Heritage Grill Camera Swap - Observations

Hopefully the mods don't get too upset with me starting a few different threads, but I think it's best we compartmentalize some of this information for ease of finding it in the future.

As some others may have seen, I decided to do the Heritage grill swap. Now, for those of us that have a front camera (premium packages, Limited, etc), there's a slight issue - the enclosure / bracket that the camera goes into does not fit into the heritage grill, due to a different angle and different mounting pattern.

Rave Offroad released a kit which includes a 3D printed bracket, but I decided to just make my own - I have a hard time paying for others' 3D printed parts when I have my own printer & CAD software, lol. I released that bracket for free for everyone's consumption on the forum here in a different thread.

After I got the grill installed with my new bracket, the camera appeared to work fine - however, one thing I noticed is that the image appears somewhat skewed, not terribly as to completely affect functionality, but it's just an observation I noticed.



Anyways, to get to the point of this thread and relevant information - when I did my grill swap, I also swapped my lower fog trim / valence to black, and replaced the sensors. This required recalibration of the sensors to the ECU, which required Global Techstream Plus, a newer browser-based version of TS. Some info on how you can use that here :

https://www.tacoma4g.com/forum/threads/psa-euro-global-techstream-plus-works-on-24-tacomas.6131/



While recalibrating my sensors, I dug into whether there was any calibration available for the grill front camera. I noticed there are two available configuration settings :

1. Grille Type - Type1
2. Grille Type - Type2

My truck was programmed to "Grille Type - Type1"


Now, here's where things get interesting. There's only two options, even though there are technically 3 different grilles that support the front facing cameras (TRD OR/Sport, Limited, TH/TRD Pro), as such, the deductive reasoning process was simple, and I figured I'd just try to program it to "Type2"

And what happens - well, the image is upside down. Yup. Flipped.

So, what does this mean for all of us? Even Rave released a video with the camera installed into their bracket with the latch facing up. I thought the same when designing my bracket, as my limited had the camera with the latch facing up. This is probably because the camera on TRD OR/Sport & Limited both have the latch facing up, so we all assumed the TRD Pro / TH grille is the same.

The reality is - the TRD Pro / TH have most likely have the camera mounted upside down. And to get a proper image without skewing, you'll need to both mount the camera upside down in the Heritage Grill, and reprogram the ECU. Otherwise, you'll have the skewing in the video image - which for some, may not be a big deal. Not everyone will have the means nor want to pay a dealership to make this change. However, I have a tendency to chase perfection. Probably more of a negative trait than a positive one, haha.


With this all being said, I'm fairly certain my bracket should be able to mount the camera in the upside down orientation. So all that's left is to remove my whole front clip again and test this out after reprogramming the ECU.

Pics

The setting in GTS+



Grille Type1 (skewing visible in corners)




Grille Type2 (notice how there's somewhat less skewing in the bottom corners, but the image is upside down)

Fabulous post. I appreciate all the effort it takes to not only figure out some of these issues, but to document them here for everyone. I've got a Limited I'm dechroming, and this info is very useful when/if I move to another grill. Thank you!

Keep it coming!

Are you sure you see somewhat less skewing in the upside down image? They both seem skewed to me (flipped 2nd version for side-by-side):

hemlockz said:

Are you sure you see somewhat less skewing in the upside down image? They both seem skewed to me (flipped 2nd version for side-by-side):

Click to expand...

You're definitely right on this - I actually went through the process yesterday of removing my whole clip again and redesigning the camera bracket slightly to accept the camera mounted upside down. What I noticed in the redesign is that when the camera is mounted upside down, it ends up needing a slightly less acute angle to sit flush with the cutout - 7 degrees instead of 9.

The image is still skewed at the corners -- however, in reprogramming the ECU, the image was more "lined up" in the surround view. I went through the whole calibration process (a huge pain) and did some further digging on TIS and it is true - the camera is supposed to be mounted upside down on the heritage grill. You can see in these docs that grills with emblems are "Type 1" and grills without emblems (aka heritage) are "Type 2".



