Front-rear camera touchscreen parking protection switch kit reservations

[artsci]

Any suggestions for someone who hasn't had time to install yet? Just buy the Tesla cables and not worry about it, or risk a bad Chinese cable?

I would suggest spending the $50 or so on the Telsa cables. That way you'll know it will work. The Chinese long cable is unpredictable and it's no less expensive than the OEM.

I would ask RF Supplier for a refund although I doubt they'd issue it.

Here's how to order the Telsa cables:

This is what you need:


Cable, HSD, Liftgate, Camera 1006780-00-D (this cable attaches to the front camera and makes the necessary gender change)
$23.12
Cable, HSD, Body Left, Camera 1006781-00-D (this cable goes between the cable above and the PCB)
$25.68

The total for the two cables is $48.80. S&H will bring the total to $55.00.


If you’d like to order these Tesla OEM cables please PayPal $55.00 to [email protected]. Be sure to include your full name and shipping address. I’ll confirm receipt.


You may also want to check with your SC to see if they are in stock, as that will save you some time.


You will still need the two short Chinese cables to make the gender change for plugging the front and rear Tesla camera cables into the PCB. If you don’t have these cables they can be ordered at RF Supplier (they may not be available on the web site now but they should be very soon — do a search for Tesla camera cable kit). Do not under any circumstances buy the long cable from RF any other source on the Internet (if you do a search you will find the full cable kit available at a number of sources in China — these are all supplied by RF and include two short and one long cables for over $50. The odds are high that the long cable will not work)


I expect to have the cables in 1-2 weeks and will ship them immediately when received.

 

[HankLloydRight]

Cable, HSD, Liftgate, Camera 1006780-00-D (this cable attaches to the front camera and makes the necessary gender change)
$23.12
Cable, HSD, Body Left, Camera 1006781-00-D (this cable goes between the cable above and the PCB)
$25.68

The total for the two cables is $48.80. S&H will bring the total to $55.00.

Just a quick question -- if we already have the Chinese cable kit with two of the working short cables, do we need to order a third one, or just the long cable? How much for just the long cable, plus shipping?

thanks.

 

[artsci]

Just a quick question -- if we already have the Chinese cable kit with two of the working short cables, do we need to order a third one, or just the long cable? How much for just the long cable, plus shipping?

thanks.

You need both Tesla cables and the two short Chinese cables. The latter make the gender change for the front and rear long cables. The Tesla cables are one shorter and one longer. The shorter one links the camera to the long cable and makes the gender change. The long one leads to the PCB through the one of the short Chinese cables. The two Tesla cables are the same ones used to connect the rear camera -- we're just using them for the front, like the camera itself.

 

[rbergquist]

Here are some thoughts on what worked for the sig:

(a) remove the grill panel that accesses the 12V battery terminals and the frunk driver side panel.
(b) shine a bright light up thru the driver side front grill and have a friend look near the radiator from the top of the frunk.
(c) we could see a thin line where the front of the radiator met the edge of plastic grill.
(d) using a pry bar we opened up that line (basically scooted the plastic forward).
(e) we then snaked some electrical wire thru the opening and worked it along the front radiator (behind the grill) until it was in the grill middle.
(f) used a hemostat to grab the wire and bring it out the grill.
(g) make a u-shaped hole in the area you located in (d) to allow the video cable to not be pinched (we used an air drill and moved the bit around). Hole is the diameter of the cable, not the size of the video connector.
(h) cut away a small section of the front grill to allow the cable's connector to pass thru the grill.
(i) attach video cable to the electrical wire with tape, carefully pull thru grill. Use pry tool to hyper extend the plastic so the video connector goes thru then route cable into the u-shape hole and remove pry.

I was working on my own so I had some problems exactly replicating your work, but here is what I did:

(a) remove the grill panel that accesses the 12V battery terminals and the frunk driver side panel. AND I also pried up the right-hand side of the center section which allowed me access to the middle section which was above the grill area.
(b-d) I saw from above that a couple of inches to the left of the Positive battery terminal, I could use a 12" long x 1/2" drill bit and go through the plastic cover and drop into the space behind the grill.
(e) dropped electrical wire thru the opening and worked it along the front radiator (behind the grill) until it was in the grill middle.
(f) used another piece of wire to grab the dropped wire and bring it out the grill.
(h) cut away a small section of the front grill to allow the cable's connector to pass thru the grill. (only had to cut off one side of a grill cell)
(i) attach video cable to the electrical wire with tape, carefully pull thru grill.
(j) closed up hole I drilled through with silicon caulk & covered with Gorilla tape.

Thanks for sharing your method -- It let me knew I was close.

Two pics attached: 1) Center section pried up.

2) Looking down from drivers side into the gap where I drilled through the plastic cover into the area behind the grill and in front of the radiator.

 

[rbergquist]

.. and figure out how to attach the camera to the bottom of the license plate frame ... Torklift's "The Law"

I have Torklift's "The Law" plate installed on my car. I always liked it that it did not obstruct the lines of the nose.

