Wiring Tailgate Lift Handle Camera - Dasaita HU & Ecoconut Camera

I need help getting my back up camera to work

I have a 2008 Tundra and decided to upgrade the head unit from the standard stereo to a:

• 10.2 inch Dasaita single din Android 10.0 stereo with GPS navigation 4G Ram 64G ROM built in DSP Dash Kit GPS Memory card head unit.

I also installed the:

• Ecoconut Liftgate backup camera.

The dash came apart relatively easy based on all of the helpful videos out there. Since I have a column shift rather than a floor shifter, my center dash was slightly different but I was able to locate a very useful how to guide to get the pieces apart that were not in the videos.

I was able to replace the liftgate without any issues. I ran the wires up through a grommet in the floor to maintain a water tight seal. Got the wiring up to the new head unit as well. My Tundra did not have the backup camera pre-wired. I wired the +12V red wire from the camera to the light brown loose Dasaita wire harness labeled “Back” (Also referred to as the reverse trigger wire). I wired the -12V black wire from the camera to the passenger kickboard grounding harness. Which is bolted to the body.

The stereo and GPS work fine. However, when I put the car in reverse nothing happens. I have not bothered with the video yet because the backup feature was the main reason I got the head unit. I followed the camera wiring suggestions in the Dasaita manual which seemed pretty straight forward. Also the Ecoconut states that you only have to attach the black and red wire at one end. I preferred to do the connection at the dash rather than at the back using the taillight to avoid messing with that wire harness.

There is a wired labeled “Brake” on the Dasaita wire harness next to the wire labeled “Back”. I have read that that wire should be grounded to allow video to work. There is nothing in my camera manual, which is a single page. There is nothing in the head unit manual about this either. I don’t know if this is stopping the video from working when I put it in reverse. Since there isn’t even a blank screen, I assume that is not the case.

I also watched a video that said to adjust a setting for the backup camera. I checked that the “prohibit reverse” was enabled and it was so it wasn’t a settings issue. I think!

Any suggestions on how to get the backup camera to work? Am I wiring it wrong? Is there a setting I am missing?

 

You need to pull power from the truck's reverse circuit somewhere. The reverse wire out of the Head Unit is a trigger wire that will tell it when you go into reverse, otherwise, the Head Unit has no idea what gear you are in.

 

Thanks. Am I not getting power. I was wondering that too. However, the camera instructions (see image below) say that the trigger wire also powers the camera in both the head unit and camera instructions. Also, it states to only connect one wire at each end, not both. I am leery to connect the wires at the tail light because I might be feeding it power from both ends. I also included the head unit instructions that vary slightly. The HU instructions say to connect the black wire to the -12V backup light rather than to the frame. Since the black essentially grounds to the frame no matter what, does it matter if this is connected to the light or the frame directly?

 

It says it is not necessary if you have a car equipped with a CANBUS system. In that case, the head unit would know what gear you are in. 2008 they had not yet implemented any CANBUS systems to these trucks so your head unit is not smart enough to provide the power in reverse.

 

There is no separate CANBUS for the head unit or the car. What interpret from the instructions is that if you don't have a CANBUS, you use the trigger wire to initiate the camera. This takes the place of the CANBUS. It is an either / or situation. Is that not correct?

 

I think the trigger wire from the head unit is still not being powered from what I understand. As far as I know, the trigger wire is just the signal to the head unit to take over function and try to display a camera. If you don't have a camera attached (or powered) it will just display a black screen. Most commonly people tap into reverse at the taillight for power which then triggers the head unit to start reverse function so you are not powering at both ends. If you prefer to power it from in the cab there is a reverse circuit in the kick panel somewhere and you don't need to do anything at the taillight side. I'm not an expert on what exactly a CANBUS system is/does so I'm going to avoid that before I start confusing myself and giving you bad information.

 

Well I finally got the camera image to show up. Wired the camera to the backup lights. Got the purple trigger wired to the back up signal wire. Unfortunately, the only way I get video to show up so far is when I plug into the aux video in RCA jack. I put truck in reverse, I get video! I dont get anything when I plug into the car video in that overrides the screen.

I am making progress. I know the camera works, I have power and signal. Just need to solve this last head scratcher to override the screen in reverse on the without leaving the video in screen up.

