[Rotary Rasp]

Originally Posted by grzes

ok, so latest update on the adventure of installing the camera
well, it is finally working as I wanted it, guide lines are also present, as Rotary Rasp said, the white cable has to be cut, also this is the most important part: it was not stressed enough how important it is to keep those can-bus wires (pin 9 & 11) twisted as it was by the factory and wires from the emulator also as twisted as they came from the seller. Only after re twisting all the wires the camera started to show guide lines or no lines (depending if you keep that loop cable broken or not). The $130 camera project works, was it worth of the troubles, well it was frustrating at the moments but now knowing what I have learned yes. Thank's to Rotary Rasp for help and placing this DIY.
Key things to remember:
- double check your connections as per diagram I have posted previously (do not follow the cable colors as depending on the emulator you get wires might be different colors)
- double check your wires once again (I did it twice but till i used the multimeter I did not see my mistake)
- make sure if you untwist some wires to make the connection you twist them back as tight as they were before (applies to both from original harness as well as the one from emulator)
- if your wire that suppose to power up the camera has no voltage in it, most like your connections are not working, check the wires and connections again.
- if you see some codes popping up (using ODB2 reader) that means your can-bus cables are not twisted enough and there is some communication issue (re twist the wires)

To be honest, after doing it and learning a lot from it, I can honestly say if you know what you are doing (or if I would have to do it again) it should take you anything between 1 to 2 hours and you should be done (not including the coding). I think getting the trim pieces off takes longer than the actual connection of the emulator

Glad you got it working. I was pretty sure all along that you just needed to re-twist those cables.

[trixdout]

The cable adapter plug that you posted the link to. We would have to splice into the adapter plug right? Instead of splicing into the oem wiring?

[n8s 330xi]

Originally Posted by wildcatcrazy

I can do it remotely if needed. I also have extra cables that I can mail to keep you from buying one.

I've heard that's possible, but didn't know how. I have a USB cable for this I'm already using for the BMWhat app - I just don't have the other software necessary like NCSExpert. I'll PM you. Thanks!

[esberelias]

Originally Posted by grzes

the codes and modules that have to be changed and updated are posted by the OP on the first post. For coding, well I found it easier to find someone who can do it, someone who knows how as I heard you can mess it up if you don't know what you doing. So if you have no experience in coding I would advise you to find someone who does and is willing to do it for you, sometimes it is safer just to pay

Well... you gotta start somewhere lol I am new to coding but i'm not a complete idiot either so i'll study how to code before attempting it and if i'm comfortable/confident enough than i'll give it a go...if not than i'll find someone... again where in Canada do you live? lol

[grzes]

Originally Posted by Rotary Rasp

Glad you got it working. I was pretty sure all along that you just needed to re-twist those cables.

yes you did I just didn't know how much lol, but this time, I was getting tired of removing everything to get to them so I have twisted crap out of them and tape them so they have no chance of separating from each other once again, big thank you for your help, greatly appreciated

[grzes]

Originally Posted by esberelias

Well... you gotta start somewhere lol I am new to coding but i'm not a complete idiot either so i'll study how to code before attempting it and if i'm comfortable/confident enough than i'll give it a go...if not than i'll find someone... again where in Canada do you live? lol

Fort Mac, AB
ha ha ha, well hopefully it will go well for you, I never intended to even hint that someone might be less intelligent to do this task, I am sure it is not hard when you get the software working but in my mind it was safer and cheaper to find someone who will code all and extra for the cost lower than the cable itself

[esberelias]

Originally Posted by grzes

Fort Mac, AB
ha ha ha, well hopefully it will go well for you, I never intended to even hint that someone might be less intelligent to do this task, I am sure it is not hard when you get the software working but in my mind it was safer and cheaper to find someone who will code all and extra for the cost lower than the cable itself

Well shit I'll just drive up to you! lol U can code it for me

[grzes]

Originally Posted by esberelias

Well shit I'll just drive up to you! lol U can code it for me

no no no, I told you I found a guy who did it for me with some extras, I never did any coding other than using BMWhat app lol

[grzes]

Originally Posted by llee5354

I had my car door replaced last week and when I picked up my car on Friday, everything was fine. Today, while picking up some groceries after work, my backup camera's picture became upside down. Know what might had happened? Would changing the door mess up the camera? It was fine over the weekend and Friday but not today (Monday). Thanks.

have you been able to solve this issue yet?? if so what was the problem?

