A homemade calibration target leads to a domino effect of issues

The shop did some quick research and saw that a target was needed so they winged it and made their own target out of cardboard (Figure 2). The size they chose was way too large from the factory specification shown beside it. It was a true domino effect of great proportions. The contrast alone was wrong because the black circles were supposed to be on a white pattern background. Camera systems are designed to look at black and white images during their calibration process. These images must be the proper size, proper configuration and placed in a specific location near the vehicle. Lighting is also a key factor, so you must make sure there is proper lighting in the bay you are using without having direct lighting on the image itself. There should be sufficient room around the vehicle with no obstructions in the way. The calibration procedure will require you to follow certain guidelines to achieve the area to place a valid target. If these guidelines are not followed and you succeed in aiming the camera, the images may no longer reflect the distance of objects located near the vehicle.

The set up on this vehicle required specific set points to me marked out on the floor near the vehicle (Figure 3). To achieve these set points, you must first have a shop floor that is level. The centerline of the vehicle must be determined and laid out underneath the vehicle and extending out the back of the vehicle. You will need a plumb bob to hang on the front hood hinge that will drop down in the middle of the front car emblem to a point on the floor (Figure 4). This will be your first mark that will be placed in front of the vehicle. I use yellow masking tape on the floor so I am not leaving marks all over the floor after I am done, and the yellow tape will help the marks to be easily seen during your set up. Then you will need to plumb bob the rear of the vehicle using the center of the rear emblem as a guide and place a 2nd mark on the floor.

Honda will instruct you to use tape and string to set up your lines on the floor, but I find this to be a time-consuming process. I use a 4-Way Laser to intersect all my set points being careful not to come into direct eye contact with the laser and using safety glasses rated for the type of laser color I am using. I am guessing as a liability issue with lasers, most manufactures will not recommend using lasers at all. Using the laser also requires a laser target so that you can hit your target set point during the set-up procedure. I placed a laser target on my front set point and laid my 4-way laser directly on my rear set point, shooting the laser under the vehicle hitting my laser target up front (Figure 5). You have now established your vehicle centerline under the vehicle and extending far back beyond the vehicle.

I placed a special angle bracket up against the center of the right front wheel and secured it to the floor with tape and then ran my tape measure toward the rear of the vehicle to create my 4500 mm set point (Figure 6). I always like to keep my lasers in place and not move them so I used a second 4-way laser and placed it in tandem directly behind the first laser to set up a laser grid that would intersect the 4500 mm mark I placed on the floor to the right rear of the vehicle using another laser target board. This would allow me to easily measure out a set mark of 1300 mm out from the rear centerline of the vehicle (Figure 7). This final intersect set point is where the edge of my target board would start from. The target board itself has to be parallel with the vehicle following the laser line and the black pattern border of the camera target needs to be 2 inches off the ground (Figure 8).The stand holding the target must be level vertically and horizontally and once this is all done then you’re ready to command the camera to aim at the target.

Unfortunately, these cameras can only be commanded to aim by using the onboard vehicle controls rather than a scan tool. The calibration access on the center dash panel requires holding 3 different bottoms at the same time for a few seconds. It gets tricky because you cannot do this with the ignition on but only in the first touch of the ignition switch 1 position. You also need to know which 3 buttons to use because every Year Make Model procedure is different and it also different if a vehicle has Navigation or not. This was always an issue for me in the early days when these systems came out because the procedures were not easily found in the aftermarket service information I had on hand. It is as if Honda kept changing the button selections to throw the aftermarket Tech for a loop to hide their proprietary dash access. On this vehicle it was the Power, Menu and Display buttons.

Once these buttons were held together for a few seconds, you now entered the onboard proprietary diagnostics of the vehicle with many dealer set ups to be performed on the vehicle and this access was not meant for vehicle owners but only for Honda dealerships when the car was in for service. By navigating through different menus, you will finally access the menu for the side view camera. Once this is selected you will see a calibration screen set that will require you to hit the camera button on the end of the signal switch lever to start the calibration process. If all is well and your target is set up properly then the calibration process will finish and you will get a side view of the vehicle with three lines placed on your target board in the screen view (Figure 9).

The process to calibrate the camera was only a few seconds but it is the set-up time that is involved. It is up to you to follow the guidelines to properly set up your target because if the camera is not aimed properly then the view that is seen on the screen may not be true and accurate to the driver. This could set up a liability issue with you and the owner of the vehicle so make sure you always document your work procedures as proof that you followed the manufactures specifications. The first calibration you do will always be the hardest but once you have done one it then repeats itself on others you do, and it only becomes easier. It has become a changing world in our automotive industry, but it is up to you Techs out there to keep driving forward and keep eager to learn. I hope this article has given you some good insight on what is going on out there in our new ADAS world.