Possible to tap existing vehicle cameras?

[dank69]

I recently bought a 2024 Hyundai Tucson Hybrid Limited which has a bunch of cameras. Does anyone know if it would be possible to capture their live feeds to turn it all into like a 360 degree dashcam?

 

[crashtech]

Interesting idea, watching.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

For a brand new car this probably isn't a great idea - DIY electronics can be messy and it might cause problems with warranty claims.

In theory, the cameras are all probably sending a composite signal, so you'd just need to split it / duplicate it (maybe boost it a little) and wire in your recording device / dashcam. But a lot of the cameras are probably only powered with certain conditions are met (like being in reverse) so you'd have to mess around with power delivery so they're always on (which may include running new wires, and which may cause problems for the existing computer/system if it's getting 24/7 input from all the cameras and gets confused or something) and if your car is one where certain accessory circuits are always-on you'll need to be careful about it which circuit you pick.

I'd say it's not for the faint of heart, and you can get a dedicated dashcam for a couple hundred bucks that's just a lot easier.

 

[Tech Junky]

First thing is you'll need to mux multiple channels into a single display which may or may not be supported with the current head unit / display.

You'll likely want to upgrade to a full sized display withe more real estate to view things properly.

You'll likely need to interface with the ECU to unlock the option as well.

Wiring shouldn't be a huge deal though as you can split the fakra harnesses easily with Y cables. If you were going to do more systems monitoring though then an ECU tap harness might come into play but, that's usually something built into a new HU.

There's not likely a simple toggle to turn on the option though w/o some fiddling or upgrading the hardware to make it work.

 

[dank69]

First thing is you'll need to mux multiple channels into a single display which may or may not be supported with the current head unit / display.

You'll likely want to upgrade to a full sized display withe more real estate to view things properly.

You'll likely need to interface with the ECU to unlock the option as well.

Wiring shouldn't be a huge deal though as you can split the fakra harnesses easily with Y cables. If you were going to do more systems monitoring though then an ECU tap harness might come into play but, that's usually something built into a new HU.

There's not likely a simple toggle to turn on the option though w/o some fiddling or upgrading the hardware to make it work.

Real time display isn't a priority, just a nice-to-have.

I'm more interested in just capturing and recording the signals from each camera, both for legal protection in case of an incident but also perhaps entertainment because of all the crazy things I see drivers do from time to time.

I'm sure these newer cars already store x amount of video in their black boxes, right? Are there devices available that can grab that information? Maybe that would be easier than messing around with the wiring?

 

[Tech Junky]

store

Ok, so you want more of a storage solution than a live feed. It's going to depend on the MMI entertainment system capabilities. I don't think many systems record cameras by default. My car has a SSD in the MMI but, that's storing maps and music not video from the car camera.

The car came with a 80GB HDD though and has 2xSD card slots for expansion. I swapped the HDD to an SSD because of the age and thinking I could get better performance out of the maps function and then they killed off the modem because it's 3G which lead me down the path to upgrading to an Android display instead. The Android display was kind of wonky in ow they wanted to wire into the car systems and I sourced some different wiring harnesses to integrate it in more of an OEM look.

The Android unit though has more options available that I haven't invoked but, it has its own SD slot and a SIM slot as well and some features listed that open up the door for a better camera setup. I'm sure there's a way to tap the video feed though and pass it to a DVR device it's a matter of finding the right cable and a recording device to connect to it. Probably something like a PI that can be powered through low voltage / fuse tap. I did a fuse tap for powering my radar detector off he power supply by the RV mirror with a short 3-5" cable that powers on when the car's running.

Since it's a new MY though there doesn't seem to be much after market stuff listed yet or it's not a high priority mod vehicle. Digging into finding an ECU cable and SW though would be a good start to figuring out if there's options in the car's OS that you can toggle on a recording feature / option before investing effort into finding HW to do the same. There's probably a hub in the trunk where everything feeds into for processing though since it's safety related and would be more protected back there vs under the hood. In my car there's a fiber optic loop that feeds different systems around the car so, maybe there's something similar in yours.

 

[dank69]

Ok, so you want more of a storage solution than a live feed. It's going to depend on the MMI entertainment system capabilities. I don't think many systems record cameras by default. My car has a SSD in the MMI but, that's storing maps and music not video from the car camera.

The car came with a 80GB HDD though and has 2xSD card slots for expansion. I swapped the HDD to an SSD because of the age and thinking I could get better performance out of the maps function and then they killed off the modem because it's 3G which lead me down the path to upgrading to an Android display instead. The Android display was kind of wonky in ow they wanted to wire into the car systems and I sourced some different wiring harnesses to integrate it in more of an OEM look.

The Android unit though has more options available that I haven't invoked but, it has its own SD slot and a SIM slot as well and some features listed that open up the door for a better camera setup. I'm sure there's a way to tap the video feed though and pass it to a DVR device it's a matter of finding the right cable and a recording device to connect to it. Probably something like a PI that can be powered through low voltage / fuse tap. I did a fuse tap for powering my radar detector off he power supply by the RV mirror with a short 3-5" cable that powers on when the car's running.

Since it's a new MY though there doesn't seem to be much after market stuff listed yet or it's not a high priority mod vehicle. Digging into finding an ECU cable and SW though would be a good start to figuring out if there's options in the car's OS that you can toggle on a recording feature / option before investing effort into finding HW to do the same. There's probably a hub in the trunk where everything feeds into for processing though since it's safety related and would be more protected back there vs under the hood. In my car there's a fiber optic loop that feeds different systems around the car so, maybe there's something similar in yours.

Where would I go about finding the required technical specs and information for my vehicle?

 

[Tech Junky]

Where would I go about finding the required technical specs and information for my vehicle?

Look for your vehicle forums and mods. You might search for a service manual that might shed some light on the systems and cabling.