Reverse Camera Flickering

[LarrySFU]

Hi all,

I've got an Audi A3 (8P - 2011 1.6L).

Fitted an aftermarket reverse camera(numberplate light one) and connected it to my aftermarket JVC stereo, with power coming from a connection to the reverse light.

When the car is in ignition and I put it in reverse, the camera is beautiful! No issues whatsoever.

However, once I switch the engine on, the screen flickers really badly and the camera screen itself seems to be moving below. My phone's camera is broken so I've found a youtube video which shows literally what my stereo shows when the engine is on and in reverse.

Please can someone help me?! I'm new to cars and I'm now sure what I've done wrong or what the problem is?

Thank you in advance.

 

[samisnake]

ive specifically not powered mine off of the reverse lights because of an issue like that, although ive never seen it that bad before.

the 12v current from the reversing wiring supposedly pulses, rather than being stable, so its best to use another 12v source (ive used the wiper motor power). you can use the reverse wiring as a trigger for the headunit. an alternative is to use a relay, with the relay being switched by the reverse light wire, but the power for the camera coming from another 12v source.

what i would do for now is make sure the ground is good, then test with another 12v source. if that has the same issue, you know the problem might be interference, but if it doesnt flicker, you know its the reverse light wiring.

 

[leonwilliams]

Hi all,

I've got an Audi A3 (8P - 2011 1.6L).

Fitted an aftermarket reverse camera(numberplate light one) and connected it to my aftermarket JVC stereo, with power coming from a connection to the reverse light.

When the car is in ignition and I put it in reverse, the camera is beautiful! No issues whatsoever.

However, once I switch the engine on, the screen flickers really badly and the camera screen itself seems to be moving below. My phone's camera is broken so I've found a youtube video which shows literally what my stereo shows when the engine is on and in reverse.

Please can someone help me?! I'm new to cars and I'm now sure what I've done wrong or what the problem is?

Thank you in advance.

You need a suppressor mate inline that will solve the problem. Maplins i got mines from there.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

 

[KrisKrk]

As being said in first reply, 4 pin relay should help you here.

I’ve fitted aftermarket reverse camera to he’s wife’s 1series and had vision only for few seconds. He fitted relay, as suggested in reply and all is fine now.

Relays are cheap and DIY will save you some bucks for a garage.
Just find another source (mate read it will best directly from the battery) and wire it as advised, with reverse as trigger signal to relay.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[LarrySFU]

Hi guys.

Thanks for your replies. I'm sorry, but I just don't seem to understand!!

ive never seen it that bad before.

Yeah - errm mine is quite worse than that!

the 12v current from the reversing wiring supposedly pulses, rather than being stable, so its best to use another 12v source (ive used the wiper motor power). you can use the reverse wiring as a trigger for the headunit. an alternative is to use a relay, with the relay being switched by the reverse light wire, but the power for the camera coming from another 12v source.

what i would do for now is make sure the ground is good, then test with another 12v source. if that has the same issue, you know the problem might be interference, but if it doesnt flicker, you know its the reverse light wiring.

Right, I've read about this online that it could be the issue. If I was to wire the power to the wiper motor power for example, how would I use the reverse wiring as a trigger for the head unit? Also what do you mean by making sure the ground is good?

On that note, I tested the camera with direct power to the head unit (whilst sitting in the front seat) before I wired it all up and installed it at the rear of the car - and it worked fine.

You need a suppressor mate inline that will solve the problem. Maplins i got mines from there.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

What do you mean by suppressor? (Sorry!) Any chance of an example link (or even preferably a link to your one from Maplin?)

As being said in first reply, 4 pin relay should help you here.

I’ve fitted aftermarket reverse camera to he’s wife’s 1series and had vision only for few seconds. He fitted relay, as suggested in reply and all is fine now.

Relays are cheap and DIY will save you some bucks for a garage.
Just find another source (mate read it will best directly from the battery) and wire it as advised, with reverse as trigger signal to relay.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What's a relay and how would I install it?

I'm really sorry for my dumb questions, I've genuinely got no clue what's going on with it. Managed to install it using YouTube and tutorials online. But I get a bit confused with the technical talk!

Thanks for your help so far and I hope you can help me get through this!!

 

[LarrySFU]

Amazon product

amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B077VBZS4F/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Is this what I need?

