Printer Friendly Forum Posts - rear view camera problems

Hi,

I recently installed a car multimedia head unit. I have not been able to get the rear view camera function to work on it. The head unit gives me a no video signal message. I tried connecting a portable DVD player video out RCA jack to the Camera In jack on the head unit and when I put the car in reverse I did get the dvd movie on the head unit screen. So I figured the head unit is working properly. I next tried to plug the dvd into the end of the patch cord that came with the camera to try and determine if there was a problem with the camera itself or with the cable running from the camera up to the head unit. I got the same no video signal message.

So I was trying to run a seperate patch cord from the rear view camera to the head unit to verify if the cable was the problem, and I accidently used a gound loop isolator cable instead of a regular video cable. When I put the car in reverse, I got a scrambled looking screen. After I realized what I did, I disconected the ground loop isolator and tried connecting the dvd directly up to the head unit same as I initially did above. Now I get a no video signal instead of the dvd movie as before. So I was trying to unplug and replug the RCA jacks to make sure I had a good connection and I noticed when I touched the center pin of the RCA jack to the outer connector of the mating RCA jack, the movie on the DVD played on the head unit screen.

So question is did I hose something up in the head unit by running a video signal through a groun loop isloator cable? Why does it seem to work in reverse (center pin connected to outer plug). Or could it be that there is some type of grounding issue. Note both the power and grounding wire for the rear view camera are very thin and delicate.