Reverse light feed

[Mr Singh]

Hey guys,

fitting an Alpine reverse camera onto my 97' Astro. The kit needs a reverse light feed, or something to trigger it when its put in reverse, that way the Alpine screen switches from whatever is being played at the time to whats on the camera when I select reverse.. I could do it from a switch but rather it function correctly.

Any help would be great!

Thanks,
Am

[dunedog]

what's wrong with the obvious ?
Tap into the backup light feed.........

[Spike99]

.

If the factory "R" wire lead off one of the rear lights doesn't support enough 12V AMPs, then a Relay may need to be installed as well. For this, simply run a thick 12V 10 guage wire with inline fuse from battery "+" post to rear of the van (usually under the van), install a 20A (or larger) Relay, then tap its switch wire into the factory "R" wire. For your rear equipment that needs lots of 12V AMPs, simply connect to the output side of the Relay. When thin "R" light is activated, the Relay's output wire has lots of 12V "juice". Inline Fuse of main "+" wire (off the battery) is same size as the rear equipment fuse size. For example, 10 Amp fuse - if rear equipment recommends 10A fuse.

If wondering, I had to install a Relay on the rear of my van to support `high power` EXTRA rear reverse lights. These auto fog lights automatically came ON when I put my Safari van in "R" gear. For wiring diagram (that I used for 2 x 55W fog lights in rear of my van), surf: http://i178.photobucket.com/albums/w251 ... iagram.jpg


Hope this helps as well...

.

[Mr Singh]

Thanks guys. I didn't even know there were back up lights on there

Would anyone know which wire it is from the rear tail light cluster?

Thanks!!

[rlsllc]

It is light green, and is in with the tail lamp and rear speaker wire harness. It is easy to access in the left rear panel inside the van. It will supply a couple of amps, but not a lot more. Be sure that you check it with a test lamp...I can't remember if it is the only light green wire, but the speaker and taillamp wires look like the same exact colors to me. I'll never figure out why they did that. Good luck!

[Mr Singh]

Brilliant, i'll give that a try thanks!!

[peter]

It is light green, and is in with the tail lamp and rear speaker wire harness. It is easy to access in the left rear panel inside the van. It will supply a couple of amps, but not a lot more. Be sure that you check it with a test lamp...I can't remember if it is the only light green wire, but the speaker and taillamp wires look like the same exact colors to me. I'll never figure out why they did that. Good luck!

"Hi! You may call me Roy.
Although I still don't get the smurf thing, I'm going to nod and grin in a futile effort to fit in. (Happy now, Peter????)"


ROFL......

[Mr Singh]

Not having much luck finding the light green wire, i only need 0.5A to supply the reverse camera module... Lots of greens mind you.. And i don't even have reverse lights that illuminate on my van

[rlsllc]

A picture is worth a thousand words...





Here are two thousand works, lol. That's where I've found the wires on several vans. Notice there are several yellow wires? One of them is the right turn signal (IIRC). There are duplicates of several colors. My (Wife's) '99 had the dedicated trailer harness located on the right (as in not left) side, same spot. I think the '99 has the same harness, since I saw the speaker/taillight wires when I was working on the rear heat-A/C ducting. Can't confirm the presence of the backup circuit, though. Worse case, trace the wire from the tail lamp into the van.

Mind you, my van is a '94...maybe that's the difference.

If you don't have B-up lights, have you checked the bulbs? I've had them both be bad before. If that's not it, you'll need to check the switch, since the wire will be dead if the switch is bad. I think the switch is part of the neutral start switch on the column on older vans, yours may be tied into the gear position sensor on the trans...I don't know.

[Mr Singh]

Found it! there were 3 green wires in the same ream of cables.. tested each one then found the right one that gave me 12v with the van in reverse, happy days

Can't test the camera yet, ton more work to finish before then!

Thanks for all the help, definatley helped

[rlsllc]