Project Double Gnar: Adding Stereo & Camera

Ok thanks for all that translating. Going to button it back up for now as I need to preserve the drive cycle so I can finally get it to clean emissions (fingers crossed) and I'm planning to do that early next week so I'll have to wait until after that to pull the amp and try plugging in the head unit. Will report back what happens.

 

I'm confident that's what's up: Toyota piggy-backed the factory head unit off the amp in the early models, which is why the EWD looks that way, all wiring coming to/from the amp, and the radio tethered to it w/one junction line. I was reading the EWD backwards, thinking the amp would tether off the head unit "like normal", but it isn't.

I'm sure you could potentially go ahead and do the install w/o removing the neg BATT cable, it's just not "best practice". The same way in the technology world, you're supposed to wear grounding straps when you work inside of computers, laptops, and servers, but nobody I know actually does it that way in the field.

Either way, good luck w/emissions and loop back when you get there. I'm 99% positive once you get that amp out, that single plug from the back of the radio will come with it, the two white METRA ends will plug into the bottom amp connectors and the rest will be obvious.

Don't forget to plug the antenna into the back of the new Android unit before you button up

(And any hands-free mic it may have come with, if it offers that function, here's where I put mine for quick and effective wiring, scroll down in the post for pics/info)

 

Appreciate it again. The radio alone will suffice for now and I'll get to sorting the backup camera out afterwards as I'm sure that'll be a separate bundle of fun.

 

Some good news! Ripped out the amp (after all but shredding my hands trying to wangle it around before realizing it was still attached to the bar behind the dash) plugged in the new headunit and it works like a charm. To be fair all I had to judge the old one on was the terrible radio connection it has and the antenna is bent oddly so I'm sure there's something wrong with it as I couldn't get much of a signal despite a few stations being fairly local....but when it kicked over and played some international cover of 'One Love' wholly shit, sounded like a fucking orchestra. Amazing. Like if I didn't know any better I'd assume all the speakers had been replaced with top shelf shit....and no 20+ year old crappy factory paper speakers. Main purpose for all this was to be able to connect my phone to the radio and add a backup camera. Phone definitely connects now and I'm planning to work on the backup cam another day.

Final thoughts: could only get three of the four mounting bolts for the stereo in, as it's maybe a tiny bit too big, or maybe I need to find alternative mounting hardware. Cause the top of the dash piece also doesn't quite snap in either. Also only managed to get two of the 6 screws into the headunit to hold the brackets on, holes didn't line up right and I wasn't super interested in drilling them out. Lastly I forgot to take off the screen plastic like an idiot but it'll be coming back out to work on the camera at some point so whatever haha. Thanks again for all the help.

 

Progress is progress, right?

Good job getting it up and going. Weird on the bolt length issues and whatnot? First time I've heard something like that.

Once you gussy it up and get in good light you can add yourself over here, into the hall of fame. https://www.tundras.com/threads/touch-screen-head-unit-whos-got-what.65309/

 

Somehow I missed this thread all week. Yeah the early trucks either don't have the amp at all or they have the small one behind the climate controls (AFAIK) just pull the amp and connect Metra harness (same one used on most every Toyota from that generation) to the wires going in the bottom of the amp.
See OP got it going now. Good luck with future back up camera install.

 

Progress indeed and I think it may be slightly crooked and/or the one screw I got into each side for the mounting brackets may not be exactly symmetrical.

Going to wait til after I figure out the backup camera and I'll gussy it up at that point. Bought the tailgate handle unit and the headunit came with it's own camera and wiring as well.

From reading what others have done, I follow the idea of running the wires from the headunit along the rocker, and through a rubber gasket under the seat, but where it gets to having to 'tap' the reverse light or trailer hitch wiring and how to go about running the wire through the tailgate I'm a bit lost.

 

I spent most of yesterday working on my 4660 and the tail end on camera.

I'm tempted to re-do the connector to a waterproof one but that's a side topic.

I plan to use a custom first gen DIR to both disable plate lights and tap reverse, ground and brake (for my shell 3rd brake light).

I think I'm going to feed the reverse all the way into the cab. The other spot to get it is at the reverse relay which for my truck is located very close to the in cab fuse box. There just isn't much room to work with there and unless I had some way to do an extension off the relay side I'm not certain I want to mess with it. Plus I need to get the video signal into the cab anyway so why not just run another wire the whole distance to get the job done. I think I'd like camera power from in the cab so I can fire off the backup cam even when not in reverse.

Hoping to make more progress on it right now while everyone else does sleeping.

 

Remove tail gate, drill holes, paint edges and use grommets. Wire loom is also good for areas that see movement/abrasion.

I ran my wire into the cab via a grommet on the rear of the drivers side of the cab and sealed it. It basically drops into the storage area, I then ran it up the center under the console, then to the radio.

My cheap backup camera came with a long RCA cable with an extra wire built into it, for in cabin power supply to the camera. Maybe snag one for $10-15 off ebay just for that cable?

 

I'm not at all worried about the one extra wire. I'm going to put it all in loom anyway. I actually have one of those XXXXL rca's from the front camera kit on the Tacoma. I prefer to have all my wires discrete, separate, heat shrink labeled, color coded etc Because I'm a strange bird.

But yeah, good suggestion for the easy option. This tailgate camera I have came with a super long cable, one side is a 4 position (not waterproof right now) connector with two pigtails, fused power and ground for the camera and rca for the signal.

I think I'll run everything into the cab and go from there, along with the reverse tap for signaling to the head unit.

