Stupid speaker wiring question (00 AC w/amp)

Took it for a short errand today and light doesn't even come on and no annoying beep either, so all things considered I'll just leave it at this point and if the driver's side ever needs to be replaced I'll just buy a passenger side one and swap it.

Also pulled the stereo to see if the connection to the camera just unplugged (it's just an RCA plug). No such luck. Plugged it into the video 1 and video 2 while in reverse and with that app open. Nothing. Checked all the other connections and all seemed fine, hadn't even driven it at that point so no chance a wire got hit while driving.

No idea what's wrong with it but really sick of this easy project at this point.

 

Reached out to Tailgaters (supplier of the camera) and they just had general advice but said it may require more than just the wires that their unit comes with in order to function...and the head unit that had a camera with it did have more wires but I didn't use any of them as I wasn't using that camera. Did I miss something?

Also...and I kind of don't want the answer to this one...but would the inline fuse for the handle/camera (that's current stuck inside the tailgate cause it was too big to fit thru the opening) be the reason it's not working?

 

Fuse is either fully broken or totally ok, not intermittent.

 

Right, and at this point it's not working at all. Before running the wires thru the truck and adding grommets it was working when in Aux video mode without issue.

 

K then worth a visual check on the fuse if you can get to it after removing the tailgate cover.

 

That's the problem....I ran the wires assuming I could get it thru the hole and let it hang under the truck but it's stuck in that no-mans land section at the bottom of the tailgate where you can't see/reach it and at this point I think the only way to get to it is to remove the ground unplug the trigger wire and hope I have enough slack running to the head unit...which I'm not sure I do...

 

Short 12v power and plug in any small monitor / tv to the rca cable.

 

Sorry but don't follow. You're saying to avoid the taillight trigger wire and the head unit altogether, get a different screen to show the camera?

 

Yes, troubleshoot the camera till it’s known good. Then probe upstream. Easy enough to confirm camera with any yellow plug input device and a 12 v source.

 

Translated in case it's not clear: The camera has an RCA style jack, likely yellow, either male or female.



In theory, you should be able to plug that into a TV or monitor or something with that input, then supply 12V power+ground to the camera's power/ground wires and confirm you see video.

 

Thanks for translating. 3 different sets of workers at the house today, truck dropoff for UCA and front coilovers, older kid doing a fun run at school, we had to move all the vehicles up the street, and I'm dogsitting for my wife's sister's dog, plus I did kid dropoff. So my brain is not working. Oh yeah, on my third work call of the day.

The camera harness is a yellow male RCA. You might have a home receiver which can convert that to hdmi, or some mobile adapter which can get it to hdmi or some other more common format which you might have a screen for. Or maybe you own a tv from 1980 you can use

 

By doing this step you're effectively confirming everything downstream of the 4 wires (harness, camera) all work properly as expected. From there you're troubleshooting the reverse trigger and/or the head unit's display.

 

Yup. This is a key principle of diagnostics: Test the easiest core components you can for "known working" status.

You could troubleshoot your wiring all day long, but even if your wire is perfect, if the camera isn't putting out video, it's fruitless

 

This test will also confirm the fuse is still good.

Ideally you'd use a fused lead to a +12v source, a temp add-a-fuse to the in cab fuse box works, that way if your camera harness is shorted for some reason (pinched or wedged) you won't do any more damage.

 

Appreciate all the explanation, not sure I can manage all that but we'll see. Emailed the shop just to get it in and fixed. Depending on how far out they're scheduled I may give this a shot but really can't stand to think about working on it at this point.

 

Gave up and brought it to a shop, 2 days and $320 later it works...mostly. Somehow, the fucking camera view is crooked despite there really only being one way to mount the handle. That and it'll connect to my wifi momentarily, but not to the Google Play store so I can download something to get rid of that hideous launcher. No idea what's wrong with it but after getting smacked with a $320 bill (especially when I was expecting $150) I'm about ready to light it on fire and drive it into a lake.

 

Yeah, that's the only thing that sucks about not doing the work yourself - those $$ add up quiiiiiick.

You're trying to connect the camera to wifi, so you can firmware update it? Are there any other ways to update, like via USB stick plugged into your head unit?

 

Indeed and no I was trying to connect the head unit, but same difference. Nothing is plugged in, it just wasn't having it.

 

Ah -

Most head units support taking updates in two ways:

1. Connect the unit to wifi (need to be semi-close to the router)
2. Save the update files onto a USB stick, and plug into the USB port of the radio (sometimes that's on the rear)

For the #2 option, the support section of your manufacturer's website will usually tell you. Hit Google and search for firmware update <model#>

Replace <model#> with the model number of your unit. Just make sure you look carefully at the web address where you're downloading

Usually the download page and/or the package you download from the manufacturer will tell you hot to properly setup the USB stick before copying the files onto it. Most models I've updated usually have you plug the loaded USB stick into the radio, then turn the vehicle on. When the radio boots up, it'll access the disk, pull files & update.

If you give me the make/model# of the radio I can hunt the update files for you, if it helps?

 

Appreciate that, I'll give it another shot at some point but doing it manually is a lot more work than it's worth given how little I use the truck.

 

I went back on the Gnar stereo/cam thread and found the post with a link of the unit you said you ordered. Resold by some company "Podofo".

Podofo has no support at their website, but you can email them to get the OTA update file. Updates on these are pretty easy.

Do me a favor, next time you're in the truck. Turn on the vehicle. Tap the gear icon:

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Tap the System Info tab and post a pic of this info you see on the screen (see one other comment after this pic):

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Your actual screens may vary, like the location of the gear icon on the home screen, but this should be a ballpark.

Note the 'Android upgrade" button on that Info screen. If you have the update file (OTA) from Podofo, and you put that file on a wiped/formatted USB stick and plug it into the unit, this button text will go from grey to white, you tap the button, it'll start updating the unit (just don't power off 'til done).

But plug-in where? Your unit should've come with a USB adapter cable, that plugs into the rear and give you a female plug to plug into, per their own documentation, here at #3:

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Managed to get it to connect to the WiFi to the point where I could download another launcher and Waze. Couldn't get the system to update but at this point it's good enough.

Pic of crooked camera view attached, master Tailgaters says it's fine and showing as intended, so I guess I'll just have to deal with it