TV Module for backup camera?

[sealbeach740]

kahlilj - I do my audio swapping exactly as racer2086 mentions. I start out with my iPod audio being played via the AUX input. I then go to the Main Menu on the 16x9 & select "TV". When the video shows on the screen I hit the "<>" button to tell it to switch to the "other" audio (AUX input).
To be clear, I still have to use the iPod to select videos & change chapters. So, for me, I needed the iPod mounted (I have mine in my Euro arm rest) in reach - as opposed to mounted in the trunk.

[Frankie]

Good info here.

Maybe someone could give me guidance as well.

I have absolutely no interest in displaying a TV signal or a local video signal on my 16:9 monitor. What I am interested in is a back-up camera, only.

I understand I'll need a BMW TV tuner as discussed here (either analog or hybrid), and I'll probably use this camera with this adapter. But how the hell does the TV module connect to the car? Is my car pre-wired? Is there a complete write-up with part numbers somewhere?

[Alpine 7even]

Good info here.

Maybe someone could give me guidance as well.

I have absolutely no interest in displaying a TV signal or a local video signal on my 16:9 monitor. What I am interested in is a back-up camera, only.

I understand I'll need a BMW TV tuner as discussed here (either analog or hybrid), and I'll probably use this camera with this adapter. But how the hell does the TV module connect to the car? Is my car pre-wired? Is there a complete write-up with part numbers somewhere?

You'll either need to find a company that sells a retrofit harness, or make your own.

[sealbeach740]

I understand I'll need a BMW TV tuner as discussed here (either analog or hybrid), and I'll probably use this camera with this adapter. But how the hell does the TV module connect to the car? Is my car pre-wired? Is there a complete write-up with part numbers somewhere?

This link has some info that might be helpful to you (same source as your links):
https://store.bimmernav.com/blogs/in...ision-retrofit

By the way, search on ebay for Boyo backup cameras. You should be able to find them cheaper & with infared lights for nightime light sources.
IMHO, $49 for a simple automotive SPST 4 post relay & a couple of wire pins is a bit expensive.

[racer2086]

I appreciate BimmerNav for all the info they post on their site, but man that stuff is expensive.

Just use this camera: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It's tiny, the picture is great, and you can run the wire through the hole next to the license plate light and screw it to the license plate screw.

And buy a generic automotive relay and wire it up. You can cut all the wire and pins out of a junk car to solder together into factory harnesses.


For the TV module, there was a harness I bought that I was able to adapt to it, but I don't have the part number any more. The concept is to put the TV module between the nav and boardmonitor.

[Alpine 7even]

Just make your own. It's super easy! Just buy afew male and female nav computer plugs and repin them. It also give you the opportunity to add RCA ins and outs.

[Frankie]

This link has some info that might be helpful to you (same source as your links): https://store.bimmernav.com/blogs/in...ision-retrofit

Thanks! I missed that blog entry.

According to their website, BimmerNav no longer sells a retrofit TV module kit for the E38, just the individual parts I linked. I asked them via e-mail if they still sell the harness but received no reply. I'll watch eBay.

Just use this camera: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Thanks for the tip!

[kahlilj]

Short answer for the video part...

The hybrid should be fine for your video needs. I think the only thing different is the internal tuner, which you won't be using. All input stuff is the same. Not 100% on that, but if you have a hybrid cheaper than an analog, I think that's a good deal and you can unload to someone overseas without much of an issue.

The other thing is that I think all hybrid units are newer so will support 16:9.


I'll try to explain the sound thing...

To get stereo from your "external" device, you need to wire the audio to the BM53 aux input. The key to switching the audio is the i-bus command as I mentioned. But that I-bus command does not say which input to go to, it just goes back to the last input you used. For example, you are listening to FM and select TV, the audio goes to TV. You send the i-bus command to switch back and it goes back to FM. If you select Aux before switching to TV it'll go back to Aux. So that's not hard to switch to before hand -- that's what you do normally in the car.

In terms of sending the i-bus command, you can code the Arduino to do whatever you want. For example, I have it send the command when I press the <> button. So I switch to Aux mode using the Mode button, select TV, press <>. Done. If you didn't want to have to press <>, you could code the Arduino to automatically send the i-bus command to switch back to radio mode when it detected the TV audio i-bus command when TV is selected. That'll just eliminate the <> button press. I think that's about as short as you will get from the car side of things -- then it's just up to whatever you have to do with your "external" device.

ok, thanks for confirming. does the Arduino offer any more benefit than the NAVtv device?

kahlilj - I do my audio swapping exactly as racer2086 mentions. I start out with my iPod audio being played via the AUX input. I then go to the Main Menu on the 16x9 & select "TV". When the video shows on the screen I hit the "<>" button to tell it to switch to the "other" audio (AUX input)....

