Rear view camera switch

Hello all, I have a quick question on wiring a switch. I recently installed a rear view camera into my AVH-P6500 dvd player. What I would like to do is wire a switch that will show 12v whenever I flip it, thereby causing the camera to turn itself on. As I understand it, the AVH-P6500 has a purple lead that hooks up to a 12volt source and can detect both whether the lead has become 12v or has become ground.

What I would do is connect this lead to the switch I made, causing the camera to turn on and off whenever I wanted to. Being the knucklehead that I am, though, I tapped into 12v accessory and made the switch go to ground when flipped. Most of you are either smiling or laughing at me at this point because you know I blew my accessory fuse.

Anyway, can anyone tell me the best way to wire this? The area where I am mounting the switch has easy access to 12v switched, 12 volt constant, and ground. Much appreciated.

Jose

I'm sorry, I just reread my post and realized it makes very little sense. The camera is always on when the accessory power is on, I'm not going to change this.

What I am trying to do is make a switch that makes the reverse gear detection lead see 12v whenever I want to. Preferably, I would tap this lead (reverse gear detection lead) into a wire connected to a switch that I could make show 12 volts whenever I wanted to.  Eh, I'm still not completely satisfied with the way I worded this, but I think this makes more sense.

You sound like you answered your own question! :D

Tap into the accessory wire in the ignition harness with a FUSED wire and run that to a switch.  Run the other side of the switch to you camera and that's all she wrote.

Just curious, why are do you need to control the camera on and off?

Good Luck

Hi, not sure I understand. Just the addition of the fuse will keep the switch from blowing the accessory fuse? How does that work?  What size fuse should I add, considering that the only purpose of this wire is to show 12 volts? Correct me if I am wrong, but wouldn't directly shorting the ignition accessory to ground with the switch cause the wire I used to start on fire, or just blow the fuse I'd put there (the one you mentioned)? You'll have to excuse me if I am asking silly questions as I'm still barely learning.

To answer your question, it's part laziness, part wanting to keep the car stock. The reverse gear switch is at the bottom of the shifter, under this rubber deal that is glued on to the car. I'd have to either cut that or tear it off to get to the switch, so that's out, and I am too lazy to take apart the car and find the wire elsewhere. Also, I think it has more of a "cool" factor to be able to turn the camera on and off at will.

Thanks for your help.

Wow, thank you for this diagram, Mike. I'll try it out today and let you know how it goes. I appreciate the effort you put into making me a diagram, very kind of you. And you're right, I should probably change the camera to only on when I need it. No point to wearing it down all the time when it's not even being used.

On final question, please. On your diagram, you put Acc + wire in vehicle. Can this be any old accessory wire, or should I tap into the one on the ignition harness under the steering wheel? Thanks again.

Jose