Reverse cam wired from cig lighter

The Jb Hifi tech installed my Pioneer 7" DVD unit and reverse cam last week. He said that to get a permanent supply to the camera he wired it from the back of the cigarette socket. The cam comes on as soon as I hit reverse but the Pioneer unit gives me the option of checking the camera view at anytime when I'm driving. Just wondering if wiring to the cig socket is normal. Going into Nissan tomorrow to have the airbag light reset. They said he must have unplugged something. Stupid twat

I wouldn't say normal but I wouldn't say it's abnormal either. My feed to comes from the tail lights wire at both ends, but it could just as easily come from a live 12V supply at the front end. I'd suggest the installer was probably too lazy to run the lead back from the rear or too lazy to find the reversing light cable at the front of the vehicle. Ether way I doubt it will effect operation too much and no doubt helps to make sure you can have the vision at anytime other than just when in reverse. As for the airbag light it's possible the installer did do something but as to why I guess that's only a question the installer can answer.

Lazy is all it is.

i wouldn't say lazy.

its not a bad way doing it. my own runs when ever the ignition is on. running the camera full time lets it heat up which helps with moisture and fogging on the outside of the lens. it doesn't hurt the camera at all.
my screen is connect to reverse switch.

its harder to wire it back to cigy socket. the easy way would be to tap into the reverse lights so whenever you select reverse it turns on. much easier than running a cable all the way back to to the dash.

If I was paying for the installation of something I would want it done properly, ie it's own circuit with appropriate protection.

for the 200mA-500mA or so (depending on IR led) its own dedicated circuit is not really required.

Yeah I know the power draw is negligable, thats not really what I have a problem with, it's just not good practice. I wouldn't do it on my truck if I was installing it myself.

Being a sparky I suppose I have higher standards

Thanks for the replies. 300mA is the draw. He was a lazy bastard as he put the wrong camera in. I ordered a heavy duty with infra red and got some tiny ebay $7 shit with no infra red instead. The next day he fitted the right camera but said the connection was different so he just cut, spliced and taped at the camera end. Not going anywhere near JB Hifi ever again

VERY lazy indeed, that sort of installation gives us auto sparkys a bad name. I was taught what ever vehicle you are working on treat it like it was your own. no need for short cuts. very poor by JB Hifi very poor

Cutting and splicing any wires that carry a video signal (digital or analogue) makes me shiver as well.

Why would cutting and splicing the video signal be any worse than splicing 12v?

Smaller currents with a join that is more susceptible to damage (ie cut, spliced then taped? WTF?) leads to higher resistances and signal degradation.

Especially something I wouldn't do on a safety item like a reversing camera.

It's not something I'd be overly concerned about but everyone plays their own trumpet.

I personally wouldn't wire it up myself like that but its not gonna hurt like that so wouldn't bother changing it.

splicing the AV line is no worse the 12v. even if its a crap job it won't make bugger all difference. nothing that you will notice on such a small screen.
you have to remember that the video cams only give good pics when fed 12v. feeding them 12-14v (ie engine running) causes a drop in pic quality.

funny how people are worried about minor wiring but miss the things that matter

I'd be more worried about voltage drop due to high resistance in the spliced joint as it degrades, and it will. 12-14V shouldn't be a problem if you are running a regulated power supply anyway.

Save yourself all these problems and just get a wireless camera

wireless have all those problems plus interference problems.
typically those cameras don't have built in power regulators hence the degrade when connected to vehicles.

Yeah I have a wireless camera here thats pretty shit. Runs on 9V, poor reception.

Many of the cheaper wireless cameras also run on the same frequency as wireless internet so it's entirely possible to get interference from household wireless signals.

Personally I'd never go wireless for cameras but for me degradation isn't a consideration, the screen I'm running is a $14 special with a max resolution of 720 or thereabouts so high quality images are just not something I require.

KraftyPg said:

Many of the cheaper wireless cameras also run on the same frequency as wireless internet so it's entirely possible to get interference from household wireless signals.

Click to expand...

OT. On usenet we were helping a guy locate an interference problem with his home wireless internet. Straight line of sight from WAP to remote PC down the hall. After lots of testing, he finally found out the interference was coming from an electric toothbrush. One of the drop it in the base station to recharge models, but this one came with wireless link the the base station so it could tell you on te LCD screen if you were brushing you teeth too hard.