Q&D backup camera

[VR46]

I'm off work and not leaving for the beach until tomorrow, so I decided to do a project today. I am a bit of a cheap bastard, so I wanted to see how cheaply I could do a backup camera for my BRZ. I had seen the beatsonic harness and camera, but it didn't seem worth the money to me.

After shopping around on ebay I found this guy's website (he also sells on ebay) where I bought the harness for $30. I also saw a newegg flash sale where they were selling a license plate mounted camera for $13. [ame="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005Q65ZIK"]This is one just like[/ame] it on Amazon for $20. I followed instructions found by searching and reviewing various threads on the board and following the instructions that came with the harness.

The harness works perfectly, I would recommend it. The camera, not so much.

First, when mounting it with the license plate it covered up the name of the state on the plate and partially obscured the stickers which indicate the month and year when my registration expires. I took a license plate-shaped plastic dealer advertisement that was on the car when I bought it and affixed the plate to that, slightly lower, and then screwed that into the license plate holes in the back of the car. Looks quite janky.

Second, the camera has its own grid lines superimposed on the image, along with the lines that the head unit puts on the image. The best I could do was adjust the position of the lines that the head unit puts in so that they kinda sorta line up with the ones that the camera puts on there. There does not appear to be a way to disable the lines that the camera adds. I have seen in other threads that some people have a wire they can cut to remove them, but my camera just has an s-video cable and power. Not sure if there's a workaround.

I think I may return the camera and get a different one with a better mounting solution, or maybe I can find a way to detach the camera from the license plate mount and put it elsewhere.

[Danklvr]

i know on the FR-S hu, there are 2 pins that you can connect the camera to, one has grid lines, one does not. its possible that the subie hu has another pin for vid that doesnt have the gridlines, or possibly in the hu setup / config menu there may be a way to turn grid lines off. i remember reading somewhere that there was a way to adjust the lines side to side, possibly an on/off as well?

[VR46]

Yeah, I went into the service mode or whatever it's called on the HU, you can only move the lines around, not make them go away. Not sure about the wiring aspect though.

[aznatama]

remove lines on your camera, all aftermarket cameras I've seen have a way to remove lines. If not, then... no idea.

[Danklvr]

Originally Posted by VR46

Yeah, I went into the service mode or whatever it's called on the HU, you can only move the lines around, not make them go away. Not sure about the wiring aspect though.

on the fr-s pinout, we have b/u cam and aux vid.
aux vid has no lines, im sure the brz has similar aux vid pin.

i have a different e-sky cam, and no way to remove the lines on cam..

[aznatama]

Originally Posted by Danklvr

on the fr-s pinout, we have b/u cam and aux vid.
aux vid has no lines, im sure the brz has similar aux vid pin.

i have a different e-sky cam, and no way to remove the lines on cam..

If that's the case, I don't think aux-vid will turn on when in reverse, and due to video cutting one when e-brake is released, makes it utterly useless as a backup cam input.

[Danklvr]

Originally Posted by aznatama

If that's the case, I don't think aux-vid will turn on when in reverse, and due to video cutting one when e-brake is released, makes it utterly useless as a backup cam input.

just ground the parking break wire from the back of the hu harness

[aznatama]

Doesn't work on the brz with newer hus or firmwares. Just get rid of lines from camera if possible.

[greencounty]

The discussion here is basically correct.

The backup camera connects to the 16-pin connector on the back of the headunit. I don't think there is a simple way to get rid of the headunit imposed lines.

The BRZ headunit has the 28-pin connector on the back. If your headunit supports auxiliary video, you can connect to pins 13 and 14 on that connector for the video signal.

As far as I am aware, none of the fujisu ten units support aux video. I bought pins and connected them to my BRZ. No luck getting the aux video to work.

If your headunit does support aux Video(The pioneer units might), you won't be able to use it for a backup camera because it won't come on in reverse automatically.