I've just ordered it! How do I use it? :-/

 

[leonwilliams]

Amazon product

amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B077VBZS4F/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Is this what I need?

I've just ordered it! How do I use it? :-/

The problem is the android units don't send a strong enough signal.

So the camera will work ok but once you start to reverse the screen goes crazy.

Mines did this I looked it up and it required inline suppressor or relay which boosted the power signal.

Hence inline so it gets it power first. Then it goes to the unit and it has an earth.


For those old enough when fitting stereos the alternator would whine and create interference. We would go to radio shack and get suppressor that would solve the problem.

There's so many different ways to solve a problem this site has an abundance of info and solutions. What might work for one might not necessary work for another.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

 

[samisnake]

i mean theres 3/4 ways to wire this up so that you dont have this problem. youve gone and pulled the trigger on one of those ways, so i guess the relay route is for you now, so well cover that method.

what the problem you have is, is that the reverse light wire on these cars is not 'clean'. the car sends a pulsing signal to the rear lights to check whether the bulbs are fuctional. great for checking bulbs, not so great for reverse cameras that are powered off that same wire as youve found out. you want a stable 12v for the camera to work well, not one that goes up/down/up/down etc.

depending on your radio setup, you may not need to even touch the reverse light wiring. if you have a canbus adapter for your radio then youll have a wire that tells the radio you are in reverse, and it switches to the reverse camera (do the steering wheel controls work with your jvc? if so, you have a canbus adapter, usually made by connects2).

assuming you have a canbus adapter for your radio, then all you need to do is power the camera. some people use the reverse light wire, as that means the camera comes on only when in reverse, but you can get the issue you have.
another way is to power it permanently using another 12v wire eg. the wiper motor.
a mix of those two methods is to use a relay using the reverse light wire and another 12v. think of a relay as a switch. when the reverse light comes on, itll turn on the relay giving power from the (for example) wiper motor to the camera. when the reverse light is off, the relay turns off, turning off the camera.

on the relay, youd connect pin 87 to the 12v source (wiper motor, cig lighter etc etc). 86 to reverse light. 85 to ground. 30 to red wire on camera.

ive gone straight for the wiper motor, so the camera will always be on whenever the car is on.

a suppressor is a capacitor that smooths out the 12v output. that would also work, but personally i wanted the camera away from the reverse light wiring altogether.

 

[SootySport]

I also picked up a 12v. from the wiper motor and -ve. from the proper chassis stud to the right of the wiper motor. No problem this way and my camera is £12 Ebay special.

 

[LarrySFU]

i mean theres 3/4 ways to wire this up so that you dont have this problem. youve gone and pulled the trigger on one of those ways, so i guess the relay route is for you now, so well cover that method.

what the problem you have is, is that the reverse light wire on these cars is not 'clean'. the car sends a pulsing signal to the rear lights to check whether the bulbs are fuctional. great for checking bulbs, not so great for reverse cameras that are powered off that same wire as youve found out. you want a stable 12v for the camera to work well, not one that goes up/down/up/down etc.

depending on your radio setup, you may not need to even touch the reverse light wiring. if you have a canbus adapter for your radio then youll have a wire that tells the radio you are in reverse, and it switches to the reverse camera (do the steering wheel controls work with your jvc? if so, you have a canbus adapter, usually made by connects2).

assuming you have a canbus adapter for your radio, then all you need to do is power the camera. some people use the reverse light wire, as that means the camera comes on only when in reverse, but you can get the issue you have.
another way is to power it permanently using another 12v wire eg. the wiper motor.
a mix of those two methods is to use a relay using the reverse light wire and another 12v. think of a relay as a switch. when the reverse light comes on, itll turn on the relay giving power from the (for example) wiper motor to the camera. when the reverse light is off, the relay turns off, turning off the camera.

on the relay, youd connect pin 87 to the 12v source (wiper motor, cig lighter etc etc). 86 to reverse light. 85 to ground. 30 to red wire on camera.

ive gone straight for the wiper motor, so the camera will always be on whenever the car is on.

a suppressor is a capacitor that smooths out the 12v output. that would also work, but personally i wanted the camera away from the reverse light wiring altogether.

