Anybody add OEM cargo camera

Disclaimer: Links on this page pointing to Amazon, eBay and other sites may include affiliate code. If you click them and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission.

00R/T

Senior Member
Supporting Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2016
Posts
1,278
Reaction score
808
Location
CT
Ram Year
2013
Engine
5.7 HEMI
Good writeup there, DeereGuy.

It sounds like it's a bit late now, but for others with a 2016 radio I would recommend purchasing the Cargo Cam OBDGenie as opposed to the jailbreak. The jailbreak uses modified software, so there is no guarantee of whether future upgrades will be possible. In addition, the Customtronix people told me they will provide no warranty or support to anyone who uses it on a truck that didn't come with an 8.4 from the factory.

The Genie, however, modifies the truck's configuration to indicate that it has the cargo cam feature and the radio then behaves accordingly.

The jailbreak may be a better option for pre-16 as those radios don't support multiple cameras from the factory like the 2016 does.
 

Mpgrimm2

Senior Member
Preferred Vendor
Military
Joined
Mar 30, 2014
Posts
6,085
Reaction score
4,168
Location
SC
Ram Year
2022 Ram 1500 (5th Gen)
Engine
5.7L
As I was planning my 8.4 radio conversion, I stumbled upon this thread and knowing how much a pain it is to try to hook a gooseneck trailer up to my 2016 Ram 2500 crew cab, I decided to tackle this upgrade at the same time. My initial plan was to make a harness by buying the OEM tailgate back up camera harness (Part# 68189124AB) stripping it down just to the camera connector and then extending it across the top of the header and down the passenger side "A" pillar. How to strip it down can can be found on other posts on the forum, but basically all you need from the harness is the white camera connector.

Once I got the extended harness to the "A" pillar I removed the ground from it and spliced it into the ground of the header wiring harness going up the passenger side "A" pillar. The ground circuit there was Z911 and that is the ground that was called for by the CHMSL camera schematic.

I then proceeded to route the 5 remaining wires in the harness behind the glove box using then same route that I used for the conversion harness. I took the three video wires and pinned them into slots 24,25,26 of the C-1 radio connector. I know that all other posts say to put them into 21,22,23 but the schematic for my 2016 specifically said 24,25,26.

I then routed the remaining 2 wires (power and Lin Bus) across to the driver side where I thought I was going to splice them into connector I220. At that point I realized that I220 was actually not located inside the cab. I felt defeated lol. I knew I could get the correct Lin Bus CBC3 at the BCM but I didn't know how in the heck I was going to get to it and splice it and I didn't have a source for the F923 power circuit. I retreated and gave up for a few days, bought a few more days on tech authority and went looking for a new location for the Lin Bus CBC3 and the F923 power.

After a few hours of looking at schematics I came across connector I440 that is located in the "C" pilllar on the drivers side right above the seat belt. Low and behold it had both the F923 power and Lin Bus CBC3 in it and better yet they were not pinned coming out the other side of the connector. I realized I could pin two wires into this connector and run it up to the camera to finish my installation. Now only to find the terminals. I had dug through Yazaki catalogs, and eventually found that I needed terminal number 7116-4110-02. Both the power and Lin Bus required a 2.8mm terminal and not a 1.5mm terminal. I searched the internet and could not find anyone that would sell me this terminal in a small quantity. I relented and went to the dealer hoping they may have a couple or have a repair kit…. No dice. I had relented to the fact that I may have to splice the wires which I really didn't want to do. As a drove home from the dealer, it struck me that I had the remnants of my header wiring harness that I pulled out of the truck when I did my 8.4 conversion. I knew it was a yazaki connector. Sure enough a cross reference of the two connectors showed that they used common terminals. I depinned two of the wires, ran them from the I440 connector up to the chmsl, tore apart my harness at the chmsl, and spliced these two wires in. I then pinned the Lin Bus CBC3 wire into slot 5 of the I440 connector and the F923 power into slot 6.

Success finally…. Off to the dealer to get code "LPD" flashed so that the cargo cam button would show up on my 2016 RA4. No luck, that code is not available for my VIN. Once again, defeat. I called Chrysler and tried to plead my case, no dice. Only thing left to do, jailbreak. I decided to go with customtronix as they can just make the button appear on the screen for the 2016s. It was a really clean solution to me. Looked completely factory. The only thing that was wrong is that they expected the cargo cam inputs to be in slots 21,22,23 of the radio C-1 connector and mine was in 24,25,26. Right now it thinks it's the front cam, but I will get that fixed soon.

