My backup camera doesn't work unless the radio is on. Is this normal, or is there a way to have the camera on without the radio?

 

if radio is off then the COMMAND system is off so nothing works from that screen.

 

Clarification... Backup camera works when backing up, even if the radio is OFF. I regularly back out of my garage with the radio off.
Backup camera cannot be made to work when moving forwards, with or without the radio being on.

 

COMAND stands for Cockpit Management and Data System.

 

well, you can shut the radio off by selecting MEDIA and not having any media present, but I'm pretty sure you meant turning COMAND off.

 

My backup camera doesn't work unless the radio is on. No, it should turn on even if the radio is off, mine turns on as soon as I select the reverse, whether the radio is on or off, it turns on.

Is this normal, No it`s not, see above.

or is there a way to have the camera on without the radio? No not really, camera only activated when the reverse gear is selected, again whether the radio is on off, doesn`t matter.

On the other hand I don`t know if the camera can be activated besides the reverse gear selection by some coding, that would be a @BenzNinja question.

 

IMO, some of this as a legal question... Federal law mandates that any vehicle equipped with a backup camera be activated automatically when shifting into reverse. I'm not sure one can (or should) mess with it to make the camera work outside this narrowly defined situation.

 

If you have the 360 degree camera system, you can turn the whole thing on, including the backup camera, whenever you want.

Maybe you can somehow code it so that the 360 degree camera system comes on, but only shows the backup camera?

 

my Ford Expedition has a 360 cam, if you manually activate it (pushbutton on the dash), you have to be going slower than 5 or so MPH and it shuts off when you go over about 10 MPH, I would have to guess that Mercedes would be similar. Its great when I'm parking the ginormous SUV in a tight space, I can get nicely centered between the lines, and know exactly where all 4 corners are.

 

I'll try it next time I'm in the car. It works up to at least 20mph though. That's where the system automatically turns itself off after you pull out of a parking spot (the situation where it automatically turns on)...