[Panda-Man]

Originally Posted by grzes

have you been able to solve this issue yet?? if so what was the problem?

I think it's a defective camera, but have not confirmed yet. I am awaiting for a new camera to come to double check. I have a camera on the trunk handle and took that apart and switched it upside down-- that worked temporarily but not all the time...

[Cbozz]

Originally Posted by llee5354

I think it's a defective camera, but have not confirmed yet. I am awaiting for a new camera to come to double check. I have a camera on the trunk handle and took that apart and switched it upside down-- that worked temporarily but not all the time...

I had an issue with emulator... waited a month to get a new one, will be installing it soon

[Rotary Rasp]

Originally Posted by Cbozz

I had an issue with emulator... waited a month to get a new one, will be installing it soon

The video never passes through the emulator so I think it's unlikely that's the cause.

[n8s 330xi]

Alright, this damn thing is probably about the worst experience I've had with a BMW, but I'm too invested now to stop.

Thanks to wildcatcrazy, my car is now programmed to work (Thanks wildcatcrazy!). The good news is that everything works DESPITE not having PDC!
The bad news is, despite twisting the bejeezus out of the wires, I have a scrambled image. I'm using the addon wire harness, so I'm considering just splicing directly instead. I'd much rather not do that, but I've twisted and retwisted them so much that I'm probably going to start introducing a short.

1) Has anybody gotten it to work using the additional harness???
2) Is there a certain direction the twist has to go?
3) Do I need to take apart and twist the other connections that go through that harness? None of the wires on it came twisted.

If I can get it working, I will do a full workup of the problems I had and <hopefully> how to avoid them.



Obviously those are only temporary connections. After the 3rd time taking apart my connectors, I figured I'd just get it working then do the permanent attach.

[n8s 330xi]

Well, shouldn't have been a surprise - it's the camera. Just hooked up my Wii to it and the video is crystal clear.

So let me tell you all of the bad stuff that happened and why it's all my fault:
1: Death of a camera and trunk wire cover
While threading the camera wire through that tiny wire cover to the trunk, the baling wire I was using to do the threading punctured and ripped the cover on the back end where I couldn't see it. It somehow also ended up tearing the camera wire out of its insulation. I had to put it back together, but clearly I didn't do it completely. I may just buy another camera anyway.
Prevention: Don't use thick baling wire like I did, buy a camera with a smaller connector at the end and don't keep yanking when it stops simply because you're a dumb ape.

2: How to fubar your climate control
While doing my first wiring job, my climate control display stopped working. The BMWhat app couldn't even find its module anymore. I'm pretty sure that while I was poking around in there, I shorted something and fried that. Found a used one on eBay for $80 and it's on the way. Hope it fixes the issue! I've gone through every single fuse in the box and not found a single failure (used fuse tester and multimeter).
Prevention: Don't be a complete moron and do this with your battery still hooked up!

So, in the end, I've probably at least doubled the original posted price with the addition of the wire harness, replacement climate control, and another camera.

EDIT:
As I said above, my car DOES NOT have PDC, and it apparently doesn't need it. I have mine wired up exactly as grzes had laid out, and then connected the power wire in the rear to a switched wire (yellow/black in the harness heading to the trunk - I thought this was the reverse lights, but it apparently is just powered with the ignition on). I had wildcatcrazy do the programming remotely (totally worth it) and it worked.

[Rotary Rasp]

Too bad you didn't take my advice in the beginning.

