, total cost another $5
Here is how I did it:
1. Camera into tailgate. Unscrew the right hand side numberplate light, pull it down a bit, snip wires off. What you do next depends on how you want to do the install. I am bone lazy, so did the following. I want to be able to use the monitor whenever I want, not just when the car is in reverse. So I took a shortcut and wired both the camera power and the number light power to the lead I just snipped. This means that to turn the camera on I need to turn in the lights. All good as far as I am concerned.
End result looks like this:
or like this without the flash. Note that numberplate light in the camera is a little LED one. Sweet.
2. you now need to run the AV cable through the tailgate. Annoyingly the hole in the tailgate that the power lead for the numberplate lights runs through is only just big enough for that lead alone. You can't fit the AV cable connector through, so I cut it, ran the cable through and resoldered the connector on. You now pull the interior trim away from the tailgate and start running the AV lead to the door hinge, easy to do, trim pops back on fine. Rubber pipe from tailgate to car body is annoyingly tight too, so I just ran the cable outside, see attached:
3. Now you run the AV cable up to the front of the car. Trims come away easily, carpet pops up nicely once you remove the door scuff protectors.
4. Now for the monitor. Find yourself 12 vots. I just spliced it into the power to the brake controller as it was easy access and put that 12v into a nice little switch that lights up when on:
5. Then all you need to do is attach the monitor power to the back of your switch and connect the negative. Connect the AV line to the monitor and presto, the the view out the back of your car is now on the screen:
It was dark when I finished the job, so sorry about the quality of the shot. Neverthless, its pretty good. The image is a bit distorted as the camera is offset to compensate for the fact that it is not in the middle rear of the car, but its pretty good nonetheless. Also, the camera is supposed to be 'night vision' and how this works I do not know but what you can see is pretty clear for night time.
Monitor folds down to look like this:
So just to recap, the way I have set this one up is to turn it on I turn on the lights - this puts power to the camera. I then flick the switch on the dash to put power to the monitor. So there you have it. 2 hours work and $65 makes a pretty neat improvement.
Just took a shot in daylight of the screen view. It is exactly the smae shot as the one above taken at night. It is a cloudy day here and shot is a little blurry but trust me the picture is as sharp as. note towbar is on screen, so this should make revering back to hook up the camper a lot easier. Bloody dog can't keep away from a camera!
Sing out if you have any questions.
Westy
Put a rear view camera in my 90 series, there is a similar thread in this but I used a different camera so I thought it worthwhile you seeing this installation too.
Firstly, it was cheap. Got the whole lot off ebay out of Hong Kong. Just go onto ebay and do the following searches:
Camera - type in 'Prado camera' and cameras for all the series will come up. 90 series camera costs aorund $30. The camera will replace one of your number plate lights. Get one that comes with an AV lead.
Screen - You have plenty of options. I went for a little folding one. Type 'folding monitor' into ebay and a heap will come up. Pay around $30.
You only need two other things, a switch to turn the monitor on and off, and in my case an AV extension lead as the one supplied was not long enough! Both of these are cheap off ebay, total cost another $5
Here is how I did it:
1. Camera into tailgate. Unscrew the right hand side numberplate light, pull it down a bit, snip wires off. What you do next depends on how you want to do the install. I am bone lazy, so did the following. I want to be able to use the monitor whenever I want, not just when the car is in reverse. So I took a shortcut and wired both the camera power and the number light power to the lead I just snipped. This means that to turn the camera on I need to turn in the lights. All good as far as I am concerned.
End result looks like this:
or like this without the flash. Note that numberplate light in the camera is a little LED one. Sweet.
2. you now need to run the AV cable through the tailgate. Annoyingly the hole in the tailgate that the power lead for the numberplate lights runs through is only just big enough for that lead alone. You can't fit the AV cable connector through, so I cut it, ran the cable through and resoldered the connector on. You now pull the interior trim away from the tailgate and start running the AV lead to the door hinge, easy to do, trim pops back on fine. Rubber pipe from tailgate to car body is annoyingly tight too, so I just ran the cable outside, see attached:
3. Now you run the AV cable up to the front of the car. Trims come away easily, carpet pops up nicely once you remove the door scuff protectors.
4. Now for the monitor. Find yourself 12 vots. I just spliced it into the power to the brake controller as it was easy access and put that 12v into a nice little switch that lights up when on:
5. Then all you need to do is attach the monitor power to the back of your switch and connect the negative. Connect the AV line to the monitor and presto, the the view out the back of your car is now on the screen:
It was dark when I finished the job, so sorry about the quality of the shot. Neverthless, its pretty good. The image is a bit distorted as the camera is offset to compensate for the fact that it is not in the middle rear of the car, but its pretty good nonetheless. Also, the camera is supposed to be 'night vision' and how this works I do not know but what you can see is pretty clear for night time.
Monitor folds down to look like this:
So just to recap, the way I have set this one up is to turn it on I turn on the lights - this puts power to the camera. I then flick the switch on the dash to put power to the monitor. So there you have it. 2 hours work and $65 makes a pretty neat improvement.
Just took a shot in daylight of the screen view. It is exactly the smae shot as the one above taken at night. It is a cloudy day here and shot is a little blurry but trust me the picture is as sharp as. note towbar is on screen, so this should make revering back to hook up the camper a lot easier. Bloody dog can't keep away from a camera!
Sing out if you have any questions.
Westy
photoprado
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