And I finally finished the install.
My 2 cents about the camera deal
The camera is not even close to plug-n-play like advertised. If I knew how much work it involves to get it installed, I would definitely not have purchased it and I would have gone for one of the many other camera out there.
You have to literally chop and break through the license plate bulb holder and mess the whole trim that hold the gummy tailgate switch, just to fit the camera inside.
My 2 cents about the install:
The reverse light is not suitable for powering the camera. It is not your average 12V power you can find on many other power wires in the X. The reverse light works based on pulses. The pulses are visible only to an oscilloscope. The reverse light bulb filament doesn't cool down as fast as the pulses ago, and keeps staying bright, hence you will never see the bulb flicker. It looks like plain 12V when you look at the bulb, but when you measure it, it only averages 10V on your measuring tool. So, if you power the camera from that wire, it will constantly go on and off, according to the pulses, resulting in a flickering image on your nav screen.
The only solution is to power the camera from a real and stable +12V wire. I used the one on the BM54 since it was right in my face when I leaned over the trunk, but there are a bunch of others you can tap into. Just use a measuring tool to see which one suits you.
The proper install requires 2 relays (12V/30AMP/whatever brand). Both relays are triggered by the reverse light. Both relays have PIN 85 to reverse light power and PIN 86 to reverse light ground.
Relay #1 powers the camera (PIN 87 to camera +12V and PIN 30 to your +12V source)
Relay #2 grounds the BMW OEM video module PIN 17, making the nav switch automatically to the reverse camera video input. (PIN 87 to reverse light ground and PIN 30 wired to PIN 17 of BMW OEM video module)
When you switch into reverse, both relays circuits close, powering your camera and switching the video source of your nav in the same time.
Additional car reversing signal can be found on the X1312 connector (the blue one). If you don't want to mess with it, tap into the reverse light X329 connector, like mentioned above.
X329 connector:
White/Green = reverse light +
Brown = reverse light ground
X1312 connector:
White/Green = reverse signal +
Any ground will work with it.
Automatic camera display switch is made through PIN 17 of the X18804 connector (blue) of the BMW OEM video module. Connecting that pin to ground, automatically switches the display to reverse camera.
Camera video output is connected to PIN 13 (video +) and PIN 14 (video ground) of the X18806 connector (white) of the BMW OEM video module.
Among the things you will have to perform during the wiring, are
-taking off the tailgate outside switch trim (the one that includes the tail lights)
-taking off the interior trim behind the switch (the one you can grab to pull the tailgate down)
-stripping the left side C pillar to pass the wires
-taking off the lower tailgate covers to tap into the reverse light (or you could tap into them from inside the trunk)
You will notice a short image filck every time you switch to reverse and the camera is turned on. That is normal, both your camera and your nav screen are just fine. The tiny camera doesn't have a sync circuit, neither the nav has, to cut that short flick out.
The camera works fine both during daylight and night. The reverse lights brightness is enough to distinguish any object on your screen at night. You can even notice an eventual hole in the ground with just the reverse lights on. In addition, you can also turn on your hazard lights for some extra light.
As long as you are in reverse, the video is stuck with the camera output. You can not switch it to other nav screen. Though the control buttons, like station tuning, still work. Not a deal breaker, but just for the record.
Always solder anything, be it tapping into a wire, or the relay pins. A soldering gun with car socket is like 3 bucks only. Tape everything after, even the RCAs together.
Spend the extra hour you would waste to follow the OEM wiring route. You will definitely be happy with stealth wiring.
The LED inside the reverse camera camera are not error free. You will have to either do the resistor trick, or use NCS Expert/Navcoder/etc to disable bulb testing for the license plate. The values for NCS Expert are:
Code:
KALTUEBERWACHUNG_KZL
nicht_aktiv
WARMUEBERWACHUNG_KZL_LI
nicht_aktiv
And a quick sketch of the wiring:
