[GUIDE] Aftermarket Wireless Rear View Camera for barn doors on a T6 (Auto-Vox T1400W)

[Artaroos]

I wanted a Rear View Camera - to assist with the reversing sensors for the last couple of feet.

After a bit of research I went for this one:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B072KR8GMB/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I wired the Rear view mirror (with built in screen) direct to the interior light - permanent live but I am ok with that (rather that then run the wire all over the place).

The Camera sender unit wires into the reversing light (when you go into reverse, it powers the wireless camera - Black & Green Positive - Brown Negative (check yours)).

Took a couple of hours to fit - overall I'm very happy with it - it does what I wanted.

 

[MartyMoose]

I too have been looking for an after-market solution. My composition colour head unit is not compatible with the kit available on the forum. I can't believe VW put a unit into a Highline vehicle that won't accept a reverse camera retrofit. Anyway, I went for the Ring wireless camera, which has a small dash-mounted monitor. Thankfully I tried it out before fitting it to the van because the picture quality was really poor. The night vision was even worse and almost unusable as a reversing aid. In the end I boxed it up and sent it back. Lately I've been looking at the various offerings from www.parkingcameras.com, which use a mirror solution, albeit with a larger display. Trouble is the wireless versions are quite expensive and the mirror has a separate receiver that has to be mounted somewhere. I'd almost resigned myself to a wired system with all the hassle that would involve so I'm glad you posted when you did. I'll certainly look at the one you have fitted.

Yours looks a lot better than the Ring one, and price is not so different. How would you rate the picture quality and is the mirror just as good as the original? Also, how did you feed the camera wire back to the transmitter. I assume it had a plug on the end so was this tricky to get through?

 

[Artaroos]

I too have been looking for an after-market solution. My composition colour head unit is not compatible with the kit available on the forum. I can't believe VW put a unit into a Highline vehicle that won't accept a reverse camera retrofit. Anyway, I went for the Ring wireless camera, which has a small dash-mounted monitor. Thankfully I tried it out before fitting it to the van because the picture quality was really poor. The night vision was even worse and almost unusable as a reversing aid. In the end I boxed it up and sent it back. Lately I've been looking at the various offerings from www.parkingcameras.com, which use a mirror solution, albeit with a larger display. Trouble is the wireless versions are quite expensive and the mirror has a separate receiver that has to be mounted somewhere. I'd almost resigned myself to a wired system with all the hassle that would involve so I'm glad you posted when you did. I'll certainly look at the one you have fitted.

Yours looks a lot better than the Ring one, and price is not so different. How would you rate the picture quality and is the mirror just as good as the original? Also, how did you feed the camera wire back to the transmitter. I assume it had a plug on the end so was this tricky to get through?

Hi Marty,

it's wireless, so no cable to run (front to back).
The reciever is built into the mirror, just need 12Vs.
The mirror is just as good as OEM, in fact it is tinted so easier on the eye.
Picture quality is good, it can pick up interference occasionally, but is still very useable.

Cheers

 

[Artaroos]

Night vision excellent BTW

 

[MartyMoose]

Thanks for the info. How did you get the cable for the camera through the door. Did you have to drill anything.

 

[Artaroos]

Thanks for the info. How did you get the cable for the camera through the door. Did you have to drill anything.

I had to drill a hole in the door, which I managed to conceal under the trim for the handle - had to drill the edge of the trim (where it meets the van) in order to pass the cable up.

Filled the hole with black automotive sealer

 

[MartyMoose]

Ok thanks for that. I've looked at the Auto-Vox range and it seems to be getting some very good reviews. In particular the M6 and M8 which have the built-in dashcam. They are the wired type but it might be worth the hassle in order to get both front and rear cameras.

 

[Gazdixie]

I wanted a Rear View Camera - to assist with the reversing sensors for the last couple of feet.

After a bit of research I went for this one:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B072KR8GMB/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I wired the Rear view mirror (with built in screen) direct to the interior light - permanent live but I am ok with that (rather that then run the wire all over the place).

The Camera sender unit wires into the reversing light (when you go into reverse, it powers the wireless camera - Black & Green Positive - Brown Negative (check yours)).

Took a couple of hours to fit - overall I'm very happy with it - it does what I wanted.


View attachment 18406 View attachment 18407

Hi I've got one of these to fit can i ask where you fitted the transmitter that the camera plugs into thanks

 

[Andysmee]

I've decided to go for one of these and found that they are £89.99 on Amazon at the moment as there's a discount you can select (November 2020).

I looked at the alternative retro fit options and it was about EUR250, so a big difference (as an aside, the barn doors didn't have a factory option). Given that the visibility out of the rear is compromised once you have furniture and bedding in the way, the rear-view mirror seems a perfectly adequate place to display the rear view image, and I don't think I'll miss it being on the main screen, where the reversing sensors PDC will still show. Moreover, I could remove the camera when I sell the van, if I wanted to, which I couldn't so easily with the retrofit option.

Thanks to the OP @Artaroos for sharing!

 

[DXX]

I’ve been using a WiFi Garmin BC30 camera for a few years without issues, it’s an easy option if you don’t want to run data cables.

 

[Andysmee]

I've fitted the camera in the nearside barn door trim and so thought I'd share some details if you want to do similar.


