Front Camera with Kenwood HU

Wow you guys arent kidding when you talk about going down the rabbit hole when upgrading the stereo. I finally have my system all put together and it sounds good! i am wondering how to get my Trail Grid anytime camera to work with the new head unit. Anyone have any ideas?

 

I had a shop do my install, but it should be pretty straightforward as long as your Kenwood has multiple camera inputs.
Did you already have the cam running on your previous HU, so the cable is routed already?

 

Yes it was hooked up to the stock head unit so power and ground are already hooked up. I unhooked the RCA coming straight from the camera and hooked it up and tried to attach the purple wire to the RCA lead. I am sure I am close..........I would like for it to just work with the switch and have seen some info about it working with the orange wire hooked to the purple wire. No luck so far.

 

So just thinking out loud here... the stock HU only has an input for the reverse cam, correct?
In which case, shifting to reverse switches it to power the cam. I assume you must have been doing something to override the reverse switch for a front cam on the stock HU?

So maybe it's a switching issue?

Do you have a multi-meter to confirm power to the camera?

 

Yes I do. Will try to check that tonight.

 

I imagine your Kenwood is probably like mine and has multiple camera inputs.

So shifting into reverse brings up the BU cam, and there's a "Cam" button on the HU (as well as a "press n' hold" Maestro steering wheel button) that brings up the cams, and I can then toggle between front or anytime rear.

That means there's multiple switches... maybe some of yours aren't playing nice together?

I love the front cam... I'm usually pretty good at knowing where my wheels and bumpers are, but even 2 years in I really have no idea where the front of this beautiful pig is!

I think I'm about super close to the car in front of me, and I'm 2' away.

 

Well damn I guess I need to get this figured out. I didnt know you could toggle it with the maestro!

 

Yeah... cool right?

The "Press n' Hold" are a secondary Maestro function, so a press does the normal thing, like volume up, but then press and hold does something else, like turn on the front cam, or bring up my gauge pack.
The Press and hold function has to be programmed in the Maestro.

 

Make sure your camera has a power source, so if it’s on a switch right now that will need to be on. For my front camera I just tapped the 12V wires to the head unit from the main vehicle harness that are powered once the key is in the “accessory” position.

Check the back of the Kenwood for your camera inputs, should be several and one should be labeled “front” or something similar. Plug the video output from the camera into that pig tail.

You select the camera view by hitting the “CAM” button on the Kenwood and then you can switch between any of the cameras you have with the touch screen.

 

Ok I got the front camera working. I ended up just hooking it to the Kenwood. All I needed was power. Now to figure out the maestro press and hold setting..........

 

Nice!!

Is your Maestro the RR or the RR-2?

The RR has to be hooked up to a computer, while the RR2 can be programmed via BT.

I wasn't really sure why I spent the extra $50 for the RR2 (other than 2 being better than 1) but ended up being very glad I did.

When I was having trouble getting my gauge pack to display trans temps I had to reprogram mine and with the BT capability it was SUPER easy.

@centex worked with the guys at Maestro getting them the correct PID's, and they pushed out a Beta version to his Maestro, and then mine.
I had to make an account as I recall, but it was easy.

The guys at Maestro were EXTREMELY helpful and very nice. (Canadians eh?)

Somewhere there's a thread about it, I'll try to find it later (I'm at work and have to put out some QC fires) but if you search for threads posted by me on keywords like "Kenwood 1057"
"Trans Temps" "Gauge Pack" or similar you should find something.

 

Just in case you need assistance from Meastro.

I think page 3 of this thread there's contact info.

 

Thanks! Gauges are working. Just need to program it again.