Reversing camera

Lexiguy · October 7, 2022

You give us too much praise Ken, you are a fortunate man that you can get the job done by a professional, watch someone working (which I have always found to be very relaxing) and have the money to pay the bill!

Glyn Jennings · October 7, 2022

2 hours ago, Lexiguy said:

You give us too much praise Ken, you are a fortunate man that you can get the job done by a professional, watch someone working (which I have always found to be very relaxing) and have the money to pay the bill!

Really glad you got it sorted Ken. I have found the SC430mods.com camera works really well. Hopefully now you won’t have any further problems but if you do you know there is is a wealth of fellow owners only to willing to help. I must admit I have always been the sort of person who will attempt most things as I like the challenge and I suppose the satisfaction of having achieved something new. I am a bit tight when it comes to spending money as well.

Ken Timbers · October 8, 2022

23 hours ago, Glyn Jennings said:

I like the challenge and I suppose the satisfaction of having achieved something new.

I know what you mean and I've experienced quite a lot of that in my career, but little of my technical knowledge transfers into practical help with my subsequent life—especially car electronics! I won't bore you with the detail, but as an example, there's little call for the know-how of an international project manager of artillery weapons in retirement!

Fortunately, it left me with sufficient funds to pay for my needs. There are times when I'd like to have hands-on know-how, but I've left it a bit late to start now!

Lexiguy · October 9, 2022

Don't knock yourself Ken that's a fancy title and I bet you didn't get it if you weren't full of appropriate knowledge and skill.

There must be a small task you can undertake on your car which you could start with. It would help your confidence to look at a further project.

The biggest thing is to not worry and have fun doing it!

Anthony

Ken Timbers · November 11, 2022

I thought it was time I updated on my experience with the car. I'm glad to say that, on the whole, it is all going well, but on Tuesday this week I had a recurrence of the random horn sounding. It was only about three fairly quick hoots, but since my hands were nowhere near the button, they were due to something other than my input. I was on the M2 motorway, just after coming out of the 50 mph zone and beginning to accelerate gently in quite heavy rain.

I drove on to my destination in North Kent and, about an hour later returned home, by which time the weather had cleared up. I tried varying speeds and both gentle and aggressive accelerations, but the fault didn't repeat. On a short run today, again there was no repetition.

I'm not sure how best to proceed. When the car was in Lexus (Sidcup)'s hands, they had an old hand who was about to retire, but he took time to have a long look at the car. He well remembered the SC430 and he did every test he could think of, including of course a check of the fault codes, and found nothing wrong. In fact, he said the car was in great condition. I know they don't have that same mechanic any longer, and if he couldn't find the problem there's not much chance of anyone else finding it. At the same time, it's a bit like a 'sword of Damocles' as far as I'm concerned. I know now that I can stop the horn sounding by simply disconnecting it from the battery—the leads pull off quite easily. But that would leave me with an illegal car.

The alternative is to put it back in their hands and refuse to have it back until they've sorted it out—after all, it came to me with that fault, and although it didn't show up for some weeks after I took delivery, it still occurred during the short warranty period I was given. Does anyone have an alternative suggestion, short of giving up the car and finding something else?

Lexiguy · November 13, 2022

Hi Ken

It sounds like you have probably got a short somewhere in the wiring and an intermittent fault like this that you can't replicate is the worst problem to fix.

Personally I would not be happy to disconnect the horn because that would be illegal and unsafe.

I would personally contemplate getting a trusted and competent auto electrician to rewire the horn to the fuse and the pad.

I wish you luck

Anthony

Olderthanus · July 7

Added the SC430Mods backup camera kit to my "new" SC430 today. Spent more time on the video and FB information than the installation- works right out of the box as a straight backup camera with the old working DVD nav. Given the nav screen, it is serviceable- but probably not my longer term plans. Perhaps with some more fiddling with the camera controls I can improve it.

Will probably replace the entire stock radio unit and add front camera to get my Android Auto functionality back- the FB solutions look a bit too complex for me and it's hard to know what is the latest solution. At least watching videos for an afternoon gave me ideas on tracking the camera wire back from the dash to the rear camera.

No new information here- but at least a recent install for reassurance.

Olderthanus · July 9

WIshed after a day I hadn't opted for this. This is seemingly older tech- even though it works and would have been great in 2010. I had opted this way to avoid threading the camera wire through the maze to the head unit that I was going to replace anyway- then found out that the new head unit (or any new one replacing the stock unit in 2024) kills the nav unit anyway. $170 down the tubes- but that's how it goes.

I live and learn.

At least I can use the camera in the kit- but I have to figure out how to navigate the hard-wired camera cable with it all through from the trunk into the head unit area- it seems there are several paths- but there are no clear online pathways on how to do it. perhaps in a week's worth of searching for bits of advice in this video or that one on YouTube. Either way, it must go through the rear trunk and past the subwoofer under the carpet along the tunnel into the console cavity, which seems the best bet- 2nd best bet follows the antenna wire around the passenger compartment - but that is for the weekend when start to thread it through it for real.

Any advice accepted.

Edited July 9 by Olderthanus
spelling

Glyn Jennings · July 9

7 hours ago, Olderthanus said:

WIshed after a day I hadn't opted for this. This is seemingly older tech- even though it works and would have been great in 2010. I had opted this way to avoid threading the camera wire through the maze to the head unit that I was going to replace anyway- then found out that the new head unit (or any new one replacing the stock unit in 2024) kills the nav unit anyway. $170 down the tubes- but that's how it goes.

I live and learn.

At least I can use the camera in the kit- but I have to figure out how to navigate the hard-wired camera cable with it all through from the trunk into the head unit area- it seems there are several paths- but there are no clear online pathways on how to do it. perhaps in a week's worth of searching for bits of advice in this video or that one on YouTube. Either way, it must go through the rear trunk and past the subwoofer under the carpet along the tunnel into the console cavity, which seems the best bet- 2nd best bet follows the antenna wire around the passenger compartment - but that is for the weekend when start to thread it through it for real.

Any advice accepted.

In fairness if you are not intending to replace the existing Sat Nav the SC430mods one works well which is what it was intended for. It’s easy to fit because it just plugs into the Sat Nav in the boot without running a cable up to the screen. The only thing lets it down is the low resolution of the existing Lexus display. I’ve had mine for a couple of years now and it’s been fine. Ironically I don’t really need the SC430mods one as I later fitted a front and rear dashcam which has a separate rear camera. That one did need the cable running to the front of the car. I ran that through a hole that is just up under the rear seat back on the passenger side of the car and then up through under the side of the centre console to get to the dashboard area. In the photo you can see that wire as well as the two wire cable that goes to my quarter window mod.