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- Mike
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I tried to add a front bumper camera and in the end I think the video signal needed by the head unit is no longer plain old composite ntsc like it used to be, and so you can't connect a generic camera even if you know which pins.
It's not absolutely certain yet, just what I'm thinking at this point. The rear camera input is on the green connector. That connector has 4 pins inside and maybe 1 or 2 more in the form of shield gnd and/or chassis ground. And when I probe the pins on the cable coming from the car none of them lights up a generic ntsc composite screen.
In fact I probed all pins on all connectors while everything was connected and running and currently displaying the rear camera, and got nothing on any of them. Even totally unplugging whole connectors didn't cut the video except for 2. The connector that has the main power for the head unit. So the video dies only because the whole head unit dies. And the green connector.
So I'm thinking the video signal is now some unknown digital format and not the old composite ntsc.
It is possible that it's still ntsc and so still hackable. One possibility is maybe the extra pins in the green connector are power to the cam. So when I unplug the cable to probe the pins, no power going to the cam, so no video coming back. Could be almost anything. I couldn't probe thos signals while it was running because the connector does not have exposed openings like the others. I either need to find a pigtail or jumper cable that has the same connectors to make a tap toprobe the signals while connected, or maybe take the cover off the head unit to get at those pins from the inside. Or go the other way and find the camera itself in the back door and see how it's connected and powered, and may be able to power it and probe it's output at that end.
https://www.4runner6g.com/forum/threads/anyone-tried-this-anytime-front-bumper-camera-on-sr5.6140/
So for now, as far as I can tell, the only way to add any other cameras and have them display on the factory screen is by using one of those "Movies on Android Auto" boxes. Some of them are just pretty generic small computers that have a few extra ports almost like a raspberry pi, and they can run some usb or wifi cams and display it on the car screen via android auto. But those things are really just for getting around android auto restrictions so you can watch netflix on the car screen. I bet they are completely terrible for trying to just pop up the front cam for a few seconds to park.
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For older models, Tundra and Tacoma etc. there was an anytime front and rear camera that used your OE head unit. I am waiting on one to come out for the 25 4Runner.
That is exactly what that thread I linked is using.
The problem is the cameras are totally different now. Up to 5th gen the cameras had plain old CVBS signals (aka compisite ntsc, aka the same yellow rca plug on a 80's vhs player or game console)
It's dead simple to work with that. It's only a single wire that needs to be switched and it can tolerate some loss of shielding and passing through a crude automotive relay or a regular rocker switch. Even if the signal degrades a little, it's an analog signal and you still see the picture just fine.
Now the camera uses a high speed data digital lvds signal which is totally different. There are no generic aftermarket cameras like this yet that I have found, and you can't just run the signal through a simple switch or relaty to switch between front and back. Well *probably* you can't. I haven't tried yet so it's possible that it can tolerate the signal degradation and still work well enough.
It's going to be a while before anyone has a good kit I think, and it will be expensive probably.
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