Originally Posted by Rotary Rasp

That's a first. My bet would be a defective camera. Try plugging a different source into the rca connector in the trunk.

Originally Posted by n8s 330xi

Well, shouldn't have been a surprise - it's the camera. Just hooked up my Wii to it and the video is crystal clear.

[calforhelp]

I've purchased all of the recommended parts to retrofit this on my '11 e93 335is. I think I'm having a problem with the coding part. I'm plenty familiar with coding my car, I've been coding and retrofitting MINI's and BMW's for over 2 years now.


My car has the factory PDC front and back and CIC.

I've changed the VO and changed the lines in the CIC but it doesn't work. I have the sound but no picture. If I push the button or shift into reverse I get the beeping but the nav screen does not change. It stays on the radio or nav.

I've narrowed the problem down to the MARCO_L6_PARKMENU line.

When this line is set to the recommended aktiv I get only audio and no picture.

When it's set to nicht_aktiv, the backup diagram shows up horizontally on the left side of the screen where the backup image should be. The right side shows the PDC diagram in the vertical position.

Any ideas guys?

[n8s 330xi]

Originally Posted by Rotary Rasp

Too bad you didn't take my advice in the beginning.

Yep. I reread the thread and saw your post, which was what led me to test it that way. In a thread so long, it's tough to remember things until they're directly applicable.
It's not that I'm not listening, it's just that everybody's talking.

[StevenY.]

Originally Posted by n8s 330xi

Yep. I reread the thread and saw your post, which was what led me to test it that way. In a thread so long, it's tough to remember things until they're directly applicable.
It's not that I'm not listening, it's just that everybody's talking.

So now you have it working 100%? I'm motivated to do this now that I've seen you confirm that the emulator and everything works since I also don't have PDC.

[Rotary Rasp]

Originally Posted by n8s 330xi

It's not that I'm not listening, it's just that everybody's talking.

[n8s 330xi]

Originally Posted by StevenY.

So now you have it working 100%? I'm motivated to do this now that I've seen you confirm that the emulator and everything works since I also don't have PDC.

I'm pending my replacement camera, but otherwise, yes. Right now, putting the car in reverse turns on the camera screen (although the image is screwy) and putting it into drive turns the screen off. When I attached the Wii to test it, the image was perfectly good.
It could stand to wait a second before deciding to turn the camera on every time I move the shifter, but it all works completely without PDC. I had bought the module, but when I realized I'd have to install the full wiring harness, I didn't put it in. I figured I'd try to get it working without and use it if I need it later. Not sure what I'll do with the module now.

[grzes]

Originally Posted by calforhelp

I've purchased all of the recommended parts to retrofit this on my '11 e93 335is. I think I'm having a problem with the coding part. I'm plenty familiar with coding my car, I've been coding and retrofitting MINI's and BMW's for over 2 years now.


My car has the factory PDC front and back and CIC.

I've changed the VO and changed the lines in the CIC but it doesn't work. I have the sound but no picture. If I push the button or shift into reverse I get the beeping but the nav screen does not change. It stays on the radio or nav.

I've narrowed the problem down to the MARCO_L6_PARKMENU line.

When this line is set to the recommended aktiv I get only audio and no picture.

When it's set to nicht_aktiv, the backup diagram shows up horizontally on the left side of the screen where the backup image should be. The right side shows the PDC diagram in the vertical position.

Any ideas guys?

There was couple of people with this issue with MARCO_L6_PARKMENU but I believe that it is only due to the fact that your camera is not getting the power from the emulator. Check your wiring. In my case I had the same, sound from the PDC but no picture and I could not find the reason. Then after checking each connection I found out one of my wires not connected correctly. Coding should be fine, I have coded my car exactly as OP says to do so. One silly wire caused a big headache for me . Also, keep in mind those twisted wires, they do have to be well twisted as OP says, not sure why but it makes a difference in signal quality.
The picture of the vehicle on the right shows that PDC works just fine, as soon as you power up your camera your main screen should start showing the video feed. Once again, make sure your coding is as per OP.