Is this "<>" button y'all mentioned the selector button on the factory monitor? or something else?

Good info here.

Maybe someone could give me guidance as well.

I have absolutely no interest in displaying a TV signal or a local video signal on my 16:9 monitor. What I am interested in is a back-up camera, only.

I understand I'll need a BMW TV tuner as discussed here (either analog or hybrid), and I'll probably use this camera with this adapter. But how the hell does the TV module connect to the car? Is my car pre-wired? Is there a complete write-up with part numbers somewhere?

there are also writeups on e38.0rg for installing backup cameras too:
crude but "camera on-demand": http://www.bimmerboard.com/forums/posts/26374
or: http://www.bimmerboard.com/forums/posts/266523
a bit more detailed steps and explanation of all connections: http://www.bimmerboard.com/forums/posts/516841

hope that helps.

[sealbeach740]

Yes, it's the "<>" button on the 16x9 (& I ASSUME on the 4x3).
Hey!! What do you mean "crude but on-demand"????? That is my (old) post!

[kahlilj]

Yes, it's the "<>" button on the 16x9 (& I ASSUME on the 4x3).
Hey!! What do you mean "crude but on-demand"????? That is my (old) post!

lmao! I knew it was yours. I was wondering if you were going to catch that. .. just messing with you dude. I thought it was pretty kool, but you know tech has caught up and there are much easier ways to install now.

[sealbeach740]

lmao! I knew it was yours. I was wondering if you were going to catch that. .. just messing with you dude. I thought it was pretty kool, but you know tech has caught up and there are much easier ways to install now.

LOL! Too funny!
That stuff was pretty cool (to me at least) 13 years ago. Back then, there just weren't that many backup cameras around. Nowadays it's a really common (& a great) feature. In the day, I was sooooo proud of the little "on demand" switch. Not much use for it (other than testing stuff), but it was fun to show someone.

[racer2086]

ok, thanks for confirming. does the Arduino offer any more benefit than the NAVtv device?



Is this "<>" button y'all mentioned the selector button on the factory monitor? or something else?

The Arduino offers the ability for you to code what ever other feature you want over the i-bus. For example, because the 4:3 monitor doesn't have soft keys like the 16:9, I coded the Arduino to send the "select" and "info" soft key i-bus messages when I push the non-softkey "select" or "pty" buttons on my 4:3 monitor. So now I can get those menus on my nav with the old monitor. My next project is going to display the park distance sensor distances on the cluster when the system is active, in a similar way to how the Intravee does it.

Yes, the <> button is on both monitors and it is to switch the tape from side A to side B

[kahlilj]

Ok so now that I have the TV module, what wiring harness should I get? Racer2086, I saw the link in which you mentioned you got a full harness from bimmernav. I don't think I need that. I'm trying to understand how the tv module and nav computer will be linked with the new harness though. looks like a pigtail or daisychained connection?

So where did you guys get your harness to work with the TV module & an OEM TV tuner? ebay like this one? or...??

Lastly I noticed the tuner has 2 very small connectors on it. For some reason I was thinking it might have RCA connections for another video source, but these connectors are definitely not RCA. Fakra connectors? Are these for an antenna or something?

[racer2086]

All you need to do is connect the blue plug that is in the back of the nav (the one that comes from the board monitor) into the blue plug of the TV module. Then you need a harness connector that goes from the blue plug of the nav computer to the white plug of the TV module.

That ebay wire is really expensive. You can make your own for far less than that or buy another cable from BMW with the right connectors on it and modify it. For the video inputs, you can just buy the phono jacks at Radio Shack and solder the wire pins on and then plug the pins into the white connector of the TV module.

The small connectors on the TV module you see are for the TV antennas, which are useless now.

[kahlilj]

All you need to do is connect the blue plug that is in the back of the nav (the one that comes from the board monitor) into the blue plug of the TV module. Then you need a harness connector that goes from the blue plug of the nav computer to the white plug of the TV module.

That ebay wire is really expensive. You can make your own for far less than that or buy another cable from BMW with the right connectors on it and modify it. For the video inputs, you can just buy the phono jacks at Radio Shack and solder the wire pins on and then plug the pins into the white connector of the TV module.

The small connectors on the TV module you see are for the TV antennas, which are useless now.

Thanks Racer. So I put together this crude picture based on what you wrote, but I'm confused about the cable/wiring going to the white tv connector. Is it a harness from the blue connector on the nav computer to that white connector on the tv module? or is it the video source (DVD, backup camera,etc) that you need to splice a connector for that then goes to that white connector on the tv module? Does anything go to the white connector on the nav computer?

TV wiring diagram.JPG

[racer2086]

It is way simpler than you are thinking...