 

That sounds weird. So you are getting the black override screen but no image unless you plug into a different video input and the only thing you change is the RCA Jack right? That one is a head scratcher that might be above my forum pay grade

 

Ha! Unfortunately, I don't get anything when I plug into the Car V-In RCA jack. Only the V-Aux RCA jack. That could work but is too many steps for my taste when trying to back up. Not even a black screen. The only thing I can think of is connect the red +12V wire to the head unit trigger wire. I have the other end connected to the back up light to get power. As I understand it, the Dasaita head unit back up trigger wire is sensing a change in current. If I connect the +12V red wire, when I put the car in reverse this will power the line and trigger the camera to override the screen. I am leery because the camera instructions only say connect one end. I think the camera instructions are not quite right but I don't want to send power where I could damage something.

 

I didn't even register that you said Dasaita. https://www.tundras.com/threads/dasaita-android-head-unit.45126/page-53#post-2173563 there is a huge thread on here with a bunch of people who have done dasaita head units you might get a better answer than I can give you if you poke around in there and ask the experts.

 

Thanks. I figured it out after the last comment from you. To finish out the thread, here is what I did to get a Dasaita 10.2 Android Single Din head unit installed with an aftermarket Ecoconut Tailgate back up camera for a 2008 Toyota Tundra with column shifter.

• Replaced the factory tailgate handle with Ecoconut tailgate handle
  • Remove the eight screws on the back of the tailgate upper cover panel
  • Remove the two screws holding the latch in place.
  • Remove the key cylinder by using a screw driver to pull the metal wire clip holding the cylinder
  • Remove the two latch rods by popping the plastic clips holding them to the latch. Don’t damage the plastic clips
  • Install the new latch with camera and feed the wire harness through the door to the hole in the bottom of the door and through the hole in the back of the bed

• Power up the camera:
  • Connect the wires from the tailgate to the longer wire harness that will run up to the cab. There is a four pin male and female connection.
  • There are three wires in addition to the video cable.
    • Red wire which is the +12V power wire. Connect this to the wire on the passenger side tail light blue wire with a red stripe
    • White wire which is the -12V power wire. Connect this to the white wire with a black stripe on the tail light
    • Purple wire. This wire is not necessary for this installation. Cap this wire off
    • Green Wire. This will remove the guide lines from the video feed. Cap this off and don’t use. I mean who wouldn’t want this?
  • Be careful not to damage the back up light wire harness.
    • Carefully cut the outer black rubber wire harness bundle shield about 2” down the middle.
    • Fold this shield back to expose the tail light wires
    • Strip a ¼” section off of the blue and red stripe wire as well as the with with black stripe wire
    • Twist the camera wires, as listed above around their respective wire.
    • Use electrical tape and seal up the splices.
    • Unfold the outer black rubber shield and recover the wires
    • Use electrical tape to wrap and seal the outer shield back up
  • Route the camera wire up along the passenger side of the truck following the large existing wire harness
  • Zip tie the wire harness to the frame at regular intervals

• Routing the wire into the cab
  • There are three rubber plugs on the underside of the passenger side cab
  • Select the smaller plug that is just under the feet of the passenger seat.
  • Remove the plug by pulling out with your hand. It comes out pretty easily
  • Drill a hole in the center of the rubber plug that is the size of the outer wire harness diameter. The plug is slightly larger but that is okay. The rubber is flexible enough to allow it to go through.
  • Fish the wire through the plug. This will maintain a water tight seal around the wire as it enters your cab.
  • Open the rear passenger door remove the black cover on the door threshold. You will need to purchase a set of plastic trim removal tools. They can be purchased at most auto parts stores. They are relatively inexpensive. Under $20. These will be invaluable to remove all of the interior trim.
  • Carefully pull up the carpet by pulling the white plastic tack strip off of the two square plastic clips that also protect the wires that are running through the door sill. This will give you enough play in the carpet to now fish the wire through under the carpet
  • Pop the door sill trim off of the front passenger door.
  • Fish the wire through both the rear and the front sill wire race ways.
  • Remove the kicker panel in the front passenger side by unscrewing the hexagonal black plastic bolt. It will come off using just your hands.
  • Pop off the kicker panel This will allow you space to fish the wires up under the dash

