Reverse Lights - Which wire + (B or W)
 

I am trying to run power to my reverse camera I just installed from the wires that run to the reverse light harness. Two wires, one black and one white.
Any idea which wire is + and which is -?

Thanks

White is +, black is -, of course.

White and red are standard colors for +, and black and brown are standard colors for - in cars.

Invest in a cheap multimeter. Its honestly one of the best tools to have:
http://www.harborfreight.com/7-funct...ter-90899.html

Also, attached is the wiring diagram.

Thanks for this.

I still haven't been able to get the reverse camera to go because I don't know which wire, on the factory harness, is the reverse wire.

Basically, there is a "reverse" wire on my after-market deck that is supposed to be connected with the "reverse" wire on the factory Mitsubishi harness.

It looks as though you might have a service manual. Any idea which colored wire on the Mitsubishi factory harness is the reverse wire?

If you mean the reverse wire in the factory harness that goes to the radio from the car, it's not in the ones that went to the original 6-cd changer, it's in the one that would be used to hook up the navigation MMCS. The color is also white. The connector will be wider and have quite a few more pins than the other two, and it will not have been in use before, so it might just be hanging or taped up somewhere back there.

I didn't want to cut any wires so I just piggy-backed off of it by using a razor to remove some of the insulation, and then wrapped my reverse signal wire from the aftermarket nav system around the bare wire and then taped it back up.

Luckily, I took a pic of this as well.
Attachment 6567

Hope that helps.

Also, I got the wiring diagram from my local library's website. They have an automotive repair resource database online that has great wiring diagrams for all makes and models. There should also be a link the in the stickies of this forum to the shop manual.

That is awesome, I have been reading my ass off on this and was ready to wire into white in the fuse box under the kick panel, drivers side. If the white is in the harness already behind the deck then bonus.

While I have you, I have wired the following:

1) Camera power (+) to rear light white (+) in back of car reverse light. Spliced the wire and used a butt connector to piggy-back.
2) Camera ground (-) to the rear light black (-) in back of car reverse light. I now believe I simply need to ground the camera (-) to a simple bolt in the trunk, I see one very close to the reverse light under the rear hatch and can probably ground to this.
3) RCA video from camera to head unit (HU).
4) HU purple reverse to white factory reverse.

I believe what I should end up with is power to the camera when I put it into reverse (from rear head light to camera) and at the same signal to the HU through purple wire telling HU to switch to video for view.

Alternatively, from reading, I understand that instead of running the camera power (+) from the head lamp white I can also run a constant from the ACC wire. This would have power to the camera all the time (when car is on), switching to the rear view video only when I put the car into reverse at which point the purple wire gets the signal from the factory white reverse telling it to switch. This would also allow me to switch to the rear view while driving to see what is behind me, however, I don't believe my unit has a function to allow this.

ANy comments?
Thanks for the pic!

Ya, that should work, except you don't need to ground the camera's power AND connect it to the black reverse light wire, as that wire is already a ground. So, just either-or, but doing both would be redundant.

Alternatively you could power the camera constantly when the car is on by connecting it to the rear 12v socket, but you'd have to run the power all the way from the rear cargo area, up through the grommet, just as you did with the video wire.

My Kenwood DNX-6960 allows me to switch to the rear camera at any time by holding down the "Function" buttion. But without it powered all the time, the screen will just be black. You should check your stereo's owners manual to see if it has this feature, if you want it. Alternatively, since the white wire at the harness is on the same circuit as the reverse lights, you could probably wire an override switch that would power the circuit manually. Then the reverse lights would come on, the radio's video input would switch, and the camera would all be powered via a manual switch as well as through the gear selector.

Good luck!