Blank Camera screen when reversing

[harryajh]

hi, I have a Dual reversing camera on a Chausson Welcome 717GA (2015), the rear view works perfectly but recently the reversing just goes blank when I put it in reverse gear.

 

No obvious dodgy connections at the camera or screen ends, so apart from trying to chase the cable through god knows where in the panelling, is there a simple way to fault find if it's the camera or the cabling at fault?

 

thanks

[747]

Is it possibly the settings in the Monitor?

 

If the signal is lost it is often a blue screen that shows. A blank screen (black?) means loss of 12 volt power. It might be a bad earth, check your earth connection at the back of the van.

[Brian Kirby]

What make is the camera, and is the monitor of the same make?

[harryajh]

not being able to get to the van until next week, from memory it looks very much like the attached

 

it is definitely a black screen

[Derek Uzzell]

This link is to a fault-finding guide for reversing-camera systems

 

https://www.reversingcamerasuk.com/fault-finding-guide-for-reversing-cameras.html

 

Your monitor displays an image when it is in ‘rear-view-mirror’ mode, but goes black when reverse-gear is selected and the dual-lens camera should switch lenses to provide a ‘downwards’ view.

 

Plainly, when reverse-gear is selected, your system reacts. Automatic selection of the downwards-view mode can be caused by a connection to a motorhome’s reversing light (ie, switching takes place when the reversing light bulb illuminates) or there’s a link to the reversing-light switch on the vehicle’s gearbox.

 

A basic way to check where the problem lies would be to connect another dual-lens camera tp the cable or to connect another cable between the monitor and camera. If the problem disappears when the camera is replaced, there’s a fault with your present camera: if the system works OK with a different cable, there’s a fault with the present cable.

 

That approach won’t be a practical proposition for most motorhome owners, so you might try disconnecting and reconnecting the camera and its cable inside your motohome and doing the same with the monitor’s cable connection. If that does no good, I think you are going to need the system to be examined professionally.

[harryajh]

thanks, need to get the camera off next week to check it's state

[John52]

I got a sat nav with reversing camera off ebay. The picture gradually deteriorated - like the plastic camera lens was losing its clarity. But I got a new camera (different brand), complete with cabling long enough for the longest Ducato van, for £6 off ebay and it works like new again :-D

[Brian Kirby]

harryajh - 2021-09-09 6:55 PM

not being able to get to the van until next week, from memory it looks very much like the attached

it is definitely a black screen

That system will have two cameras complete with individual CCDs, each of which will generate an image signal transmitted via its own wires back to the monitor, each triggered by a command from the monitor.

 

Activation of the command to switch between the cameras will then come, as Derek says, via a signal wire, either fed from the reversing light (if two lights, this should be the one to which the power is fed from the gearbox switch, the other light then being fed via the first), or direct from the gearbox mounted reversing light switch.

 

Does one of those switch buttons on the monitor allow the cameras to be selected manually, in lieu of via automatic selection? Those I have had have all provided this facility.

 

If that is the case, is it possible that the rear view camera has inadvertently been selected manually, so eliminating the automatic selection of the reversing camera?

 

Have you tried selecting the reversing view manually to see if the result on screen is the same.

 

It's just that from your description, the system doesn't seem to be recording a signal fault (I.E. blue screen or similar), so appears to "think" all is working as it should.

 

Worth checking before embarking on anything more onerous?

[stevec176]

Is it possible to swap the connections over at the camera and see if the faults moves to the other camera, should prove if the camera is working properly.