Reverse camera as seen on Toms Hardware

[tchiarella]

Hey all, I'm new to this particular forum, but wanted to share this in case you were looking for a back-up camera for a Mazda5. A backup camera was essential to my wife given our neighborhood and how many kids are running around and we were shocked that Mazda does not offer a camera on the 5 at any trim level.

Tom's hardware had a special on their Mazda5 adventure that inspired my camera selection, and there are other goodies there too.

Intro June 2014:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/mazda5-technology-project,3795.html

Update Nov 2014:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/mazda5-technology-upgrade,3966.html

They don't call out what camera they used by I found a very similar one on Amazon:
http://amzn.com/B00NWALX56

There is also a non LED version available. Paired with a BOYO rear view mirror the results are pretty nice, very OEM look to the whole setup. BOYO mirror I picked up was this model:
http://amzn.com/B00G32IFI8

The hardest part was waiting for the camera to come in from China... took a good 4-8 weeks.

Install was easy, unfortunately I didn't take pics of the process.

Installed camera and mirror

When car is in reverse

 

[tuanies]

^That's me

 

[flcruising]

I'd like to see some pics.

 

[tchiarella]

I'd like to see some pics.

Sure thing, I'll take some tonight/tommorrow morning and post them. I will also try to find the wiring diagrams I printed out from back when you could access them through that infamous mazda site that was taken down.

 

[tchiarella]

Updated OP with pics

 

[tchiarella]

Thanks to tuanies, here is where I spliced in.

Use backup light wire to power the camera when you shift into reverse, ground to any ground accessible.

Use accessory power to wire power to the mirror. I did not need to make an additional connection to the backup light as the camera comes with a signal wire that runs in the same cabling as the video feed. Mirror will get power when ignition is in ACC or higher, and the built in LCD will come on when the signal goes high on the signal wire (when the camera is powered, when the car is in reverse).

The connections I made were in the hatch for the camera (Rear #2 harness)

and in the passenger side kick panel (lower dashboard rear harness).

 

[e30blitz]

Great write up


OO ||| OO + O w O + [emoji15]

 

[tchiarella]

Thanks... It's certainly no step by step with pictures, but it hopefully helps someone. If I have the time I may update to step by step noting pics as appropriate