I finally got around to installing a new Sony headunit with a screen in our '06 Rav4, as well as a Nitika aftermarket backup camera. The Sony headunit came pre-wired from Crutchfield with a purple/white wire that's the trigger wire for the reverse camera, and the backup camera has a yellow RCA video plug that plugs into the back of the head unit, and a red wire that's connected to the purple trigger wire. At the rear of the car, there are two wires coming off the backup camera harness, the black one goes to a solid grounding point, and the red one goes to the positive for the backup lights. I used a posi-tap for the positive connection to the reverse light, and that connection seems very solid. Also tested the ground, which is also good.
The camera comes on as it should it reverse, but there's a slight flicking/noise that's annoying. I've done some searches and some folks say to add a 12V capacitor, but I'm not seeing a great quality one available. Would something like this work? I'm curious if anyone has solved this issue with a capacitor, and if so, which one did you use? The options I'm seeing on Amazon seem to consist of items with a single review like the one I linked to, or items with more reviews, but many negative reviews. Trying to solve this before I put the rest of the interior back together (which is a pain in the butt).
Thanks!
In reply to dj06482 (Forum Supporter) :
I haven't been through this, but my first thought is that I doubt there's any actual rectifying going on (in the sense that that's taking an AC waveform and effectively mirroring all the "below-zero" half-cycles above zero, so what you get is a "bumpy" signal that's all the same polarity), just a capacitor. Capacitors are simple, and it's almost funny that there's an entire box to contain one if that's what's going on... But the upshot is that I'd guess either one would work, there won't be much difference, and the bad reviews are substantially from people whose problem wasn't noisy power.
Now, whether that's actually your issue I couldn't say, but it sounds like it's common, and for $6 and a few minutes, worth a shot?
I would say that I don't generally like things like the Posi-Tap (had to look it up), and I'd give that a nonzero chance of either being the issue, or causing an issue later. Just sticking a tang through the insulation is not a great way to make a solid connection.
I gave the capacitor in the second link above a try. Here's the before:
and the after:
Seems to have been worth the $6, it made a noticeable improvement in the picture quality.
The power wire running close to the video wire can also introduce noise into the video. Most backup camera cables are not shielded.
I ran into this when I was still married and we had a Ford Expedition with an aftermarket backup camera. They ran all the cables together from the back to the front. Routing the power wire helped reduce the noise.
stanger_mussle (Supported by GRM undergarments) said:
The power wire running close to the video wire can also introduce noise into the video. Most backup camera cables are not shielded.
I ran into this when I was still married and we had a Ford Expedition with an aftermarket backup camera. They ran all the cables together from the back to the front. Routing the power wire helped reduce the noise.
Unfortunately this has a similar setup as your old one, all the cables (including the power cable) are run together the entire length. In addition, the power and ground cables are thinner than I'd like them to be (barely 18ga, and maybe 20ga). There's a connector for the camera that would make it impossible to run a separate power cable for the entire run, otherwise I'd be happy to do that!
