Problem installing reverse camera.

Hi all!
Just spent this arvo installing a reverse camera and i have ran into a little problem.
where i have tapped into 'reverse light' 12+ve im only getting 9.8v... i have tried a few locations near the back of the tub (directly to reverse light, trailer harness) and i keep getting 9.8v, I've checked my meter at the battery to confirm voltage and i get 12v off and 14.4v engine on.
Any suggestions or help before i run more wires from the front with a relay??
Thanks

You could try checking the voltage at the relay

best bet is to wire it to accessory power. off the radio harness is good. that way it runs all the time and you just switch the screen on when reversing.

Or you could just wire it to an ignition activated source & leave it on all the time when the car is running.

I bought a car & caravan kit from Safety Dave & it must have been the one question I did not ask until after payment. Maybe there is something wrong with his kits or maybe it is because it will have the caravan camera connected from time to time but he said the reverse activation caused problems. I see that the wire is there but has been cut, although it is mentioned in the instructions.

Got over the disappointment & now quite fond of it being on constantly. The monitor can be turned off anyway.

Just a thought.

P.S I see Tweak'e beat me to it^

Your problem will be a bad earth to the tub.I had the same issue when I put the battery isolator in the tub. If you run a good earth from the battery to tub you should find you get 12volts at the camera.

Thanks heaps everyone. I'll try running a ground wire off the main body off the car.
But having the camera constantly on off acc is sounding like a good idea...

If you run a decent earth from the battery and earth the tub out then it will avoid the issues for anything else you install in the back .

Aussie Frontier said:

If you run a decent earth from the battery and earth the tub out then it will avoid the issues for anything else you install in the back .

Click to expand...

I had a similar problem with my ute, i just ran an earth strap from the chassis to the tub, all sorted now.
No need to run it all the way from the battery

I only ran mine because of the second battery in the tub so wanted to make sure I had the same earth all the way through the truck.Only reason for going to the battery is bonding to the body can have more issues with rust, corrosion and dirt on the earthing point.I just figured for the extra few bucks for cable and time I ran to the battery to make sure I wouldnt have issues further down the track.

When I put the canopy on mine I used the existing wiring for the 3rd brake light that was previously in the sports bar, had about 9V across it too, it runs the LED Brake light no worries so didn't bother looking into it.