I used the using the camera mount that you can purchase from Artsci. It is meant for bottom installation and I flipped it to be mounted on the top of the license plate and it screws into the same plate of the law you screw the plate into. This required that I bend the bracket attachment for the camera. I roughly bent it to the same orientation from horizontal as the original. I then had to drill new holes through the camera bracket and the mounting bracket and used bolts with nuts and some spacing washers to get it all aligned OK. Spray painted unit black. With this setup, when I see a wall in front of the car at the bottom of the video screen, I'm about 9-12" from the wall. I'm sure you could bend the bracket if you wanted a different spacing.

Three pics of this:

Camera & Mount Side View - You can see a gap between the camera mount & the mounting bracket - washers are used to maintain this space & this gives the camera the necessary clearances.

Camera Front View - Shows the camera mounted at the top of the plate.

Installed Front View - I find the camera has just disappeared and the nose cone lines are not affected.

I used to have problems with the plate hitting parking bumpers. The Front Camera has solved this

 

[RodF]

Thanks DSmith and rberg for taking the time to document this!

 

[EBill]

Help needed on locating #3 terminal for reverse signal.

I’m installing the front camera kit on my RHD car here in HK. Interestingly enough the wiring harnesses are in the same location on RHD drive cars as LHD cars. I was expecting them to be reversed. As expected the colors on some of the wires are different.

I am having a lots of difficulty finding the reverse wire and terminal. After spending literally hours, often upside down, I still cannot locate the #3 terminal. The local SC confirmed that terminal #3 is for reverse on RHD cars so that shouldn’t be the problem. They also confirmed that the wire color differs from batch to batch.

On page 5 of the instructions is a picture of the connector with a probe showing the location of terminal #3. I cannot read the labeling since the type is too small. It appears that terminal #3 is the second terminal in on the third row from the inside of the connector. What is unclear is which side of the connector block is facing the front of the car and which side is the rear?

Grateful for any assistance to locating the reverse wire and terminal #3.

I also noticed when using the probe to check the wires there are lots of warning messages that come up on the display. Fortunately they all go away when the test probe is removed and the screen rebooted.

 

[teslasguy]

I just had the front camera installation done. Used the Tesla cables. Had it done at Perzan Auto Sound of Philadelphia. Beautiful job!! They notched the bottom of the nose cone to let the camera slip in there and mount to the cone. Looks just like the installation looks in the rear and the view is perfect. Can see shoe tips of person standing in front of car when about 4" front the person.

 

[Klaus]

I just had the front camera installation done. Used the Tesla cables. Had it done at Perzan Auto Sound of Philadelphia. Beautiful job!! They notched the bottom of the nose cone to let the camera slip in there and mount to the cone. Looks just like the installation looks in the rear and the view is perfect. Can see shoe tips of person standing in front of car when about 4" front the person.

Can you post a picture or two please? I've been thinking to do the same - using the nose cone.

 

[teslasguy]

Yep. Tomorrow I'll take a few pics and post them.

 

[teslasguy]

Ok here are a few pic of front camera install and short video.

https://vimeo.com/110315918

 

[teslasguy]

Few more pics

 

[Chris1howell]

Cyber Monday is almost over so how about "Tesla Tuesday". All Tesla Products in the OpenEV store are 20% off with the discount code "teslatuesday". The code is active now through tomorrow.

The OpenEV Store has just 7 front camera kits remaining. Right now there is not enough demand for another run so this could be the last chance to add an front camera. The remaining kits include the switch, 2 remotes, long TESLA OEM cables, short cables from RF supplier and a license plate mount. All that is required is an OEM Tesla rear-view camera and installation.

 

[EBill]

Do the white lines for the rear camera on version 6.1 show up on the front camera display?

 

[artsci]

Do the white lines for the rear camera on version 6.1 show up on the front camera display?

No, but the overhead image of the car and the distance from obtacles does.

 

[Gizmotoy]

No, but the overhead image of the car and the distance from obtacles does.

Interesting. Any idea how it knows which camera is the actual rear, and only apply the lines to that one?

 

[artsci]

Interesting. Any idea how it knows which camera is the actual rear, and only apply the lines to that one?

Beats me. Maybe it has something to do with the reverse signal.

 

[HankLloydRight]

No, but the overhead image of the car and the distance from obtacles does.

Is that only if you have parking sensors? What about cars that don't have parking sensors?

 

[artsci]

Is that only if you have parking sensors? What about cars that don't have parking sensors?

I assume that the overhead view and barrier distances don't show at all if you don't have the parking sensors. Just the front and rear camera images.

 

[pilotSteve]

If indeed Tesla engineering implemented parking lines enabled by REVERSE rather than camera-visible that would explain it. Good, correct, robust engineering..... and maybe some Tesla folks are forum readers and know about your cool camera switch artsci. Nice they didn't break it for us.