Nothing wrong with a bit of Village People 
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Slight snag already - the Kenwood CM0S 230 reversing camera is out of stock from Car Audio Centre and they’ve emailed me to say its on its way from the supplier and will take 3-5 days to get to me once it arrives. Given I’m getting everything else (from Dynamic Sounds) tomorrow that’s a real pain as I’m planning to do all the installation this weekend. I note the CMOS 230 is out of stock in most other stores also so assuming its widespread.
I’m now thinking of cancelling the order and ordering the Pioneer ND - BC9 as recommended by Dynamic Sounds so I can get everything done at the weekend. Pioneer ND-BC9 - Universal Car Back-up Reverse Camera High … (dynamicsounds.co.uk)
Any thoughts? It’s a universal camera and recommended by DS so assuming it’s all good?
If they say it works then fine.
OR
Kenwood CMOS 230
It’s on Amazon prime for £101.18 delivery on Saturday if interested.
Road Radio 01293 533941 £89.99 see if they can deliver before weekend.
Up to you.
Ok thanks I’ve ordered it from Amazon and have requested a refund from Car Audio - I had looked on there but in only appears further down the list for some reason.
I note on a review it says the camera has to be switched on manually when reversing rather than activating on its own…is that right? Seems kind of pointless if so
That reviewer is talking complete rubbish.
“Wisdom has been chasing them, but they have always been running faster”, or a “dental flosser”.
It’s plugged into the head unit and wired into the reverse system as stated above with the Lime Green wire.
All in the diagram in the installation manual.
If you don’t have one (sure you will) find the reverse light source.
When you select reverse the screen automatically shows the rear which you can fine tune with the ladder system.
You can also just switch it on from the head unit by pressing the camera button.
As you say that’s the point.
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Thought it sounded a bit dumb, thanks for your wisdom and advice! Will post updates
I have nearly all the gear now in readiness for the weekend install. Just a quick question, I note theres a GPS receiver with the head unit, plugs in the back then has a long wire and a black box at the end with a sticky base, presumably the idea is to stick it on the dashboard for gps.
Do I even need to bother with this? Given it has andriod auto and Apple Car play (and full android mirroring) does the stereo really need an additional gps receiver? I might use it anyway but given the small dash on the mazda I’m nor overly keen with filling it with blobs!
I fitted mine under the dash, if I remember there’s a metal brace piece that crosses above the head unit, it fitted on there with the magnet square supplied.
Oh right so completely hidden away from view, only reachable if you remove the head unit?
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Pop the centre speaker grill off and feed it into there as there isn’t a speaker anyway.
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And there was me thinking there was a speaker underneath that! Ok thanks will do
the gps receiver will fit under your instrument cowl !
if you have a bose sys there is a speaker under the centre of the dash
The GPS is for the head unit to measure speed so the speed dependant volume can operate.
When fitted you can hardly see it.
Here is mine sat just above the mirror
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There is a speaker if you have the Bose system fitted.
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just thread it though to underneath the instrument cowl that just pops off then you don’t have to see it sod routing it round the screen trim to the top of the window
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When you say underneath the instrument cowl you mean on top of the steering column where it goes under the dials? I already have what I think is the mic for the current Alpine stereo sitting there so it could replace that, although I’ll probably have to put the new mic there also
I can’t see it at all in the photo you posted so it must be well hidden"! 
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yeh when you lift the cowl on top of the instruments there’s loads of room under it thats where i put mine
i will take a pic in the morning
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Thanks! D-day weekend for me… by the way, does anyone actually bother to disconnect the battery earth terminal when doing this?
You may want to check if the Alpine unit is coded, not sure myself, I know some of the other standard head units were.
It’ll be in your handbook how to code or decode the unit if necessary. Basically on the standard head units if you can input a code it never had one to start with, follow the manual.
I say this as you may want to sell on the Alpine, useless if coded and you don’t know it as it’s not recorded anywhere.
Anyways if you’ve never done this before I’d disconnect the battery to be safe. I’ve done it a few times and never bothered on the NC unless your splicing in loads of cables for whatever reason, most are just plug and play in the main.