I think the morale of the story is this : either option will work. If you want to technically "follow the book" and mount it upside down, you can - but you'll need to reprogram the Circumference Monitoring system in order to do so. Most people won't want to touch this and will be ok with some slight distortion in image lining up properly, and I think it'll be fine.

Side note : one unique thing that I did discover is that it's possible to enable MTM over PVM and gain access to those features during the reprogramming process. So I did get something cool out of this, as before I only had PVM. MTM seems to essentially be a software-locked feature. Since it uses all of the same cameras - only difference is just the additional views it gives you.

Hopefully @Raveoffroad is watching this to catch the camera flip on their setup, or warn that it's intentionally not making it an OEM setup match

Gurvy522 said:

Side note : one unique thing that I did discover is that it's possible to enable MTM over PVM and gain access to those features during the reprogramming process. So I did get something cool out of this, as before I only had PVM. MTM seems to essentially be a software-locked feature. Since it uses all of the same cameras - only difference is just the additional views it gives you.

Click to expand...

Are you sure the Limited doesn't come with MTM? MTM is usually bundled in with the Premium package, which is basically how the Limited comes, correct?

that_frenchman said:

Are you sure the Limited doesn't come with MTM? MTM is usually bundled in with the Premium package, which is basically how the Limited comes, correct?

Click to expand...

100% Positive. MTM is only bundled in the Premium Package for the OR. The Sport and Limited get PVM. It's the same system with a few less views.

Baltimore said:

Hopefully @Raveoffroad is watching this to catch the camera flip on their setup, or warn that it's intentionally not making it an OEM setup match

Click to expand...

I mean I think Rave did it right. I doubt people will want to reprogram their ECU. Dealership would charge a lot for this. I only did it... for science. Hah

Gurvy522 said:

You're definitely right on this - I actually went through the process yesterday of removing my whole clip again and redesigning the camera bracket slightly to accept the camera mounted upside down. What I noticed in the redesign is that when the camera is mounted upside down, it ends up needing a slightly less acute angle to sit flush with the cutout - 7 degrees instead of 9.

The image is still skewed at the corners -- however, in reprogramming the ECU, the image was more "lined up" in the surround view. I went through the whole calibration process (a huge pain) and did some further digging on TIS and it is true - the camera is supposed to be mounted upside down on the heritage grill. You can see in these docs that grills with emblems are "Type 1" and grills without emblems (aka heritage) are "Type 2".

I think the morale of the story is this : either option will work. If you want to technically "follow the book" and mount it upside down, you can - but you'll need to reprogram the Circumference Monitoring system in order to do so. Most people won't want to touch this and will be ok with some slight distortion in image lining up properly, and I think it'll be fine.

Side note : one unique thing that I did discover is that it's possible to enable MTM over PVM and gain access to those features during the reprogramming process. So I did get something cool out of this, as before I only had PVM. MTM seems to essentially be a software-locked feature. Since it uses all of the same cameras - only difference is just the additional views it gives you.

Click to expand...

Based on what you have seen do you think adding MTM or PCM to a base OR would be possible? How many cameras are on these trims? The base OR only has the backup camera on the tailgate.

Pootklopp said:

Based on what you have seen do you think adding MTM or PCM to a base OR would be possible? How many cameras are on these trims? The base OR only has the backup camera on the tailgate.

Click to expand...

I don't think it will be possible to add PVM or MTM to a base model. As they are missing the camera hardware.

However, it is possible to enable MTM on vehicles equipped with PVM - as it is all the same hardware (such as a Limited or Sport Premium).

Gurvy522 said:

I don't think it will be possible to add PVM or MTM to a base model. As they are missing the camera hardware.

However, it is possible to enable MTM on vehicles equipped with PVM - as it is all the same hardware (such as a Limited or Sport Premium).

Click to expand...

You think there could be a way to add the cameras? Do you know how or where the cameras connect?

Pootklopp said:

You think there could be a way to add the cameras? Do you know how or where the cameras connect?

Click to expand...

Potentially, but I believe there is a separate "ECU" that controls the surround view.

Not saying it's impossible, but probably cost-prohibitive, similar to adding the trailer camera system to trucks that didn't come wired with it.