Installed a digital rear view mirror

Got a used digital mirror for an amazing deal, worked, but was missing some things. My medium is wood so I worked up some parts in the shop, did a little soldering, some painting, and got it all installed. After using it a bit, it's not a silver bullet but it's a really nice, useful addition.

The issue I had before was the double tint looking backwards - tinted cab glass, and very dark tinted topper rear glass. It was hard to see behind me during the day and basically nothing at night. And the camper trailer sits high enough out back to obstruct views whereas the digital mirror cam is mounted high enough to see over top. Oh, and the kids like spying on the people behind us at stop lights to see who's on their phone or not.

I soldered the pigtail from the mirror into a 16 pin female mirror connector so as to avoid having to tap into the existing dimming mirror wires. Worked great and I can always switch back too.

Running the camera wire from the mirror to the back of the cab was a little challenging, but this truck is cavernous in every way which helped a ton. Mostly just lots of visualizing and planning. There's a gap the size of the Grand Canyon above the front edge of the head liner, ran it down the driver A pillar (popped the handle trim, 2 bolts to remove the trim - just run the wire out of the way of the airbag in there). Came across the dash still behind that a pillar trim to the door weather stripping. Down the weather stripping to the floor trim, and out the grommet in the driver foot well. From there it's a straight shot down the frame, over the rear wheel well, and up the bed by the taillight. There's a hole in the bed just in front of the tailgate to pass into the bed. Then I hot glued some wire loom clips up and around the topper over to the camera and left some slack for it to move with the lift glass. Needed a couple coax extensions to make the whole run.

The camera caddy is taped onto the rear glass on all 4 sides with 3M VHB double sided tape. Its solid. I had issues with the tape on the wire loom clips on the topper roof because the fiberglass wasn't smooth. The hot glue seems to have done the trick there, still reversible with a heat gun if needed. Zip ties as needed elsewhere. Wire loom for any exterior or potentially bumped areas.

Turned out great!

EDIT: pictures appear to have uploaded in a random order, not sure why... Sorry.

Love the wood. Work with that you know.

You're going to love that digital rear view mirror. I bought a Wolfbox G900 dash cam that attaches to the regular rear view mirror and has that feature. In fact I use it for the rear view mirror and I have not even looked at the dash cam vids.

I used a Donger Tech adapter to get USB power for it at the mirror. I do not need the parking monitor features as I have a PB and do not want or need that power drain option. Start the truck and it turns on, shut the truck off and the mirror goes off.

For the rear camera I (used an installer) ran the line down and out the floor gromet and under the truck. Then up through the bed gromets at the front of the bed. I then attached an extension to the camera line so I could disconnect the camera and remove the topper if needed. The rear camera is up high and held on with the special 3M velcro plastic tabs that EZ Pass uses for your windshield. This lets me easily remove the camera if needed for the car wash, then pop it back on when done. The only drawback is that I run the line inbetween the topper rear glass and weather seal. Even with this I bearly get a drop in the bed.

I find it amazing that the truck does not just have this feature since all the cameras are already there. You get this with regular cars now, but not the F-150? Come on Ford this is a truck that needs this feature the most.

So a few things to add here -

1. I actually bought the Dongar adapter too, but only because I couldn't find the OEM female connector I needed... It's gotta be out there but I gave up and clicked the easy button because I basically spent nothing on the mirror.


2. There are 5 wires going into my mirror - 12v power, which is switched (acc and ignition only - off when the truck is off - if you need a steady 12v power source you'll have to fish a wire to the fuse box or something). Ground. EC+ and EC- which are 1.2-1.4V and control the drivers side exterior mirror dimming based on the interior mirror dim status. And a 12V reverse signal that's tied to the reverse lights. This is used to cancel the dimming when the truck is in reverse. Happy to say, I've got all of this working on the new mirror. Here's a diagram I found in my search, confirmed with a voltmeter on the truck connector:

A note on all this - I did get the dimming working again with the new mirror... but I realized afterwards that it never really dimmed anyway because of the tinted rear glass situation. It measures ambient light with the forward sensor, then there's another sensor behind the glass looking backwards, and when it senses a differential (i.e. when a car is blaring its lights behind you), it will dim. But with the dark rear glass, it never got a differential reading and essentially never dimmed... If it never dims, it never needs the 12v reverse light override either. I was thinking of the exterior mirror, didn't want to lose dimming on that one, but alas, it is also controlled by the mirror inside. So if you're installing a camera for a topper situation like mine, you can probably skip the dimming wires altogether and simplify the job. Unless you're a sucker for features like me, even if you know it'll never be used.

3. I thought about mounting the camera on the outside but I wasn't sure if my camera was weatherproof or not, so I went inside. Looks cleaner this way and I wasn't sure how I'd run that wire to the outside anyway. I mostly didn't want to drill any holes. @Kodiak yours looks like a nice clean install, glad to hear the weather stripping is holding up for you.

Note there are some drawbacks with an interior mount like mine:
- The video feed inside has a warm white balance because it's looking through the tinted rear glass. The photos above make it look worse than it is, but there is definitely a noticeable contrast between this display and my 12" center stack screen.
- The video feed is plenty bright during the day. As a matter of fact I turn the screen brightness all the way down or it's too distracting.
- Camera works great down until about twilight outside. But nighttime driving is kind of a wash between digital or standard modes. It's dark.