• Removing the Existing Radio or Head Unit
  • First you have to remove the existing radio and remove the dash panels
  • Start by unscrewing the two screws that hold the bottom center trim cover. There is one screw on either side near the driver and passenger feet area. They may spin in place. Pull on the panel just a bit and unscrew. The screw will then come out easily. Pull this cover back towards the seat. It will be out of the way of the next step.
  • Next remove the cup holder tray. Extend the cup holder and depress the two tabs , one on either side, and pull the try out. Once you have this out remove the cup holder assembly by removing the 5 screws that hold the cup holder in place. There are two located in the bottom corners. There are two located in the top corners and are at 45 degree angle. You will need to extend the cup holder track to expose the top two screws. Use an articulating joint and socket extension to get at these two screws. The fifth and final screw is on the back right side. It is silver. You cant miss it. The other four are black 9MM Give this a tug and it will pull out and slightly down.
  • Next pry the driver front console away on the right side where it meets the center heating and cooling controls and the radio. Use a flat plastic pry toll to pull it out. It will pop loose. You only need to pull is forward about 2” from the dash this will allow the heating and cooling control section to be removed. The driver dash panel overlaps the far left knob control of the heating and cooling panel. Pull the heating and cooling panel out carefully with the prying tools it will come forward. It is just held in by clips. Use something soft for the panel to rest on. I used two pillows that gave me the height to rest the controls without apply pressure to the attached wires.
  • Next unscrew the radio. There are four 9MM or 10MM bolts (cant remember now) at the bottom of the radio. Two on each side of the bottom of the radio. You will need to use an extension to get the bottom right and left screws. You can then pry the radio out easily. It has three clips at the top. Once out, disconnect all of the wires on the back of the radio. Make sure to retain the two yellow and one which clip adaptors at the top of the radio. You will need to put those on the top clips of the Dasaita unit for it to properly attach to the existing dash.

• Installing the Dasaita Head Unit
  • Take the main wire harness and connect all of the plugs to the existing wires in the center dash. The are all different so you don’t have to worry about which goes where.
  • Connect the harness that has the video RCA jack to the new head unit. The wires are labeled so use the harness that has the yellow RCA jacks labeled “CAR VIN”
  • Plug in the Bluetooth car mic
  • Plug in the satellite radio antenna. It has a long wire. I simply stuck this to the top of the head unit rather than have it pulled through the fire wall and stuck to the outside of the glass. The GPS worked just fine inside the dash and inside my garage. I don’t think it is necessary to go to the trouble of installing on the outside of the car
  • Connect the GPS antenna.
  • Fish the camera wire harness up through the dash. I used some old 18 guage copper wire to fish through the top of the dash down to the passenger side and pulled it up that way. It is too cramped and the camera wire is too flimsy to fish up through by itself.
  • Connect the camera yellow RCA jack to the head unit RCA jack labeled “CAR VIN”.
  • Cap off the camera purple wire
  • Cap off the camera black wire
  • Connect the +12V camera wire to the light brown wire labeled “BACK”. This is the reverse trigger wire. It senses when there is a voltage change. In this case. The red wire at the other end is connected to your back up light. When you put the car in reverse power flows to the camera and up to the head unit to tell the head unit the car is now in reverse. This then allows the camera to override the screen of the head unit and display the back up camera video. You do not need a CANBUS decoder for this method of installation. The trigger wire does the job of telling the head unit what gear you are in. In this case, reverse.
  • Stick the Bluetooth mic to the top of your steering wheel mount. Not to the steering wheel itself. Fish the wire behind the driver dash, down under the foot area and up through the back of the dash and connect to the head unit. The little bit of wire exposed is not even noticeable.

• Button up
  • Push the wiring into the dash and push the head unit into the dash clips.
  • Push heating and cooling unit back into place. It is also held in with just clips.
  • Push the driver dash back into place. Make sure the right side air vent seats back into place properly.
  • Push the cup holder back into place and reinstall the screws
  • Reattach the bottom cover trim
  • Enjoy your new head unit and backup camera!

 

Glad you got it all figured out. That is a very thorough write-up as well!!

 

A tad confused here. Did you connect the same +12V Camera wire to the Tailight and to the Radio? You ran one +12v from the camera to the light, and then another from the taillight to the Radio?