"TysMagic" (twjeffery)
05/06/2019 at 11:55 • Filed to: miata, mx5, back up camera, sequential
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"TysMagic" (twjeffery)
05/06/2019 at 11:55 • Filed to: miata, mx5, back up camera, sequential | 2
| 12 |
I purchased sequential LED blinker bulbs for the Miata from iJDMToy.
They turned out great, but my other discovery while installing them is what really got me excited.
I feel a little bad for not supporting the Miata community guy MX5Things. However he wants $150 for the lights plus $15 for the resistors and this set from eBay was $80, resistors included. iJDM has enough good reviews I figured I’d take the risk on it.
Struggled to get a good video of them filling up, so here is a series of trashy images instead
I found a wire with a five pin connector coiled up in the trunk of the RF.
After poking around the Miata community, I have determined the previous owner purchased a back up camera, installed it, and apparently removed the camera before trading the car in. There are only a couple kits that plug and play with the factory equipment and this looks to be one of them! The hole is drilled in the bumper and this looks to be running to the front of the car. I am super pumped about this. The RF has some solid blind spots so a back up camera would be absolutely awesome!
The problem is I can’t just buy the camera - and I can’t find any five pin connector cams to test it out on. I’m speculating on the why behind the camera not being there. The optimistic side says he pulled it out to sell it since it’s a $175 kit, but why is the rest of it still in the car? The realistic side says he started the job then quit because something broke.
I’ve reached out to the company in hopes of getting just the camera and going from there.
Link below to the full product:
!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!
If oppo knows of any five pin cameras that I could buy for cheap to test out let me know!
Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
> TysMagic
05/06/2019 at 12:11 |
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Ahh the mysteries of wondering what the hell a previous owner was thinking. “ Automotive archaeology” was the term I had heard from Mighty Car Mods which I think is very fitting.
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TysMagic
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
05/06/2019 at 12:14 |
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I’m on with whatever he was thinking, the car needs a back up cam...but the why behind the mystery incompleteness is quite intriguing.
TheTurbochargedSquirrel
> TysMagic
05/06/2019 at 12:26 |
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The link you posted claims they use the same connector as BMW factory backup systems. Some googling reveals an F3o forum post showing that BMW uses a RosenbergerHSD cable and connector for their backup cameras. The Rosenberger product page shows that its actually a super fancy cable and connector system featuring two impedance matched and shielded differential wire pairs intended for differential signaling. It appears that BMW uses an LVDS Camera for their backup cameras. LVDS cameras are popular for machine vision systems because of their high speed and bandwidth (wikipedia claims up to 4Gbps) and allows for higher resolutions and framerates than a traditional coax cable . Sounds overkill for a backup camera to me but BMW gonna BMW.
https://www.rosenberger.com/en/products/automotive/hsd.php
So that tells you where they claim it comes from and how it is supposed to be used. Is the retrofit kit actually using LVDS or just using it as a cable and connector for some other data signal? Who knows, it likely depends on how the factory Mazda backup camera works and thus what kind of signal the head unit is expecting.
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TysMagic
> TheTurbochargedSquirrel
05/06/2019 at 12:40 |
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interesting find! I am blind and not seeing the BMW piece, but looking over the link the design is similar but only seeing the 4 pin connectors and this is definitely 5 pins. Same general style however for the plug. I found a ton of the 4 pin options for incredibly cheap
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TheTurbochargedSquirrel
> TysMagic
05/06/2019 at 12:57 |
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Are you sure it is a 5 pin and not a 4 pin with a key? These round din connectors tend to have a little pip on one side so you can only connect them one way.
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Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
> TysMagic
05/06/2019 at 13:57 |
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Yeah I could see how a backup cam could be useful. I definitely observed a lot of uneasiness in backing up when I drove an RF. It felt stupid not being able to see out of a Miata. In general, its why I prefer the regular ND. It just didnt feel “top down” or “open” enough in the RF and that was apparent most of the time driving it. Also, the storage issue made it feel quite impractical compared to my NB. Driving with the top up was reeeeeeea lly nice though , especially since I rented it in Seattle and it was cold/rainy anyways.
You might end up being better off starting from scratch on the camera though. Potentially s aving money is not worth the headache of who knows what is wrong. Its like trying to rig a half-finished custom audio setup into working, it will just be a nightmare.
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TysMagic
> TheTurbochargedSquirrel
05/06/2019 at 14:01 |
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5 pins! Went out on lunch to double check and I traced the wire in to the car and up behind the dash. Found the power line too.
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TysMagic
> Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
05/06/2019 at 14:07 |
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Yes, that’s where I’m thinking I might buy the kit as a whole and if what’s there doesn’t work I’ll redo it all. I did a little digging on it over lunch. Traced the line through the trunk and drivers side up through the dash until I couldn’t follow it anymore. It’s headed in the right direction and looks to be complete.
As for RF vs Soft top, I absolutely love the overall outline of the RF top up or down over the ST. This is convertible number three (five if you count the bronco and jeep). I like the way it works and feels. One might argue it’s more of a T top kind of thing vs a true convertible. I’m also coming from a Fiat 500 cabrio to this so I’ve been accustomed to the weird tops for a bit now . As for functionality, it’s useless. Nothing fits in it, it’s not incredibly comfortable for longer drives (though I did 10 hours in it), and with how I drive it’s not very efficient either. All that to say I love it and am quiet happy with the car haha.
Driftstone
> TysMagic
05/06/2019 at 23:49 |
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I’m pretty sure that’s the kit I bought for my soft top ‘18 model. They may have not been able to get the camera to actually mount into the bumper. Mine was difficult and took a good bit of effort. The instructions are a link to a YouTube video made by the company. The package was only insured for 10$ according to the shipping documents.
The quality of the image on the display for the camera is so-so. There are a lot of tweaks available in the settings which is nice. Overall it was worth the time and money for me personally. I just wish it installed a bit better on the bumper.
Ready for an adventure!
> TysMagic
05/07/2019 at 08:27 |
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Dumb question: did you look to see i f the camera is still there too? That’d be a nice surprise!
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TysMagic
> Driftstone
05/07/2019 at 08:55 |
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It’s the Ventura Tech (VTEC) one - is that what you have?
Interesting comment about the camera install. They drilled the hole, but it does immediately go in to the collision foam stuff in the bumper so I’m imaging it needs a little work done to make it fit. I am totally in for doing that assuming everything else actually works as it’s wired up.
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TysMagic
> Ready for an adventure!
05/07/2019 at 08:56 |
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reasonable question because yes I did! I didn’t pull the trunk apart completely but I scoured around what I could and did a pass through any potential hiding spots on the interior. I haven’t found anything, but I was quite hopeful that I would haha