So in summary, this is the way I pinned my setup to make it all work correctly.

Camera Pin --> Terminated To
1 Z911 Ground --> Spliced to ground of passenger side A pillar harness (Z911)
2 Lin Bus CBC3 --> I440 pin 5
3 F923 Power --> I440 pin 6
4 Camera Shield --> Radio C-1 pin 23
5 Camera Return --> Radio C-1 pin 22
6 Camera Signal --> Radio C-1 pin 21

I have some pictures of the I440 connector that I will post as soon as I figure out how to. Hope this long winded post helps someone else out.

Thanks for posting. Two questions...

- Any chance you can repost this in the "Installing OEM Backup Camera" thread?
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?ur...&share_tid=53505&share_fid=17770&share_type=t



- If you saved it, can you post up/link the schematics from your 2016 so I can see the multiple "official" camera inputs you are talking about?
MediaFire is free, cheap, and easy for sharing and if you need to insert more than 5 pictures directly into posts, PhotoBucket works great, is free, and the image quality is better than what the forum supports.

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk
 
Last edited:

DeereGuy

Senior Member
Preferred Vendor
Supporting Member
Joined
Nov 9, 2016
Posts
623
Reaction score
577
Location
Pittsburgh, PA
Ram Year
2016
Engine
6.7 Cummins
Thanks for posting. Two questions...

- Any chance you can repost this in the "Installing OEM Backup Camera" thread?
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?ur...&share_tid=53505&share_fid=17770&share_type=t



- If you saved it, can you post up/link the schematics from your 2016 so I can see the multiple "official" camera inputs you are talking about?
MediaFire is free, cheap, and easy for sharing and if you need to insert more than 5 pictures directly into posts, PhotoBucket works great, is free, and the image quality is better than what the forum supports.

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

@MPGrimm2

I will try to post there also. Here are the schematics. It shows that the CHMSL camera should be pinned into 24,25,26.

IMG_0500_zpstdjpnaqy.jpg

IMG_0499_zpsj31w0kfx.jpg
 

00R/T

Senior Member
Supporting Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2016
Posts
1,278
Reaction score
808
Location
CT
Ram Year
2013
Engine
5.7 HEMI
Yep, those pins look correct for a 16. On the earlier models, the cargo cam used the same pins as the backup cam (31,32,33) because that was the only "official" video input.
 

R.L.K.

Senior Member
Supporting Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2013
Posts
12,803
Reaction score
12,500
Location
Bristol , Tn.
Ram Year
2014 4X4 QC Express 6 speed auto 355 differentials
Engine
5.7 Hemi
Hmm, looks like I need a 16 RA4 8.4NA , Damn LOL !

To date I first guarded to the RA2 , 2013 RA4 8.4 CA , 2014 RA4 8.4NA and now a 2015 RA4 8.4NA.
Looks like I'm now looking for a 2016 RA4 8.4NA.

Great write up DeereGuy !

I am suprized that the cargo cam wasn't an available option on your 16 2500 though?

I'll likely be doing my Cargo cam install identical to yours with the exception of the Jailbreak, I'll be using the OBD GENIE.

THANKS again for the write up Sir !
 
Last edited:

DeereGuy

Senior Member
Preferred Vendor
Supporting Member
Joined
Nov 9, 2016
Posts
623
Reaction score
577
Location
Pittsburgh, PA
Ram Year
2016
Engine
6.7 Cummins
Good writeup there, DeereGuy.

It sounds like it's a bit late now, but for others with a 2016 radio I would recommend purchasing the Cargo Cam OBDGenie as opposed to the jailbreak. The jailbreak uses modified software, so there is no guarantee of whether future upgrades will be possible. In addition, the Customtronix people told me they will provide no warranty or support to anyone who uses it on a truck that didn't come with an 8.4 from the factory.

The Genie, however, modifies the truck's configuration to indicate that it has the cargo cam feature and the radio then behaves accordingly.

The jailbreak may be a better option for pre-16 as those radios don't support multiple cameras from the factory like the 2016 does.

00R/T - Somehow I never ran across the ODBGenie in all of my time reading this forum. Is it something new? I thought I saw somewhere that trucks that come from the factory with the cargo cam also have a black line on the screen that aids in lining up a gooseneck or 5th wheel. Do you know if that is true? I am assuming that's what the Lin bus connection is for. If so I wonder if the ODBGenie enables that feature.
 