[n8s 330xi]

My progress with this project was painful and fraught with issues and I’m finding it’s mainly because the supplemental information for it is scattered throughout this thread. Because of that, I’m going to do a repost with the full instructions with my notes and the notes of others. If something should be adapted, please let me know and I’ll edit it. I don’t want to do a new thread because I’d like to make sure credit is given to those who did the actual work.

FYI, so far, the consensus is that using this in tandem with a CIC emulator is flaky at best. If you experience differently, please let me know!

Originally Posted by Rotary Rasp

As some of you may know, our cars had the option for a factory installed backup camera in the European market. For whatever reason, BMW decided that the North American market was not worthy enough.

3 things are required:
Total Cost ~$130

Reverse camera:
ANY camera will work! But if you want it to look OEM then I recommend getting one that is integrated into the trunk handle. They can be found on ebay for around $50. If you're on a budget, there is also one that is integrated into the license plate light for about half the cost.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/281330142436...84.m1497.l2649
OR
http://www.ebay.com/itm/BMW-1-3-5-X3...item4181bd748f
OR
ANY CAMERA

Rotary later suggests making sure that whatever camera you get has the micro connector on it, and I want to make sure that’s obvious from the beginning. You should never buy the stuff for a DIY before reading through all of the instructions, but I want to make sure it’s not missed.

I bought 2 cameras because I broke the first. I won’t bother putting them in here, because he’s 100% right. Anything that sends an image to an RCA cable will work (I used a Wii for testing), so if you’d like to watch Teletubbies when you put it in reverse, it’s possible (but you should still feel bad about it).

Originally Posted by Rotary Rasp

Reverse camera emulator:
This taps into the cars CANBUS system and fools the navi into thinking that you actually have the required oem hardware. This can also be found on ebay for around $80.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BMW-E90-E60-..._Tools&vxp=mtr

Coding
This part not as difficult as it sounds. You'll need to barrow or buy a K-DCAN cable and download a copy of NCS-EXPERT. There is even a software app that another vendor made which will code the CIC module in one mouse click. I will show you how do it without that app because I'm sure they wouldn't appreciate people using it without buying their $500 kit.

Alternately, you can have somebody do the coding remotely for a small fee. Wildcatcrazy did mine and once the initial setup was completed, it was only about a 5 min process. One day I’ll figure out the coding, but today was not that day.
Note: So far, the BMWhat app does not have this capability.

I would also add that getting this is a good idea:

Originally Posted by Rotary Rasp

For those who don't want to splice any wires on the car should consider buying this $25 harness.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/141227219779

It makes it so you can do almost all of your splicing inside the house and not have to yank on the car’s cables or work in that small space in the dash.

What you don’t need: PDC
There was a whole lot of yes, no, maybe in the thread, but I can tell you right here and now that I don’t have PDC and it works on mine. The caveat is that the coding may need something a little different.

First thing I’m really going to change (and hope Rotary doesn’t mind) is the order of things. I’ll explain why, but I really think steps 5 and 6 of his tutorial should come between steps 1 and 2:

Oh, and unplug your battery!! I fried my climate control system and had to buy a new module because I was too dumb to take this small, easy precaution. If you don’t want this build to get VERY expensive, do the right thing here.

Originally Posted by Rotary Rasp

STEP 1:


Open box. You can see both the camera/trunk handle and the emulator module here. The ebay seller I purchased from was able to get my package delivered in 4 days with the standard free shipping. Pretty amazing!

STEP 5:



Pop out the navi and splice into 4 wires. The colors all match up. Attach the brown and green from the emulator to the brown and green on the navi harness (this is the CANBUS interface). Do the same the red and black (power wires). Lastly. the WHITE wire from the emulator is used to power the camera. So attach that to the cameras RED wire. You'll need to ground the camera at the trunk.

The kit will come with a bare RCA cable that will to be attached to pins 21(+) and 24(-) on the back of the navi unit itself. They just slide on, nothing tricky. I used some shrink tube for protection.

