Any good aftermarket options to replace the front camera? (1 Viewer)

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CharlieS

CharlieS

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My 16 LC has had a cracked camera lens for as long as I've owned it (I got it used). I didn't really care when I got it, but since then, I've found that the front camera can actually be kind of useful on the trail to see what is directly in front and obstructed by the hood. Have any of you found a more affordable alternative to the factory camera, and if so, could you share it?
 
I have not (but I'm subbing this thread now). But, on the 2013 at least I believe the front camera is just a low res camera that runs at 6V. I know that's true of the rear (and you could try to test by swapping them). For the rear I believe there are a couple people that have swapped in a better quality 12V camera and then dropped the voltage to make it work. Unfortunately you're going to largely end up limited by the screen resolution in the nav system though
 
Thanks. I'd gladly settle for the low res but without a cracked lens. Stock would be great, but they want a king's ransom for them. Unfortunately, I don't understand electronics, so anything other than solder or butt splice in wires is going to stump me. Others (maybe bloc) have said that I could buy a cheap camera and do some sort of step down thing, but that's way over my head.
 
Pretty sure you'd just take any analog camera and wire this little gizmo inline for power and ground

Amazon product ASIN B019GY2DC8
TBH I might consider trying it with my rear camera as I'm going to have to relocate it anyway... if so I'll sell you my rear camera for the cost of the 12V replacement (which seems to be about $30, give or take) and you can figure out how to mount that to the front ;)

There is a cheap 6V option on Amazon, though the ratings are questionable. But for $30 it might be worth a shot.

Amazon product ASIN B07NYZYWVD
 
forum.ih8mud.com

Front wide view camera problems

Hello. My 2009 LX570 front wide view camera shows up cloudy on the screen. I have tried to take it apart but can not get deep enough in to the lens with the film. Has anyone else had this problem and figured out a solution? I did search google with the Toyota part number on the camera and...
forum.ih8mud.com forum.ih8mud.com

Here's one of the better posts i've seen on the topic. There is also a link to another thread with the wire pinouts listed. That guy used a relay that the 5v oem connector would trigger 12v to the aftermarket camera.
 
Do you want to retain the ‘fisheye’? My 2009 Lx the front camera is not a plain 160 deg camera like the rear view.
 
CharlieS said:
Thanks. I'd gladly settle for the low res but without a cracked lens. Stock would be great, but they want a king's ransom for them. Unfortunately, I don't understand electronics, so anything other than solder or butt splice in wires is going to stump me. Others (maybe bloc) have said that I could buy a cheap camera and do some sort of step down thing, but that's way over my head.
Click to expand...
I paid OEM price for this reason. I just dont have the skills to sort out pin outs and solder 22 gauge wires.
 
grinchy said:
Do you want to retain the ‘fisheye’? My 2009 Lx the front camera is not a plain 160 deg camera like the rear view.
Click to expand...
I guess I'd like something similar to what is in there now, so if that's fisheye, then yes please. I mostly want to see trail obstacles hidden by the hood, when I don't have a spotter handy.
 
Oh, and as bonus, it doesn't need to fit in the factory location. It might even be better to NOT put it in the factory location. I have a TJM bumper, so could mount it on that to get a better view of what is in front of me. I even have an ARB front camera extension harness that I could hack up to make an extension harness to splice into if I could find the right bits and it wasn't over my head to make it work.

I am looking at the step up adapter posted above - I guess this would be between the vehicle harness (6v+) and the camera (12v+) to boost the power from what the vehicle provides to what the camera needs? Then the video signal itself would be unchanged and the vehicle would recognize it?

We have a blue, green, brown and yellow wire. Body ground is brown. No idea what the other wire codes are. Anyone know what BCB and BCV are short for? The green, yellow and blue go into the Parking Assist ECU.

ARB Extension Harness:
1651158866569.png


FSM:

1651159100054.png
 
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Yeah the wiring is just + / - and signal + and ref / gnd.
It usually isn’t too hard to deduce.
 
Sorry if I'm slow. I can buy a cheap camera and a step up converter, but I just don't know which wires go where. Brown is ground, got it. Which one is + (6v) - green or blue? BCB+ or BCV+. Guessing power to the camera is BCB+, thus the green wire. Deductive reasoning tells me the BCV are both video, so BCV+ is signal positive and BCV- is signal ground, but I'm not sure. I'd love confirmation from the experts.
 
A voltmeter is your confirmation, but that sounds correct. For the video signal, if you get no picture, just reverse the connections.
 
CharlieS said:
I ordered the up converter posted above and a camera.

Amazon product ASIN B019GY2DC8Amazon product ASIN B07H852D49
My best guess at how I'll wire it.

View attachment 2995105
Click to expand...
that looks correct. if you don't want to cut the rca off to get to the video ground and signal wires you can add this:

or

but then you'll be stuck with about 30 feet of extra wire. much cleaner to just lop it off and wire direct.
 
Cool, I didn't even know things like that existed! Thanks for sharing them.

Good point about all the extra wire. I think I'll lop off as much extra wire as I can to keep it tidy.

I'll report my progress and findings once parts arrive next week.
 
Parts arrived.

87E7FC17-EAF4-49D4-A2BC-32E5568D6955.jpeg
EA001CCC-5D45-4E3A-B9E9-4809B9A64A0D.jpeg
09138583-56E1-498C-9338-8EEF1B448C6A.jpeg
B18E9548-9B3E-47D8-A0EB-8D859E021F3C.jpeg


It looks like red is 12v+, black is ground. I can ignore the red trigger wire, and the two wires that go to the yellow RCA plug are my video+ and video -.
 
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Random image from the google machine for yellow RCA plug wiring. Is this likely correct for a car camera too?

1651692358115.png
 
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