Trailer camera issues

migrabill · May 5, 2020

On 4/27/2020 at 8:53 PM, MTU Alum said:

I don't have alot of info to add. It sounds like either a connection issue or some type of software bug. I have had to setup about 50 trailers for demos but once I learned some of the setup issues, I haven't worked through any type of issues like you have mentioned. Wish I had more to add.

#iworkforGM

HEY MTU-

I ask because you have been very helpful with this stuff. Any idea why my "invisible" camera mode needs to be re-calibrated every time I hook up, or have a gas station break, or stop for food? It's pain to drive the length of a football field while going 5 miles an hour to calibrate this thing every time.

MTU Alum · May 6, 2020

27 minutes ago, migrabill said:

HEY MTU-

I ask because you have been very helpful with this stuff. Any idea why my "invisible" camera mode needs to be re-calibrated every time I hook up, or have a gas station break, or stop for food? It's pain to drive the length of a football field while going 5 miles an hour to calibrate this thing every time.

I don't. I assume you are selecting your saved trailer profile when hooking up. You shouldn't have to re-calibrate after you have done it once. Let me see if anyone has any ideas to try.

#iworkforGM

MTU Alum · May 7, 2020

On 5/5/2020 at 7:56 PM, migrabill said:

HEY MTU-

I ask because you have been very helpful with this stuff. Any idea why my "invisible" camera mode needs to be re-calibrated every time I hook up, or have a gas station break, or stop for food? It's pain to drive the length of a football field while going 5 miles an hour to calibrate this thing every time.

Ok. I asked around and here are a few things to try and make sure of.

1. I assume you are selecting your trailer profile at startup and not changing any the of the dimensions. If you change any of the dimensions it will cause you to re-calibrate.

2. Just confirming that you are getting a yellow status bar and showing calibration being done on the Transparent view after each startup? You have to be going 10 mph for the transparent to work after a key up.

3. If it is really calibrating after each key cycle, I was told after the calibration is complete and transparent is visible to shut the vehicle off and let it the truck go asleep. Basically, shut the truck off and open/close driver's door and wait until the Onstar green light goes out. From your post, this should have happened at your gas station and food breaks. When the module goes to sleep, it should write the calibration values in memory.

4. Its probably worth trying creating a new trailer profile with the same dimensions and see if for some reason that profile is corrupted.

5. Take some pictures in transparent view with it calibrating and once the calibration is complete. If it is calibrating, in the transparent view you should see the view with the two mirror cameras with the trailer camera in the middle with a yellow status bar at the bottom of the screen.

6. Take to Dealer and see if there are any codes for loss of communication between the CSM (Radio Display module) and VPM (Camera module).

#iworkforGM.

jaybauman · May 20, 2020

On 4/27/2020 at 5:13 PM, ShotgunZ71 said:

I have not tried a different truck yet. It really does seem like a power issue with the way it "knows" a camera is there, but shows no picture. Then, when unplugging and then plugging into the other port, it is great. I had issues from the start with the hookup process, powering down, etc, but this issue has remained. It will work great, then go out, then work again. The biggest problem is when it decides NOT to work when I need it the most, like backing it a tight spot or checking spacing. I may just try it on the interior camera port next trip and see how it does.

Hey Shotgun...

I have a few more data points; have you learned anything new?

I've been having radio problems (particularly with XM) so I took my truck in for service. While there, I told my service advisor about the problems with the trailer camera. Since they couldn't replicate either issue, they informed me that there were no problems. When it arrived, I filled in the customer satisfaction survey with my true feelings. A few weeks later, I got a phone call from GM Corporate wanting to know more about my issues. They set up a service appointment with a different GMC dealer, who listened to my issues and did a fair amount of diagnostics. The XM radio problems are not unique to me, but it appears to be a problem with SiriusXM and not GM. We are awaiting word on resolution. As for my camera problems, my service advisor told me that the camera system "threw a lot of codes" so they know something is wrong. They are awaiting some parts to fix my issue, which are apparently on backorder at the moment. He's been a bit cagey with details, but I'll post here when I learn any specifics.

