Lockpick Grounding Problem

Norton

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Not sure if this is the "right/best" forum in which to post the info, but wanted save others the hassle I went through this weekend when adding a Freedom In Motion Sync Lockpick to the Shelby...

Following an otherwise uneventful install, the Rear Camera feed was garbled and unreadable. Note the black & white, double image that was also flickering on the screen. (Those aren't scratches on the screen. They're part of the flickering captured via still photo. Those are, however, fingerprints on the screen, which bothers me to no end, but that's another story.)
20151012_144254_zpszpgiiqna.gif


After confirming all the connections were good, we tried swapping out the
- camera, including its wires to the Lockpick
- Lockpick itself
- Lockpick wiring harness

None of this had any effect, leaving me with little choice but to connect the Rear Camera via the Aux Camera input. Although this worked, it required navigating on-screen menus to activate the Rear Camera, rather than having it come on automatically when shifting into reverse. This also left me wondering if my head unit was defective or if the Sync 4.4 update had somehow bricked the ability to add a Rear Camera.

Consult with Coastal Electronic Technologies today suggested a possible Rear Camera (only) ground problem, caused by a Lockpick-INTERNAL relay. Recommended COA was to externally ground an Orange wire with Black Stripe that routes to the Head Unit via a connection at which the wire becomes Green with Black Stripe. (I realize this in not at all intuitive, but I cannot emphasize enough the importance of grounding the RIGHT Orange wire with Black Stripe, since there's also one that routes +12V power to the Rear Camera. Grounding that one would be BAD, for obvious reasons.)

After multi-meter readings seemed to confirm the theory, I installed a vampire tap on the Orange wire with Black Stripe (that routes to the Head Unit via a connection at which the wire becomes Green with Black Stripe) and grounded the other end. This SOLVED THE PROBLEM. The unit and all its capabilities are now fully functional. Shortly after we provided this feedback to Coastal Electronic Technologies, they called back to apologize for the difficulty and thank us for discovering a widespread problem (their QC missed) with a specific relay on circuit boards used in multiple units. I don't know how far/wide the defective units have propagated, but we tried three separate ones and Coastal Electronic Technologies obviously had another defective one in their inventory.

If you experience a similar problem with your Lockpick, you may want to explore this issue before wasting a lot of time repeating the steps we took. Good luck!
 
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efroeh

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good info norton. is the back up camera view on screen the same as a factory ford one on lets say a truck?
 

Norton

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good info norton. is the back up camera view on screen the same as a factory ford one on lets say a truck?
No problem! Hoping to save others the frustration and wasted time I suffered...

I think the answer to your question is yes. The only difference between the Shelby's display and that of the new Ford trucks I've driven is we don't have the proximity sensors that light-up as you get too close to something. Other than that, however, they look almost identical to me (i.e., green, yellow, and red lines, along with the word STOP).
 

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