Surprised myself at how stealth this is!

You'll need to remove the trim panel as a first step. [GUIDE] How to remove nearside rear barn door (wing door) handle and lock trim

The kit comes with a nice combination of pivoting arms which you can swap around:


Then comes the choice of where to fit it. It's made to stick behind the number plate (see original post above) but I had a feeling it would fit in the trim bar where the cable would easily enter the door through the existing grommet:

 

[Andysmee]

The retrofit option for barn doors (bearing in mind there wasn't a factory option if you didn't have a tailgate) looks like this: [Guide] Barn-Door Reversing Camera Retrofit -- How I Done It -- with the camera mounted between the number plate lights but this camera is wider and I was concerned about glare on the lens from the lights themselves so starting to work out if it would fit more centrally to the van.


Because it was really really grotty weather I started to mock up where the door skin was, to really be sure before dremeling a hole in the body colour trim!

Also did a test-fit out in the rain to make sure it would fit entirely inside with the lock barrel, and marked a likely hole shape for it:


Only one thing last to do, cut the trim:

 

[Andysmee]

This morning, with the benefit of sunshine, I got to test fit the trim with the camera mounted on a metal angle bracket bent to an acute angle: (yes using blue-tack temporarily!)



And then hooked up the mirror to a 12V power supply and the camera on a 12V AA pack of batteries. I had to bend the bracket even more acutely to give the right range of movement but there's adjustment left for when the bracket is Araldited on.

I'm waiting for some LED number plate light units from Travelin-Lite before I plumb in the electrics to the D-pillar. There's nothing on the loom in the door that will help with the electrical install (even the earth goes back to the D-pillar)

Note that there's a protective film I've left on the camera lens for now, whilst I'm taking things on and off a lot

 

[Andysmee]

Well...calling this a wireless camera is a bit of a joke! It has miles of wires . I removed my temporary partition to get to the D-pillar last night but in the event I decided to mount everything in the barn door, as there is loads of space, it's almost line of sight to the mirror, and it's easier to get to later than the D-pillar. Even the tap wires are accessible from the outside if there's a problem, so you could fit this entirely from the light cluster end and not disturb the side lining inside at all.

Tl:dr it works well running off the reversing light:


I've adjusted the angle again to be a bit tighter on the green lines and see the bumper a bit more, but it's good enough to judge when I need to open the barn doors in a car park.

 

[Andysmee]

So back to the install, first finishing the trim bar:

I twisted an Allen key through the trim grommet to help the camera cable through and then taped off the camera cable to the number plate light loom before refitting:

I had wired the rear view mirror the other night, so I did a quick test using a battery pack on the remote sender and adjusted the angle. There's a little cutoff at the top from the camera being mounted so deep in the trim but perfectly useful range for me. A camera mounted in the high level brake light might be better if you need to see the tow hook or wider.


It has lighting built-in but with my led number plate lights and the van's reversing lights, the lighting switches off and the image is good:
with led reversing lights I guess this will be a cracking setup.

 

[Andysmee]

I experimented with locations in the door for the transmitter and found a nice spot with the transmitter stuck to the door skin in the unused area away from the locking plate:

Following the knowledge from here: T6.1 [Guide] BARN-DOOR TAIL-LAMP UPGRADE -- How I Done It --
I removed the rear light cluster, stripped back the very wet (!) cluster loom wrapping and checked the reversing light feed was the green/black (vs brown ground) wire:

Picture when it was not in reverse

I decided to take a ground from here into the door because all the grounds in the door loom are very skinny and I felt that a double line from the D-pillar into the door would be more obvious later if spotted during our conversion. You make your own choice if you're more confident.

So I threaded a new double line through the barn door hose using a coat hanger to pull:

And tapped into the light cluster loom (I later swapped the yellow t-tap for a blue one, as the ground is not as fat as it looks and it was giving intermittent contact):

Then brought the new double line into the D-pillar and straight back out of the light cluster hole and tapped the two lines in on t-tap blue blades.

The taps then end up back in the D-pillar when you refit the cluster loom grommet.

Finally, after making up a new connector, I wrapped and cable tied the wiring into the door (new connector in white plastic next to the door lock connector):

The connectors mean that I can remove the transmitter from the door, and the trim bar from the door, separately, without disturbing anything else.

 

[Broadside]

Great write up @Andysmee and I agree that is a proper stealthy install.

 

[Andysmee]

This may be useful and gives 25% off...something

 

[Kind of Blue]

Andysmee
Together with some of the other great contributors on here I am very glad that you post for us these wonderful guides. I have to say that you could easily put any of the car manual publications out of business over night if you had a publisher. You could make a fortune. You are so intuitive and ask the sort of questions that anyone, including those that a novice may ask and guide them through like an Air Traffic Controller guiding a passenger to land a high speed jet after the pilot had croked it. Lots of little subtle tips along the way. Quite empathetic to the nervous first timer. Really excellent.

 

[davek]

Great write up Andy, i will be taking the front seats and cab rubber flooring up (in the spring), to fit sound insulation, so i will probably have the opportunity to run wires from back to front fairly easily. Do you think the wired ones are better quality, or are you happy with your set up.