After nearly a month, I got my truck back (radio still not working) this week. Today, I picked up my Airstream. Initially, the backup camera / invisible trailer view worked per design. After a few miles, it froze then eventually went black--just like before. I reset the trailer plug, and the camera worked again. But this time, I never put it into "invisible trailer" view; instead, I left the rear view camera on for several miles until I reached my destination. The camera worked the entire time! So here's my theory: The camera works fine, but the invisible trailer processor is causing the apparent problems.

Shotgun, I have a request for you: The next time you're pulling your trailer, can you NOT use invisible trailer view and just leave it in rear view only? Let's see how that works for someone other than me. We'll have the trailer back out in a week and a half, at which time I'll try further diagnoses along these lines. Hopefully you can help shed some light on this. My XM problems and trailer camera problems are still highly correlated with each other, so I still think they are somehow related....

Thanks,

Jayson

dab5577 · May 20, 2020

Have you tried to refresh the radio to resolve XM radio? Mine has been acting weird and stopped working Sunday and refreshing my radio ID fixed it. It took a few mins but was fixed in a few miles after submitting.

https://care.siriusxm.com/retailrefresh_view.action#/refreshradio

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jaybauman · May 20, 2020

20 minutes ago, dab5577 said:

Have you tried to refresh the radio to resolve XM radio? Mine has been acting weird and stopped working Sunday and refreshing my radio ID fixed it. It took a few mins but was fixed in a few miles after submitting.

Yes, I've tried this about 20 times, and so has the service department at the dealer. This has had no impact.

I'm having some really specific, strange issues with the radio. My service advisor reports that GM is aware that some trucks are having these same issues, but they have not yet identified a fix. Most recently, GM thinks the problems are on SiriusXM's end.

I'm suspicious of their assessment, because my radio problems are exacerbated by plugging in trailer the 7-way plug.

dab5577 · May 20, 2020

I figured they had tried all kinds of stuff, but wanted to throw it out there.

Hope you get a resolution soon.

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ShotgunZ71 · May 21, 2020

13 hours ago, jaybauman said:

Hey Shotgun...

I have a few more data points; have you learned anything new?

I've been having radio problems (particularly with XM) so I took my truck in for service. While there, I told my service advisor about the problems with the trailer camera. Since they couldn't replicate either issue, they informed me that there were no problems. When it arrived, I filled in the customer satisfaction survey with my true feelings. A few weeks later, I got a phone call from GM Corporate wanting to know more about my issues. They set up a service appointment with a different GMC dealer, who listened to my issues and did a fair amount of diagnostics. The XM radio problems are not unique to me, but it appears to be a problem with SiriusXM and not GM. We are awaiting word on resolution. As for my camera problems, my service advisor told me that the camera system "threw a lot of codes" so they know something is wrong. They are awaiting some parts to fix my issue, which are apparently on backorder at the moment. He's been a bit cagey with details, but I'll post here when I learn any specifics.

After nearly a month, I got my truck back (radio still not working) this week. Today, I picked up my Airstream. Initially, the backup camera / invisible trailer view worked per design. After a few miles, it froze then eventually went black--just like before. I reset the trailer plug, and the camera worked again. But this time, I never put it into "invisible trailer" view; instead, I left the rear view camera on for several miles until I reached my destination. The camera worked the entire time! So here's my theory: The camera works fine, but the invisible trailer processor is causing the apparent problems.

Shotgun, I have a request for you: The next time you're pulling your trailer, can you NOT use invisible trailer view and just leave it in rear view only? Let's see how that works for someone other than me. We'll have the trailer back out in a week and a half, at which time I'll try further diagnoses along these lines. Hopefully you can help shed some light on this. My XM problems and trailer camera problems are still highly correlated with each other, so I still think they are somehow related....

Thanks,

Jayson

Jay - I don't use invisible trailer as my camera placement is too high and trailer is too long for it to calibrate correctly. The only views I have is rear-view only and rear-view with side mirror cameras. I'll see if it's any better next trip or if it works better using the interior camera port on the bumper.

