chucky0731

Correct me if I'm wrong...I thought there is NO WAY to get a TOP DOWN or SURROUND VIEW camera view with the A7/S7/RS7...simply because how the two side mirrors are located.

jeremymc7

Technically speaking it can be done.

The control module will support it. The coding will support it. As this project evolves in my car the Top View comes up, the front and back gets filled in with the corner cameras. The sides of the top view are missing. HOWEVER, if you plug in side cameras it comes up.

The problem lies in the fact that Audi doesn't make side mirrors for the A7 with cameras that support top view. None of the other car side mirrors with cameras are a good fit for the A7. Likewise hacking the OEM cameras into the A7 while doable is way more trouble than it's worth. However (again), you can use aftermarket mirror cameras that are designed for use in a variety of cars. Given the design of come of these camera's you can technically drill the A7 farther out and place the cameras and then wire them in. This will get you top view on the sides in an A7. The image will be in a slightly wrong spot, you'll need an Audi tech to calibrate the image to align. Also the color and night view will likely not match the other two OEM cameras which is less of an issue.

I'm working with vendors to see if an aftermarket camera can be found that can be retro-fitted (read drilled and permanent) to the A7 mirror and be compatible with the existing interface.

TampaUKfan

Glad I found this thread thought I was going nuts! I know the A6 does a top view camera shot, I swore the A7 had it too.. guess not

uttevrec

Did you ever find a way to do this on an A7/S7?

jeremymc7

It works. It can be done. Proof of concept showed top down with A7/S7.

Vendor didn't want to spend the time to modify the mirrors to install the camera and then align them with software.

So there is no plug and play solution but if someone want's to spend the time and money it can be done.

uttevrec

Thanks for the follow-up. Sounds like a lot of work to add the two cameras without something pre-configured.

Do you know if it's possible to enable (an incomplete) top down view without the sideview cameras? So just make the front quadrant / rear quadrant visible? I think this would be more useful than showing nothing (as the current A7/S7 screen does.)

jeremymc7

Yes! Totally doable.

I actually had it on my car for several months. You're see a top down view like on A6 or A8 for the front and rear and the sides will be blanked.

I reverted mine back to no top view when the vendor didn't provide a finished solution for the side mirror camera mounting.

You need to get an A8 camera module. It needs to be activated to your specific car. If you only have the stock rear camera you'll need the upgraded rear camera with split / side view. You'll need the same for the front. You'll also need to do some wiring harness work. If you already have front and rear cameras with split / view view you might not need the harness. The car itself also needs needs to be reprogrammed to accept it all.

Mine took several weeks as I was the first (perhaps only still) person to do this. Also cost me nearly $3k for all the parts and labor.

If I just wanted to drill and stick on some ugly cameras on the outer edge of the mirrors and spent more time coding I could have been done with side cameras and FULL top down. It was tested and worked. It wasn't factory look. Vendor didn't want to do the custom work to get a factory look, there was / is no "decent" factory look. I got tired of messing with the project and figured Audi would just add it and I'll want a new car by then.

uttevrec

Thanks for the info. I was hoping that it wouldn't take a new module and would just be a VAG-COM/MMI config change since I already have the split-view cameras front and rear. Since it's not, I think I'm where you are on this... not going to mess with it.

Quattrings

I can't believe that Audi couldn't make the modification to add two little simple mirrors to a plastic part, just lazy in my opinion. After driving the S6 and playing with the top view and loving it then purchasing an RS7 with the Drivers Assistance option for the sole reason to have that option and then getting the car and it's not there was frustrating. I figured my car was broken and was about to contact my dealer! Come to find out, no camera in the plastic mirror. I'm sure I could find some A6 mirrors with cameras and take the cameras out and retrofit in the A7 style mirror. That would seem fairly straightforward as there is nothing to these cameras. Are we certain a new module is necessary? It would seem that it's a simple VAG-COM setting and a matter of running the wires. The Drivers Assistance package "seems" identical between the A6 and A7, besides having the physical cameras in the mirrors. Shame on Audi for being so cheap on this.

uttevrec

In my experience, Audi has a huge number of module variation to try to trim cost where ever possible. For the A7/S7/RS7 alone there are something like 16 steering wheel module variations, with each one tied to a specific combination of options (paddle shifter, adaptive cruise, lane departure, heated steering, etc.)

If jeremymc7 says it requires a different camera module, I believe it.