CarABC wireless CarPlay unit question

[tonymarp]

Hello,
I purchased one of those Carabc CarPlay unit that slides in the Harman Becker slot in the glove compartment of my 2014 C250. The CarPlay works perfectly with my Siri navigation, music and phone. Now I’m trying to install and having problems with a backup camera. The manual doesn’t provide enough instruction. The simple connection that the manual shows doesn’t work.
Has anyone figured out how to connect the camera to the included harness? The harness includes a connection to Aux, USB, video plus a red wire for +12V.
The camera has a video trigger that needs to be connected to the monitor unit that I don’t know if it should be spliced into one of the wires on the CarPlay harness.

I appreciate if anyone can help on this.

Best regards,
Tony

 

[Srdl]

Welcome and good luck with that. I haven’t heard of this bit of kit before so I suspect there won’t be many on herE who can help But there is a lot of technical know-how so someone may have a solution. I assume there is no help desk phone line provided with the product?

Edit… just looked at their website and they do provide support by email

 

[tommo71]

Are you installing a new reverse camera? Or by changing the module you lost the reverse camera?

 

[JoshWED]

Hello,
I purchased one of those Carabc CarPlay unit that slides in the Harman Becker slot in the glove compartment of my 2014 C250. The CarPlay works perfectly with my Siri navigation, music and phone. Now I’m trying to install and having problems with a backup camera. The manual doesn’t provide enough instruction. The simple connection that the manual shows doesn’t work.
Has anyone figured out how to connect the camera to the included harness? The harness includes a connection to Aux, USB, video plus a red wire for +12V.
The camera has a video trigger that needs to be connected to the monitor unit that I don’t know if it should be spliced into one of the wires on the CarPlay harness.

I appreciate if anyone can help on this.

Best regards,
Tony

@tonymarp did you ever resolve?

 

[fabes]

He only posted the once and hasnt been on since (over 12 months ago,)

But someone else may have now looked at one

 

[JoshWED]

Update and question.

I installed the carabc carplay unit in the nav cradle. All works great. Installed a natika backup camera and connected power from the red 12V wire included in the carabc unit.

Can anyone confirm that this brown wire in the lift gate hatch is ground? My understanding is that MB uses brown as their ground color, and it seems like the place/config for a ground...but just confirming with this forum. Thanks in advance!


Unit works great for both carplay and the reverse camera.

 

[JoshWED]

UPDATE WITH ANSWER: Here are the relevant wiring diagrams and pictures.

For those still interested in the carabc solution for the reverse camera:

1. The carabc unit's supplied 12V (red) wire is already on a trigger circuit that talks to the car. When you reverse, the unit engages the aftermarket camera and jumps priority over carplay.

For the natika camera I used, here was my work flow:

1. Run the long video lead from the rear of the car to the front. You will need work from back to front in order to get the line through the rubber tube that connects the rear gate to the main cabin.
2. Connect the yellow video line to the carabc video input. Connect the red power line to the red power lead of the carabc unit.
3. At the rear of the vehicle, connect the black ground line of the natika camera to the easily accessible W8/2 ground point at the top right rear of the gate, near the aperture that leads to the rubber tube connection to the main cabin. (see pictures below)
4. Cap the additional red power line of the natika camera to avoid shorts.
5. Mount the camera as you desire (I drilled a hole in the liftgate handle), seal, and connect to the rest of the wire harness.
6. Rest is plug and play