4. @Kodiak you're absolutely right this is a great feature, although I do find myself preferring standard mirror at times. Some peoples eyes have a hard time focusing at a distance for driving, then up close for the mirror video, so I get you might not want it all the time. My eyes can adjust fine yet (knock on wood), but it's not an eye thing, it's a brain thing. I'm just so used to viewing at a distance for both that sometimes I'll look up at the digital display and feel cross-eyed for a moment. But the whole double-tinted rear glass thing, shorter trailer hauling, and heck, I can load the bed up to the ceiling now and still see out the back. Oh yeah, and I have 3 kids, so when that middle seat is populated I can see right through them. Definitely a nice feature, and I agree Ford should make this an option.

5. Speaking of stupid options left out... HOMELINK! I cannot understand why they lock this behind a $70k+ Lariat trim and above. It's a $20 part to buy on your own, and probably single digits for OEM's to buy in bulk. Just include it in XL and XLT already, it's not a luxury feature anymore. Having it built in to my new mirror is icing on the cake, use it all the time, and my garage door opener looks like it's from 1972 so good riddance to that!

DadBald said:

5. Speaking of stupid options left out... HOMELINK! I cannot understand why they lock this behind a $70k+ Lariat trim and above. It's a $20 part to buy on your own, and probably single digits for OEM's to buy in bulk. Just include it in XL and XLT already, it's not a luxury feature anymore. Having it built in to my new mirror is icing on the cake, use it all the time, and my garage door opener looks like it's from 1972 so good riddance to that!

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You'd think this should have been included since 2010 and up! And when you do end up buying it as an option, it looks like some goofy Radio Shack generic afterthought from the '80s.

Very nicely done! My compliments on your woodworking skills, your custom mount looks great.

Thank you, sir! Hardest part was finding the angle, and the rear glass is curved slightly. Fun project.

Hopefully you won't have any issues with the cameras or the mirror itself over time. I've gone through many variations of dash cameras through multiple vehicles. I'd say roughly 12 to 15 over 10 years. Every single one has had an issue, from high dollar to cheap Temu brands. Either the hardware will age from poor components with heat/cooling cycles, camera outside in the weather will allow water to leak in, all sorts of things. I'm not trying to bring down the work you've done, which looks great, just don't be surprised in a couple of years you'll have to replace the entire thing when just the camera goes and you can't replace it alone.

I'm replacing the one on my work vehicle today due to it reboot cycling. Hopefully this one outlasts my expectations.

Good to know, thanks. I should be able to find a replacement camera if it goes bad, it just uses a coax connection. And I wired in the mirror to be completely removable if I ever wanted to put the stock one back in. Crossing my fingers it lasts a while, but if not, it'll be another fun weekend project

Ok folks, I need some help. I cannot get my wire loom to stick to the ceiling of my topper. I went out to the truck this morning, and saw this in my rear view mirror



I've tried double-sided automotive trim tape, the same stuff that's holding my camera to the glass like concrete. Kept falling off. Double-layered it for more padding, hoping it would form around the rough surface better, no dice. This time I used hot glue (the crafts kind, not high-temp) - worked great for a few days, and now even that is falling off. It was fine on a short drive this morning, then came off after about an hour at home before I went on another short drive. It's not even hot out this morning (62F currently). WTF.

Any ideas of something I can use that will stick to this fiberglass roof?? I cleaned each spot with alcohol before sticking each of these attempts on.

If you had the roof rails/tracks added to your topper you might be able to add some attaching device to the bolts for those.

Also I used some of this High Heat epoxy to make some "Franken Mags" (oil filter magnets) and this stuff sticks and does not let go in heat. It may not be the prettiest but if you rough up that fiberglass area and attach some kind of clip with that epoxy to your roof, you should be able to get something to work for the heat. Keep in mind this could be a permanent thing.

Hmm, was hoping for something a little less permanent which is why I was trying double sided tape. I might upgrade to metal clips of some sort if I epoxy them on. Don't want to fix them permanently and have the plastic clip break

Sadly do not have the roof rails to mount to inside.

DadBald said:

Hmm, was hoping for something a little less permanent which is why I was trying double sided tape. I might upgrade to metal clips of some sort if I epoxy them on. Don't want to fix them permanently and have the plastic clip break

Sadly do not have the roof rails to mount to inside.

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Hi James, Project looks great Have used this on many mods and it holds great, just need to hold in place with something else until it dries and is completely removable if you need.
good luck

https://www.acehardware.com/departm...VIUT_AR3kMRiiEAQYBCABEgK5k_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Awesome, thanks @FrankSJ! I'm headed to Ace to pick some up right now!

I just scuff sanded the anchor points and was about to use some 5min epoxy. If the Goop is remotely removable I'll try it first.

DadBald said:

Awesome, thanks @FrankSJ! I'm headed to Ace to pick some up right now!

I just scuff sanded the anchor points and was about to use some 5min epoxy. If the Goop is remotely removable I'll try it first.

Click to expand...

Cool.. Maybe the hot glue will hold long enough for goop to dry