Your diagram is correct. If you look at a nav pinout:
MK2_MK3_MK4_pinout.jpg

and a TV module pinout:

39834d1265652965-dvd-player-tv-tuner-backup-camera-help-tv-tuner-pinouts.jpg

You will see which pins of the nav correspond to which pins of the white TV module connector. That's how the connectors should be set up. Then for your video source, you add 2 pins to the white connector going to the TV module (video + pin 2 and video - pin 11) and for video audio (mono remember) you add 2 pins to the white connector at pin 1 for audio + and pin 10 for audio -. Then for a backup camera you add video + to pin 13 and video - to pin 14. So out of your harness, you will have hanging 3 RCA connectors that then get wires from your backup camera and dvd player video and audio.

See the earlier posts in regards to mono vs stereo audio. If you run anything through the TV module, it will be mono. And I can't remember precisely, but you may have to manually run the audio to the radio pins for the TV audio, since something in my memory is telling me that the audio didn't just pass through my TV module if I recall. Most of this stuff (including wiring harnesses) were designed before the BM53.

[kahlilj]

Thanks Racer. I messed up in my diagram. The nav computer is supposed to have red (purple?) connector in the back not white. So nothing goes there though? Oh wait a sec the existing red connector that was going there will REMAIN connected there right?

I guess part of my confusion about the blue plugs is that some of the wiring harnesses I've seen seem to show a piggyback connection between the board monitor, the nav computer and the TV tuner. So I must have misunderstood what I saw. Thanks. Essentially I need to source a wiring harness from the nav's blue connector to the white connector of the TV tuner modified with splices and RCA connectors as you described in the post above.

[racer2086]

Yup you got it. Purple stays, you need a harness to add from nav blue to tv white. Then the current blue from board monitor goes to tv module blue. That's it. Modify the nav to tv harness as necessary to add rca connectors. Very easy if you chop out wiring from a junk car for the pins and connectors and just solder and heat shrink together.

[kahlilj]

Yup you got it. Purple stays, you need a harness to add from nav blue to tv white. Then the current blue from board monitor goes to tv module blue. That's it. Modify the nav to tv harness as necessary to add rca connectors. Very easy if you chop out wiring from a junk car for the pins and connectors and just solder and heat shrink together.

Kool & I just happen to have a junk car sitting in my driveway. lol! Thanks again for you help.

[kahlilj]

So I found the blue and white connectors in Baby I! I knew the blue connector would be there from the old Nav unit, but couldn't find a white connector anywhere in the trunk that fits. While I was dinking around the interior of the car I saw one lying in the front center console which was open/exposed from where I had pulled the 16:9 monitor and HVAC control module a long time ago.
http://i1103.photobucket.com/albums/...257A1BF3EA.jpg
So now I just gotta connect the wires up to match the pinouts shown for the nav blue to tv white.

[racer2086]

Sweet. That's easy. Do test the white plug in the TV module. The white plug for the board monitor is smaller than the TV module white plug. But that's not a huge deal, you can buy one online or from the dealer for a couple bucks.

[kahlilj]

Sweet. That's easy. Do test the white plug in the TV module. The white plug for the board monitor is smaller than the TV module white plug. But that's not a huge deal, you can buy one online or from the dealer for a couple bucks.

You're right, the white plug for the board monitor is a different size and will not fit. The white plug that I got goes to the HVAC control unit below the display monitor. It fits exactly. The only problem is the wiring coming out from the blue plug to the nav seems to be modified? Notice the 3 black wires coming out of the blue plug. well they are that thick because it's actually two wires in each cable. Each pair of these wires are the same colors so now it's unclear which pin they are connected to in the blue plug. dangit. lol

[racer2086]

That sheathing is normal. I believe those are the RGB wires for the video. Use a multimeter on the "continuity test" and you can tell exactly which pin each wire goes to. Or just do what I did and remove those wires/pins and put other wires pins where you need them to go. Take the pins out of the white connector that didn't fit.

The white/blue plastic cover slides off once you lift a tab and then take a small screw driver to push in the metal tab on the pin and it will slip right out.

[sleuth255]

So I'm building my custom cable that goes from the white TV connector to the blue Nav unit connector and I'm wondering what to do about blue connector pin 3 on the nav side (I-BUS). Do I leave this blank or do I tap it into the wire that goes to pin 3 of the original blue connector that's now connected to the TV? I've noticed that both the Nav and the TV contain computers that completely control the boardmonitor and as such they are very different visually from each other! If both are connected to the I-BUS, then I'd assume that one would take over as master and the other becomes either a slave or inactive. If that's the case then which one takes over?

[sleuth255]

And the answer is: you need to connect up pin 3 and the nav computer becomes the master. Cool! Now to get the backup camera wired in and put this project to bed.