 

Right, but where and how do I need to connect all the wires? Believe I need a t-type connector or something like that to connect it to the reverse light wiring and how I'd find that specific wire

 

The tailgate itself (at least mine) has holes for camera exit. What we don't have compared to 3rd gen Tacoma is a hole in the bed to feed the camera through. I'm planning to just use the spare tire hole and unplug the camera if I need the spare for now. It's a good sized hole and why drill new holes if you don't have to.

For tapping reverse with a plug and play solution, see this thread or wait for me to have the DIR fully squared away if you want that option.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/plug-and-play-brake-light-taps.707529/#post-25121246

Tell Johnny you want a 2nd gen Tacoma / First gen Tundra reverse tap.

 

Well going with the master tailgater unit the camera is already in the handle so I assume I'll just be fishing the wires backwards from there, no?

Will definitely check out that plug and play tap, not a fan of doing wiring if there's ever another option given I'm not very good at it

 

Yes, you open the tailgate panel, swap handles, fish wire through to the bottom of the tailgate, then from there you want it to go in the trough through the bed to the underside of the bed. There is only the one hole, for spare tire access. In the 3rd gen Tacoma there are two holes, one for camera (and tailgate lock when used) and one for spare tire.

 

But why do it this way when there's a grommet on the underside of the cab below the drivers seat already for wires?

 

I was already running wires down the console to eliminate the OEM amp which on the 05/06 access cabs without JBL stereo is below the pass rear seat. I just found it convenient for my truck and setup.

 

Yeah I ran mine through the main harness entry point as well. Put it in some plastic shielding and ran it along that harness to the head unit.

 

Ok, so I got the plug and play connector (huge thanks to Daveeasa) and I'm not sure I understand where it's supposed to go or what I'm supposed to do with any of this, but the wires that came from master tailgaters plug together and have a red wire that comes off, so do I connect that to the red from the plug and play harness? From there just run the RCA to the headunit? Also do the plug and play wires just plug into the tail light plug?

All seems a bit to easy to be the case so please let me know what I've got wrong here. Thanks

 

One option which is "simple" is to power the camera off the reverse circuit.

So, black camera ground to the frame or any metal (can run into the cab as well). A small stud might be good if it makes a good ground.
Red camera power to the reverse tap. You probably want a 3 way connection for that so you can send that signal into the cab as the reverse input to the head unit to trigger "camera on". Run that with the yellow rca cable and connect up.

The alternative would be to use one extra fused ignition switched line off the in cab fuse box (potentially add-a-fuse) to power the camera so it could be on even when the vehicle is not in reverse. Then some additional switch to turn the camera on so you can see behind you even when in park or D. That is kind of nice when towing if you wish to monitor the trailer connection while moving at freeway speed but isn't the most essential use of a backup camera.

 

Appreciate all that, and I'm guessing I'd need to tap the solid black wire off the camera to do either option above, I'd thought using this plug and play harness from the Tacoma forums would eliminate that, no? Also the master tailgater unit has a fuse inline already (hard to see in pic). Like the idea of being able to use camera at will, but also prefer it to turn on automatically when in reverse, is it possible to do both?

 

Yes, you could have asked for a ground tap for that connector, I guess you would have had to know to do that. Really you can just ground it to any metal stud or bolt, it's a camera power ground, doesn't need to be beefy. There are studs inside the tailgate cavity which will work, or just about any bolt as long as it's not to plastic.

The auto turn on is off the reverse trigger so that's why you have to feed that into the cab along with the rca. To tell the head unit to trigger camera interrupt.

 

You can also posi-tap or cut and splice your ground to the T harness if you prefer, should be white with a black stripe. Or send it back to Johnny and ask for one with a ground but that's extra shipping for both of you.

If you ask, Johnny could probably send a double crimped jumper for ground in an envelope but you'd have to un-tape and de-pin / replace.

 

Understood and guess that's on me but I can handle grounding a wire. Not sure which one to ground though.

Nor am I understanding how to tap the reverse light. Any chance you can explain that part?

 

Sorry but I'm lost on the entirety of this aside of the shipping part.

 

Black from camera to frame ground on any stud or bolt.

Red from camera after the fuse mates to red from the reverse tap and do a 3 way with one more piece of wire into the cab together with the rca.

When you hook up at the head unit it'll be one rca female to plug into and one "reverse input" to the head unit to tell it "show the reverse camera).

So, ground the black, red to red to a 3rd red (or any color) into the cab along with the yellow rca.

 

Ok and so I'm not using the plug adapter from Johnny at all? Second, when you say red to reverse tap, are you talking about the adapter from Johnny?
Is the red not just going to the tail light? Or does it need to go to the cab too?

 

You use Johnny's tap. It has a red bare lead.
Connect that to fused power for the camera, also red.
Splice in one other wire for a 3-way red-red-red connection (if you have extra red wire) and run that together with the yellow rca into the cab, your head unit needs it to know "time to show the camera".

 

Ok and thank you, but what am i connecting the red wire to in the cab? I get the RCA plugs into the headunit, but not clear on where that red wire off the triple connector goes. (Really really appreciate all the help again) and if reordering something different from Johnny will make this cleaner/easier I'm happy to do that too, just need to know what to ask him for is all.

 

You tie in to the "reversing control" wire on the head unit harness.

One of the 3 wires you haven't connected yet.

 

Ahhh ok, well that makes sense. Is that also the sore I could add a switch to in order to be able to use it whenever? Or is that more of a process than just adding a switch?