Help hooking up power to back up camera

Have you measured the voltage with a voltmeter?

I have not...didn't want to pierce the insulation of the wires and having removed the bulb, the connection doesn't look like anything I'm familiar with. Also not completely sure how to energize without the engine running, and I don't want to be in the compartment with it running.

Did your Monaco come with a rear camera?

1. The original Back up camera system has NO Reverse wire connection at the REAR of the motorhome. The reverse is activated at the front Dash area to the original dash monitor and when the reverse transmission Hyd switch is engaged the wire is sent to the Dash Monitor harness and the Dash Monitor then sends the activation/power thru the multiwire harness connected to the rear camera.
2. The 3 wires you mention. Are these at the rear Tailight/Reverse light lamp assbly? If so, then the Yellow is usually the Reverse Pos wire. The Green would be running lights and the white ground.
3. The SAFE way to test is what I do. I have someone at the drivers seat with the Air brake engaged and then run the engine and have them shift to reverse WITH THEIR FOOT ON THE BRAKE PEDAL. Doug

ArchHoagland wrote:
Did your Monaco come with a rear camera?

It did come with a B&W monitor which is pointed pretty much down to see a toad, but not to see where you're going in reverse. I've already been through seeing if the camera is adjustable and it's not.

This is an aged cathode ray tube monitor that is somewhat blurry, so trying to upgrade...and see better.

dougrainer wrote:
1. The original Back up camera system has NO Reverse wire connection at the REAR of the motorhome. The reverse is activated at the front Dash area to the original dash monitor and when the reverse transmission Hyd switch is engaged the wire is sent to the Dash Monitor harness and the Dash Monitor then sends the activation/power thru the multiwire harness connected to the rear camera.
2. The 3 wires you mention. Are these at the rear Tailight/Reverse light lamp assbly? If so, then the Yellow is usually the Reverse Pos wire. The Green would be running lights and the white ground.
3. The SAFE way to test is what I do. I have someone at the drivers seat with the Air brake engaged and then run the engine and have them shift to reverse WITH THEIR FOOT ON THE BRAKE PEDAL. Doug

The three wires feed the back up light bulb, and I was trying to determine which is power and which is ground in order to hook up the two wires from the Garmin wireless transmitter.

It would help to see the wiring diagram, but I've not found one in the stuff I have, nor on line.

fijidad wrote:

dougrainer wrote:
1. The original Back up camera system has NO Reverse wire connection at the REAR of the motorhome. The reverse is activated at the front Dash area to the original dash monitor and when the reverse transmission Hyd switch is engaged the wire is sent to the Dash Monitor harness and the Dash Monitor then sends the activation/power thru the multiwire harness connected to the rear camera.
2. The 3 wires you mention. Are these at the rear Tailight/Reverse light lamp assbly? If so, then the Yellow is usually the Reverse Pos wire. The Green would be running lights and the white ground.
3. The SAFE way to test is what I do. I have someone at the drivers seat with the Air brake engaged and then run the engine and have them shift to reverse WITH THEIR FOOT ON THE BRAKE PEDAL. Doug

The three wires feed the back up light bulb, and I was trying to determine which is power and which is ground in order to hook up the two wires from the Garmin wireless transmitter.

It would help to see the wiring diagram, but I've not found one in the stuff I have, nor on line.

The white will be ground on Monaco products. Usually the Reverse BULB is a single pin bulb. But, since you state 3 wires, are you positive that the other wire is NOT the running lights? Have you removed the bulb to see if it has 1 contac or 2 contacs on the bottom of the bulb? Is the rear assbly have both the Running and Reverse light bulbs in one assbly? Turn on the running lights and see which wire is 12 volt positive. Is it possible the assbly has the BRAKE light bulb and the Reverse light bulb? Doug

Appreciate the feedback...I did figure this out eventually. I followed the three wires to a wrapped point where they all came together...and only two wires left. I unwrapped this area and found the green wire was connected to NOTHING. Then I cleaned the two wires leaving this joint and found them to be black and white (under all the grime). from there it was pretty straighforward.

Maybe the green wire was intended for an optional (or removed) backup beeper?

That's possible. Upon examining the back up bulb itself, I did see two different filaments, so I wondered if one of those was for the green wire, but not sure.