Reverse and Forward Cameras

So it was a long slog but finally it is all done.

Some of the issues were my fault ... some that fact that the bits come with no user guide so you have to make it up as you go.

It cost me about £550, but i bought some extra bits and then managed to blow up 2 cameras (which was not entirely my fault ... !)

I can be done for the price of the VBB box - Euro 275

http://www.volvotech.eu/product_info.php/products_...


and a forward facing camera from ebay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/161025926088?ssPageName=...




for £15

and about another £10 of other odds and sods.

HOWEVER please be aware that installing this took me about 3 man days over a 4 week period. I know this may sound daft but please believe I was ready to call in the cavalry on more than one occasion. Me telling you how to do it will save time, but please do bear in mind that this is quite a big job involving taking lots of bits off the car. It was all done with no holes drilled anywhere.

In operation, put the car in reverse and the reverse camera comes on. Put it in drive with the parking sensors on and the forward camera activates. Accelerate sensors go off and the screen reverts to sat nav. There are no buttons anywhere, you can see no wires and can almost not see the cameras. This took time, but I was determined on the no button bit.

I need to publicly thank Paralight for helping my find out where to route the wire to the front of the car. A small plug he charges about £1250 for doing this, I think he uses "clever" cameras that can look left and right, and do bear in mind if you do this yourself and have not done one before I recon on a day and a half. If I did it again knowing what I know now I could probably do it in 6 or so hours.

So.. this is a short guide - but I am happy to answer questions

1. The sat nav is inder the rear left seat. Take off the seat ands the kit comes with the connector to simply daisy chain into the sat nav video line.

2. Under here is power (big red wire) and also - usefully - the reversing sensor box (badged Jaguar!). The green and blue wire is the reversing sensor on line and is used to fee the VBB box and tell it reverse is engaged.

3. Remove all of the centre consol to access the parking control button. Running to this is a green wire. This goes to +8v then parking sensors are on.

4. Take a lead form here and run to a 5v nominal micro low current relay ( £2 in Maplin), This relay then switches the VBB into front camera mode.

Bear in mind I had to read the circuit diagrams to get this far and take half the interior to bits.

At this point the thing should work and all you need to do it thread the camera wires. Ha Ha!

Rear camera.

1. Remove rear left seat back
2. remove most left hand side interior trim of boot
3. remove left hand read light
4. kneel on floor and remove centre "bolt" right under the rear bumper of the car.
5. Thread the camera line through this hole and bolt the rear camera in place.
6. Run the lead upto the removed rear light - keep the lead clipped to the bumper as it is next to the exhaust - run the wire through the light gland and into the boot.
7. From in the car gently lift up the rear parcel shelf and look until you see light. Use a stiff bit of wire to pass through to the boot, attach camera wire and pull through

The now have a working reversing camera.

Front Camera.

1. The wire is run via the DRIVERS side so remove the drivers rear seat, run a camera lead to the dirivers side, under the carpet of the drivers seat and then in to the drivers foot well.
2.Lift drivers carpet and look where the loom enters the engine area
3. This is a rubber gland - tape the wire to a screwdriver poke it through the gland and pull!
4. Remove radiator cover
5. make wire neat
6. attach camera to under number plate area with strong doublesided tape
7. connect


And you are done.

I have missed out some detail.

The kit was supplied with a series of screw in connectors to connect to the loom. I am not a fan of these and most i did not use, but for connection into wires in the car i did ( you will see them on the pics) so that no wires on the car have been tampered with or cut.

it is a big job - worth it - yes.

You will need a soldering iron, decent tool kit and a multimeter together with a decent amount of basic electrical knowledge.



If I can help ask - just do bear in mind it is honestly a big job and I would not want anyone to have their car in bits and not know what to do. Is it difficult . No BUT there is allot of it!














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Might have a go at this over the winter
Do you think it will be similar for the Garmin system?

Glad you got it sorted Jeremy, at long last

Give me a ring, again, if you need me, always glad to help.

Mikey,

The Garmin is a different beast altogether....... I have done them, but not as straightforward as the Volvo based system.

All the best,

James

Glad to help Mike, front and rear?

Drop me a pm and I will send some pics across. The screen on the Garmin system is cracking and gives really good images.

ATB,

James.

Parking lessons perhaps?

Rich coming from some one who cant stay up upright on a bike

Kudos to you Jeremy. That is a nice job well executed.
Ignore George. He has no trouble parking as the car rarely if ever moves.

the nut behind the handle!

That's very good well done on having a go yourself and winning

Mine came fitted with what I think is the AM rear camera (is there one?) that activates when I'm in reverse, and a Kenwood front one that I activate with a little switch in the ash tray. It's brilliant at it has a few different angles and can mix the front/rear images split-screen, and a really handy angle that looks straight down allowing me to get the nose right upto the kerb. It also has some coloured lines that show me what I may be about to hit...



Normally it's me adding these kind of things and struggling as it sounds like you did, but this time the previous owner has done it all for me, even the Dension! Result!!!