00R/T

Senior Member
Supporting Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2016
Posts
1,278
Reaction score
808
Location
CT
Ram Year
2013
Engine
5.7 HEMI
00R/T - Somehow I never ran across the ODBGenie in all of my time reading this forum. Is it something new? I thought I saw somewhere that trucks that come from the factory with the cargo cam also have a black line on the screen that aids in lining up a gooseneck or 5th wheel. Do you know if that is true? I am assuming that's what the Lin bus connection is for. If so I wonder if the ODBGenie enables that feature.


The OBDGenie is fairly new. I think the cargo cam one is one of the newest. I'm not sure about the line, but that makes sense since I wasn't sure what the LIN connection is for. From what I understand, the Genie writes the correct configuration values to the BCM to tell it that the feature is present. If everything is wired like the factory, I would expect everything to operate the same way.

I'll have a better idea once I get a chance to hook my camera up. Right now I just have a blue screen.
 

R.L.K.

Senior Member
Supporting Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2013
Posts
12,803
Reaction score
12,500
Location
Bristol , Tn.
Ram Year
2014 4X4 QC Express 6 speed auto 355 differentials
Engine
5.7 Hemi
The OBD GENIE is rather new , at least to me , the black line you speak of , I believe is a black arrow .
Cptwing has mentioned it being an arrow , this is the only time I've heard it mentioned .

Hope this helps !

Edit ., ha @ 00R/T we posted that at the same time lol
 
Last edited:

nickb1907

Member
Joined
Oct 9, 2014
Posts
35
Reaction score
13
Ram Year
2014 Ram Sport
Engine
Hemi 5.7
Does anyone have a fix for the message in the dash? I installed the mopar third brake light with camera and my dash gives me a bulb out error. The dealer wanted to charge me $120 just to research into it. My camera isn't active, and i really don't mind but the message is getting old since i see it every time the truck is started.
 

R.L.K.

Senior Member
Supporting Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2013
Posts
12,803
Reaction score
12,500
Location
Bristol , Tn.
Ram Year
2014 4X4 QC Express 6 speed auto 355 differentials
Engine
5.7 Hemi
Does anyone have a fix for the message in the dash? I installed the mopar third brake light with camera and my dash gives me a bulb out error. The dealer wanted to charge me $120 just to research into it. My camera isn't active, and i really don't mind but the message is getting old since i see it every time the truck is started.
Member here cptwing has made a fix for this 3rd brake light out message & I believe at one time he was willing to sell them to those interested .
You should PM cptwing Sir .

Hope this helps !

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
 

BlownGP

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2013
Posts
6,079
Reaction score
1,571
Location
Houston/Baton Rouge
Ram Year
2018 RAM Harvest New Holland Blue
Engine
5.7
The problem with using an A/B switch is you would need to tie into the tailgate harness prior to the BCM. The 8.4 radios have three separate cam inputs, one for the tailgate cam, one for a front cam, and one for the cargo cam. By factory default only the tailgate cam is turned on in the head unit. The factory cams (of which there is no known front factory cam) are hooked into the truck with 6 leads but you only need 4 (power, ground, video signal and video ground) the other 2 are and additional shield (ground) and a bcm circuit to add grid lines or in the case of the cargo cam a black arrow to line up a fiver or gooseneck hitch.

That said the cargo cam is meant to be turned on at will and stay on for as long as you want it to even when driving. If you tag into the tailgate cam with an A/B switch you will only be able to use the cargo cam in reverse.

As stated there is the lock-pick air solution which also allows you to add side mirror turn signal activated cams as well as the cargo cam and front cam. There is the customtronix solution which allows you to the front cam and the cargo cam.

I have used both and they both have advantages and disadvantages. I currently have all 5 cams hooked up with the lockpick.

Oh to add the OEM cargo cam you will need a harness, here are three options.
1. Buy the pigtail that is used for the tailgate cam and extend it.
2. Buy the harness made up by customtronix. I just sold one of these here
3. Buy the harness used for the 3500 cab and chassis (this is what I used)

Check out these threads
http://www.ramforum.com/f75/turn_signal_camera_install-64870/

http://www.ramforum.com/f41/third_brake_light_failed_--_dealer_only_work-65960/index2.html
post 16


I see find you the harness, but do you know what wires to cut splice to hook up some RCA cables?

I have a aftermarket Pioneer deck so don't need a lock pick or anything.
 
Top