[nyc951]

David,

Thank you so much for this post. We are located in the US and just purchased a pre-owned 2008 XC90 V8. I'd like to add a rear camera AND a front camera so the wife can park this beast! I'm comfortable working on cars, but I'm completely new to the XC and Volvo's in general. Here are my thoughts and questions:

Originally Posted by BestGear

Anyway - fyi - the factory satnav screen is a PAL 50 (important that its 50 not PAL 60) device.

Are 2008 models PAL 50 as well? Just so you know, I have no idea what PAL 50 means, but I'll look for that if that's what is needed

Originally Posted by BestGear

I was very lucky to find the guys at VolvoTech - http://www.volvotech.eu/ , and in particular, Bob, who is a top bloke.

Volvotech manufacture several interfaces for Volvos, and one device they have is a two composite video input switch, that plugs directly between the DVD uinit and dashboard screen - perfect! The prices seem very competitive, and certainly dont require much sucking of teeth!

Are detailed instructions showing the details (where they go) of each wire included? Is this the only company that makes this interface? I'd prefer to find a retailer in the USA to save on shipping costs.

Originally Posted by BestGear

I mounted the interface at the rear of the DVD unit, and run the composite cable and power to the media player in the centre console, where I added another rocker switch to the one I added to control the media player.

This then allowed me to show the media player video on the satnav screen!

I'm assuming you are referring to the DVD unit that controls the SatNav. Where exactly is the DVD unit mounted? My car has the factory SatNav and individual DVD players in each headrest, so I don't need to run composite cables as you did, correct? I will not send the DVD player signal to the SatNav, as I'd like to save that input for the front-mounted camera.

As such, I think I would simply wire the rear camera to the Volvotech interface plug. Correct?

Originally Posted by BestGear

Again, I can manually control this if I need to (added a diode to the switching line so that manual switching does not switch the reversing lights on!) see whats behind the car while not in reverse.

Please describe where you added the diode and what additional wires you had to run to facilitate this manual control. I think this feature is brilliant!

Originally Posted by BestGear

Last thing to add really is the wiring of the rear lamp to pick up the reversing lamp signal. As there were obviously cables run from front to rear for power and video signal, adding one for the reverse signal was no hassle.

Did you simply tap into a wire that leads to the back-up (reversing) lamps?


Since I won't use the second input on the Volvotech interface for a DVD input, I'd like to use it for a front-mounted camera. My thought is to have a switch activate the front camera, which would then overide the SatNav. Then if the car is put in reverse, the reverse camera would overide all other signals. What do you think?

I'm thinking of wiring the front camera the same way you wired your DVD input into the SatNav. Can you please describe how you wired this particular feature? Did you use a rocker switch that basically "switches" the signal between two input sources? Details on what switch you used would be great too.

Also, how does the Volvotech interface unit know that it should show the DVD input rather than the SatNav when you hit the rocker switch? Does it have "intelligence" or are you simply bypassing the SatNav signal with the rocker switch?

Also, I have two switch "blanks" in the front console (below the climate control switches) and would like to mount the rocker switches here. Would the factory switches work for what I'm trying to do? I like the "factory" look.


Sorry for all the questions, but I'd like to get this right the first time without ruining anything! Thanks in advance for your help and patience.

SM