Interesting that they found codes on the system. Next time mine goes for service, I'll mention it to them and have them check it out. Hope they narrow yours down and get it squared away. Maybe the processor is the issue, like you stated, and GM will update trucks that have the issue.

jaybauman · May 21, 2020

22 minutes ago, ShotgunZ71 said:

Jay - I don't use invisible trailer as my camera placement is too high and trailer is too long for it to calibrate correctly. The only views I have is rear-view only and rear-view with side mirror cameras. I'll see if it's any better next trip or if it works better using the interior camera port on the bumper.

Interesting that they found codes on the system. Next time mine goes for service, I'll mention it to them and have them check it out. Hope they narrow yours down and get it squared away. Maybe the processor is the issue, like you stated, and GM will update trucks that have the issue.

Ok....then next time, just use the pure rear view. Mine has "locked up" in the combination rear/side view; when I was only using rear view, it worked the entire trip.

Sunshine39 · May 21, 2020

Interesting topics.

We have had the XM issues from time to time where it doesn't seem to connect. If I change the channel it starts playing an I can go back to the normal channel. Last time I got in the truck it worked ok.

On camera issues ours is a travel trailer so camera is above the rear window and I figure i is to high to calibrate as we have tried it a couple of times.

Took the trailer to have serviced about 60 miles away. Camera did fine as it always had. When we picked up trailer the camera would work. After reading the suggestions on here I hooked the truck up yesterday after letting the buss go to sleep. It worked fine.

Funny as every other time I hooked and it worked. the engine was running. Don't know if I hooked up the 7 pin connector first or the camera connection. I do know once or twice I had to unplug the camera and plug it back in while my wife watched to see the camera start working,

Will be trying it again in a few days so will be interesting to see if it works.

Wish the trailer pressures could be displayed on the main dash display.

Thanks for all the info...

ShotgunZ71 · May 22, 2020

21 hours ago, jaybauman said:

Ok....then next time, just use the pure rear view. Mine has "locked up" in the combination rear/side view; when I was only using rear view, it worked the entire trip.

I tried it using rear view only, still froze intermittently and then went blank. I then unplugged it and plugged it into the inside trailer port and it did the same thing. Here’s the kicker, it seems to freeze up more when moving and it’s trying to show the video. Your dealer may be on to something about the processors. Maybe they can’t handle the active video, but still or slow, they do okay sometimes ?

jaybauman · May 22, 2020

1 hour ago, ShotgunZ71 said:

I tried it using rear view only, still froze intermittently and then went blank. I then unplugged it and plugged it into the inside trailer port and it did the same thing. Here’s the kicker, it seems to freeze up more when moving and it’s trying to show the video. Your dealer may be on to something about the processors. Maybe they can’t handle the active video, but still or slow, they do okay sometimes ?

That's not the result I was hoping to hear. Thanks for the update.

We're camping again next weekend, so I'll try a few more diagnostics and report back if I learn anything interesting.

Mbower2020 · May 23, 2020

Well it would be nice if GM would offer a camera and the options necessary for us guys with the big 38+ ft 5 er's. I would love to put the camera on the back and have everything incorporated on one screen. Currently the camera they offer does not have a long enough cable. Plus why wouldn't they put the stinkin video ports in the bed of the truck also. That right there tells me they never thought about using a camera on a gooseneck or 5th wheel. Doesn't make sense to me. I keep looking for the style plug they are using to come up with something on my own. Does anyone have an idea? Problem is right now these trucks are so new and if we want these options we have to come up with solutions ourselves. I will give it to GM they put some thought into it but it seems they forgot about us guys with the big trailers when it comes to the optional cameras.

falk1rk · May 23, 2020

Below is a link that tells you what to buy from where to relocate the bumper plug into the bed. I have done it and it was very easy but my camera is still on backorder so I have not been able to try it out.

https://www.gm-trucks.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235530-Help-W/-relocating-camera-port-from-bumper-to-bed-for-5th-wheel,#entry2388376

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