(I'm not going to go into detail on how to remove the navi, there are many other DIYs for that. All you need is a screw driver and about 5 minutes)

Here is where you should splice into the additional harness Rotary later recommends. Use Grzes diagram here:

Originally Posted by grzes

So, someone asked for the wiring diagram, here is what I came up with by using all the information from the OP, the emulator supplier and that Chinese web site that someone listed above. Please note, I did wire my system that way using pin 24 and 21 and my system is not working, I did not test pin 18 and 28 yet. I do have a problem as my white wire is not supplying the power to the camera. So use it at your own risk and if someone sees something incorrect please let me know and I will fix the diagram.

Another very good thing about the additional harness is that it comes with a blank, white plug for splicing the RCA cable into. You just pop the wire ends into the plug from the back and you’re done!
If you use the harness, you will have to take out the fiber cables on the right side of the plug assembly and pop them into the new harness where it plugs into the CIC unit. It’s a no brainer as soon as you see it, and it’s the only part that needs to be moved like that.

Originally Posted by Rotary Rasp

STEP 6:
This isn't a coding tutorial so you'll have to be resourceful read one of the million coding DIYs. But nonetheless, you'll need to add option $3AG to the VO in the CAS and FRM modules. This basically changes the original vehicle order configuration to include the back up camera. Next you'll need to enable the feature in the navi computer (CIC module). The values you need to change are as follows:

MACRO_PDC
aktiv
MACRO_REARVIEW
aktiv
RVC_CIC
wert_23
MACRO_L6_PARKMENU
aktiv
PDC_DIRECTION
vertikal

Again, I had this done remotely, so can't really supplement it. I'm happy to add/remove anything that people suggest. Just let me know and I'll edit.

And here’s why I think a reorder was necessary:
Any camera will do, but once you’ve gotten them installed, they’re a pain to uninstall if something goes wrong or if it was faulty. I feel that the best plan is to first test these things out and make sure your camera is working before threading it through the trunk (and especially that damn flex tube).
So at this point, you should hook your camera up to the RCA cable and test it all out. As Rotary later suggests, if the camera doesn’t work or is fuzzy, hook up a video player of some sort to the RCA. In my case, I brought the old Wii out and got crystal clear video, despite my camera image being scrambled.

Camera installation:

Originally Posted by Rotary Rasp

STEP 2:





Remove trunk liner using a flat head screw driver. Uninstall existing trunk handle and insert new camera/handle. Fish the wires down one of the support columns underneath the trunk lid.

Since it’s behind the liner anyway, I zip tied my wiring to the outside of the supports then threaded it through the hole at the bottom right to get it to the flex tube. Rotary’s method is probably the nicer thing to do, but since I had already screwed up my wiring, I wanted to be able to access the area I spliced to repair it.

Originally Posted by Rotary Rasp

STEP 3:


Make sure that whatever camera you get has the micro a/v and power connector. Otherwise you'll never be able to get the connectors through the oem flex tube. Even with the micro connector, it required me to use a pull string with lots of dish soap as a lubricate and about three attempts before I was victorious.

This is one area I completely screwed up. I used bailing wire to pull the wiring through by threading it through, hooking the other end of the wire into it and pulling. When it got to the tight part, the hook came undone and punctured the flex tube, ripping it open and tearing apart the wiring. I had to pull the end out of the tube and splice it back together. Mine did have the micro connector as well. That flex tube is not forgiving.

Originally Posted by Rotary Rasp

STEP 4:
Route the wire from the trunk to behind the dash. I didn't bother taking pictures of this because it's very easy to tuck the wire under the rear seat and passenger door seal. You could also tuck it behind the center console. Doesn't really matter how you get the little cable to the navi.

Thanks to everybody in this thread for giving me the info to be able to get this going. Hopefully this helps some of you too.

Rotary, let me know if you'd prefer I remove or edit this or if you'd rather edit your original.