wiring a rear view camera - help please

apriti00 · 06-07-2008, 06:07 PM

Hi I am a newbie and would appreciate some of your experience/knowledge.
I am in the process of placing a rear view camera externally on my vehicle and need to get the wires from the rear to the front, as the camera only comes with a very short section and I need about 24ft to get to the screen I was wondering which would be the best suited wire, I will need to solder the rca connections on after I have passed the wire from outside to inside the car. While searching the forum I have had no luck in finding what others have used.
Thanks
Walter

FusionFanatic · 06-07-2008, 08:03 PM

24 feet??? what are you driving, a bus?

I use a standard backup camera wit RCA video output. the camera itself has a short RCA cable (~5ft). I used a simple female-female adapter and connected a 10ft (male-male) RCA cable from the camera's RCA cable to the LCD monitor in my dash. picture quality is fine.

If you want to solder your own wires on I suppose that would work, but you will probably have EMI issues. since RCA cables/adapters are cheap and available everywhere, why not just use that instead?

apriti00 · 06-08-2008, 02:33 AM

Thanks for your reply,

In the end I went with a 10m cable and just made the holes in the car bigger to pass ther rca's through. Camera is on trhe roof rack on the 4wd so has a bit of a silly journey to make its way inside the rear and then to the front, wanted to keep as neat as I could that why I was after about 24 ft. Next thing is how to set up a relay so that I can power the camera independantly of the reversing light trigger. Any ideas?
Cheers

2k1Toaster · 06-08-2008, 03:16 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by apriti00

Thanks for your reply,

In the end I went with a 10m cable and just made the holes in the car bigger to pass ther rca's through. Camera is on trhe roof rack on the 4wd so has a bit of a silly journey to make its way inside the rear and then to the front, wanted to keep as neat as I could that why I was after about 24 ft. Next thing is how to set up a relay so that I can power the camera independantly of the reversing light trigger. Any ideas?
Cheers

independant of the reverse light, so what do you want it to connect to? Do you want it manual, or automatic with some function, or some PC function?

apriti00 · 06-08-2008, 03:38 AM

Would like the option of being able to switch it on manually when required i.e. as the Xenarc has picture in picture or split screen capability I would like to use this function when the rear of the car is packed to the rafters so that I am not limited to the side mirrors only.

2k1Toaster · 06-08-2008, 03:42 AM

and why is a standard toggle switch and relay not adequate?

apriti00 · 06-08-2008, 05:31 AM

Thats probably what I want, what I am looking for is details of how to wire up the relay and switch so that when I operate the switch it doesn't send power down to the reversing lights and cause problems.
Cheers

2k1Toaster · 06-08-2008, 05:49 AM

Oh you want it to be a reverse camera with a manual override as well? Easiest way is like this:

Code:

  ╔══╗
  ║ x║ - Reverse Light Wire +12v switched
█ ║  ║
█═╣ x║ - To Camera Power
█ ║  ║
  ║ x║ - Constant +12v supply
  ╚══╝

If the switch is flipped up, it will come on when the reverse lights go on. If the switch is flipped down, the camera will always be on.

apriti00 · 06-09-2008, 03:48 AM

That is absolutely briliant, just what I wanted,I wish I had a better understanding of electronics.
Thanks