I've got a lockpick, and am looking for a good location and powersource for the rear camera. I'm thinking of mounting it on top of the bumper, in the center. It would give the best field of view for watching out for my little kids, but might be vulnerable to getting kicked or broken as they climb in or out of the third row seat. (I have a Littleseats seat back there).

I also need to know where there is a wire I can tap into for power. Maybe one of the hitch wires or the third brake light wire?

 

You'll need to run power up to the front and tap into a switched source. There are a couple places you can do that, like the ignition or the cig outlet being the most popular.

 

If you have the lockpick, it comes with a powersupply that you can use for the camera.

 

Where is it? I couldn't make heads or tails from the instructions and the power wire seems to be at the end toward the camera.

 

The lockpick has a red, yellow and black wire coming out of it that is not connected to anything. The red is switched, the yellow is constant power and the black is ground. If you have the Lockpick camera it has a red , black and green wire to it in addition to the analog video plug. The red goes to red and the black to black. The green wire from the camera do not connect unless you want a mirrored image. (for reverse I don't recommend it).

If yours was like mine, for some reason the red did not work when in reverse but worked when you activated it in FM. To fix this i wired it to the yellow lead. I plan to run a new switched power lead when I have time.

 

You would want a mirrored view for a rear view camera. Although I guess it depends on how the manufacture labels it. If a car is behind you and moves toward the driverside to pass on the left side of your car you want to make sure that in the monitor the car is moving toward the left of the screen. It would be very confusing for someone if the monitor worked opposite of how your rear view mirror worked.

 

I initially thought so as well but when I wired it with the green wire the picture was reversed and it didn't seem right. I cut the green wire and it fixed it. So I think it is already mirrored without the green. Just my $.02. Cheers

 

Great! Thanks!

How about your locations for the camera. I'm looking for ideas. It can't be too high, because I've got really young kids and I want them to be seen if they are behind me.

Thanks again for the help!

 

If I want to mirror the image, what exactly do I do with the one extra wire that the Lockpic camera comes with? I really dont like the wya it shows right now (it seems reversed to me) and am not sure what i need to do to get it to mirror the image

 

Place it behind your spare tire. Its up high and its protected. Thats the way I have mine and have had alot of people say this is perfect.