Adding Kogan Reversing Camera to Aurion Prodigy

[jefevrit]

I think that a few members may be interested in adding a quite-good low-cost reversing camera system to their Aurion.  Mine is a 2007 Prodigy, and I have owned it since September 2015.

The camera kit I have added is the Kogan KARVSRCAMRA, which I purchased via E-bay, at a delivered cost of $126-99.  As at today, 12 June 2016, I now have the camera system installed and working very nicely.  However, it was not really easy to install, but some may insist that it is an easy job.  I will try to explain, as briefly as possible, the problems I encountered in doing the job.  Perhaps part of the problem was that I am 77, and suffering from a long-running bout of bronchial asthma, so I was not really up to doing this job at the moment.

1.  Inadequacy of Kogan installation instructions.  Pictures are too small to be readily understood, and a few tags on the various wires explaining their purpose would be useful.  Also,there is some confusing (and even incorrect) information, e.g. "Connections" (B) says that the signal TRANSMITTER can be connected to the Mirror/Viewscreen (of course, they should say that the signal RECEIVER should be connected).  Under the heading "Controls", the V1/V2 toggle should show that V1 is selected if the "wired" installation is installed, and V2 is to select the "wireless" mode (i.e. using the transmitter & receiver).  I have installed my camera system to use the transmitter and receiver.  Another thing not explained is that the 12V positive and negative wires of the Viewscreen and Wireless receiver can be connected to one pair of 12V pos and neg wires, and these are typically the Map Light wires, which are usually alive even when the car is not occupied and the ignition key not turned on.  Another thing not explained at all is how the "Remote control" is used.  So far, I have found that its RED button can be used to turn ON/OFF the Viewscreen.  I still don't know what the 4 "navigating" black buttons are for.  One last thing: the camera seems to have a cluster of clear LED lights each side of the camera lens.  I expected these to light-up when the camera is switched on, but so far this hasn't happened.  Maybe they will function when there is no daylight, otherwise the camera system will be almost useless at night.

2.  Difficulty in making a cabling-hole above the rear number plate of the Aurion.  I decided that a 13mm (1/2 inch) hole was needed in order to thread-through the moulded plastic cover of the cable joint where the single cable of the camera is split into 2 cables, i.e. the 12V supply wire and the video signal wire.  Making this large-diameter hole through the plastic outer-panel (which backs-up the number plate) and then the steel of the boot-lid was a heart-stopping task, but I ended-up with not too much of a mess.  I used a succession of drill-sizes, the final one being a 1/2 inch engineers twist-drill driven at very-low speed.  The cable-joint moulding would not quite pass through these holes, so I trimmed the moulding's corners down (with a Stanley knife) until it measured just under 1/2 inch.  The rubber grommet I was hoping to use could not be fitted because the plastic body-panel was too thick for it.  I ended-up using some 1/2 inch OD clear vinyl tubing about 40mm long which I slitted to spring over the camera cable.

3.  Uncertainty about how to access the boot-lid liner.  The Aurion boot-lid liner is fastened with 13 mushroom-headed black nylon "fir tree" push-rivets which are for a hole diameter of 7mm.  They have a "grip-length" of at least 10mm, and a "pulling-loop" in the head, for applying a small-bladed screwdriver as a lever.  I found-out that these rivets can be re-used several times and, being made of nylon, they are not brittle, so you are unlikely to shatter them.  However, they tend to "fly" off the screwdriver blade as they pop out, and who knows where they end-up?  Also, I found that it is not necessary to pull more that 4 or 5 rivets to do this camera installation job - the liner is quite flexible and easy to get your hands behind to manipulate the camera wires.  Re-installing the rivets only requires an easy push with one's thumb, but they require a fair bit of force to pull them.

4.  Difficulty in making reliable connections to the 12V wiring of the Map Light and Reversing Light.  I knew in advance that there was likely to be problems with getting effective contact with the car's cables at the chosen tapping-points, mainly because of the nowadays small "gauge" of the stranded-copper core of these cables.  For the camera 12V supply, I used "Scotch-Lok" wire-tappers with a 6mm spade-type branch-connection, and I solder-spliced a short length of 1.5sqmm automotive cable onto the two 12V wires of the Kogan Wireless Transmitter assembly.  I crimped a 6mm spade terminal to each of these extension-wires.  For the Map-Light 12V tapping, I tried the same tapping arrangement as for the Reversing Light wires but, when I re-installed the Map-Light housing into the head-lining above the rear-view mirror, the power to the Viewscreen and Receiver became intermittent, and I had to pull the Map-Light assembly and find another way to get a steady 12V supply for the Viewscreen etc.  I then found a pair of good solid spare 12V pos & neg connections on the back of the Map-Light housing and solder-connected my 1.5sqmm cable tails to them.  I attach 3 photos showing these connections.  You will also notice that I "commoned" the 12V wires of the Viewscreen and Receiver into only two main-connection tails.

 

Showing Commoning of 12V Wiring

Showing Tapping Points on Back of Map Light Housing

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 12, 2016 by jefevrit
Amended para 4. to clarify.

[texasflysuperstar]

In my experiance the clear LED's that you mentioned that are clustered around the camera are usually IR hence no visible light is emitted.  Although I have seen versions with white LED's now. Did it end up lighting up at night time?

[jefevrit]

Thanks for your response, texasflysuperstar.

No, the clear LEDs of my Kogan rear-view camera have, so far, not lit-up at any time.  What you say re the LEDs mabe being for infra-red vision makes sense to me, as other makers of car external video cameras do claim I-R performance.

I am very pleased with the clarity, colour, and coverage-angle of my Kogan system under daytime or night conditions.

[Rigger]

http://I have just fitted a reverse camera to my 2007 Aurion Touring. I have a Mirror type monitor, my problem is how to hide the wiring from the monitor down through the glovebox area to the power source which is the cigar lighter.Any advise would be appreciated Thanks Rigger Perth.

[Full-Throttle]

13 hours ago, Rigger said:

http://I have just fitted a reverse camera to my 2007 Aurion Touring. I have a Mirror type monitor, my problem is how to hide the wiring from the monitor down through the glovebox area to the power source which is the cigar lighter.Any advise would be appreciated Thanks Rigger Perth.

You can run the wiring down the LH A-pillar trim and behind the glovebox to the cigarette socket. Simply tug on the front of the headliner carefully, just enough to slip the wires underneath then pop your A-pillar trim off a little bit (don't try and pull it all the way off as they have special claw-type clips which are difficult to remove, so all you want to do is make it pop out enough to feed the wires through) and run them down the side. Make sure that you tuck the wires into the factory wire clips as you go as you don't want it the wiring to float around near the side airbag unit. Then run the wiring either underneath or behind the glovebox (will need to remove the glovebox if you want to go behind it) and then to your cigarette socket in the centre console.

It's a pretty easy process to do, just a bit time consuming. I've got the wiring for my radar detector, auto-dimming rearview mirror, external microphone and dash cam routed the exact same way as described above and it makes for a very clean install. I opted to remove the glovebox (only 5-screws in total) to run the wiring behind so they don't ever droop down to the footwell area, but you could just as easily go underneath the glovebox and have the plastic tray underneath cover the wires. Either way, don't be scared to get stuck in as it's really not as hard as it sounds.

[Rigger]

Many thanks Scott I will use this method. Mike