Hi,

Thanks for the explanation there. It genuinely has helped quite a lot! Okay, so I've fitted it in with the relay.
- Pin 87 has been connected to the black/brown cable that is going towards the wiper motor(from what my research shows this is the one with the 12V power).
- Pin 86 has been connected to the reverse light.

Now I've got 9 pictures for you of the cables. I'll explain where I connected them below.

Okay.

Sorry for all the pictures but I don't really know how else to explain it!!!
I've connected Cable 1 to Cable 3.
I've connected Cable 2 to Cable 6.
I've connected Cable 4 to Pin 30 on the Relay.
I've connected Cable 5 (I'm assuming this is the ground you are referring to above? (I'm probably wrong! :-( ) to Pin 85
I've connected Cable 7 to the Stereo for the video.
I've connected Cable 8 to the Reverse cable thing on the back of the stereo.
I've connected Cable 9 to the Reverse light also.

Have I done this correctly?

The camera does not flicker as violently as it did before. However it does still flicker (quite similarly to how it does in this youtube video: ) - This flicker only occurs when engine is on and not when ignition only.

The other issue is that the reverse camera does not always come up on my stereo screen when I go into the reverse gear. It only seems to provide a picture or even be triggered when it wants to. So it only comes on about 50% of the times I go into the reverse gear - and even the times that the camera does come on there is a few second delay. I have noticed that if my headlights are on, the chance of the camera working in line with the reverse gear is higher.

Please help!!!

Thanks

Larry

 

[samisnake]

congrats on getting further with it. youve wired it all correctly except

I've connected Cable 5 (I'm assuming this is the ground you are referring to above? (I'm probably wrong! :-( ) to Pin 85

the cable 5 is the ground (earth might be a better term) for the camera, and pin 85 is the ground for the relay. by connecting them together, they arent actually earthed.
the earth on a car is the chassis. if you notice in the boot to the right of where the wiper motor is, youll see a few usually thicker wires, usually black or brown, connected to a big bolt on the body/bootlid. thats the ground for the boot.
what you want to do is have a wire going from pin 85 to that nut, as well as cable 5 going to that.
no need to cut into any of the brown wires on that nut, just slacken off the nut and attach your wires to it, then retighten.


btw, how are you wiring this all. hopefully you are soldering any conections, eg. to the relay, to the wiper motor etc. and then covering the connection with heatshrink or electrical tape.
that slight flicker in the video you attached isnt the worse thing ever, but can be caused by a **** earth, or dodgy connections.

 

[LarrySFU]

congrats on getting further with it. youve wired it all correctly except



the cable 5 is the ground (earth might be a better term) for the camera, and pin 85 is the ground for the relay. by connecting them together, they arent actually earthed.
the earth on a car is the chassis. if you notice in the boot to the right of where the wiper motor is, youll see a few usually thicker wires, usually black or brown, connected to a big bolt on the body/bootlid. thats the ground for the boot.
what you want to do is have a wire going from pin 85 to that nut, as well as cable 5 going to that.
no need to cut into any of the brown wires on that nut, just slacken off the nut and attach your wires to it, then retighten.


btw, how are you wiring this all. hopefully you are soldering any conections, eg. to the relay, to the wiper motor etc. and then covering the connection with heatshrink or electrical tape.
that slight flicker in the video you attached isnt the worse thing ever, but can be caused by a **** earth, or dodgy connections.

THANK YOU!!!

It doesn't flicker anymore loll! Connected both wire cables (for Pin 85 and for the camera) to the ground bolt on the boot .

Right, I don't actually have a soldering iron - So I've been tightly twisting all the wires together and taping them over with electrical tape and since re-doing the ground connections the flicker has disappeared. So thanks a lot for your help with it all! I'm very grateful.

Only problem remaining is this:

The other issue is that the reverse camera does not always come up on my stereo screen when I go into the reverse gear. It only seems to provide a picture or even be triggered when it wants to. So it only comes on about 50% of the times I go into the reverse gear - and even the times that the camera does come on there is a few second delay (sometimes even 10-30 secs). I have noticed that if my headlights are on, the chance of the camera working in line with the reverse gear is higher.

Even after re-doing the ground - this hasn't been affected at all. Have you got any ideas on this?

Cheers,

Larry

 

[LarrySFU]

THANK YOU!!!

It doesn't flicker anymore loll! Connected both wire cables (for Pin 85 and for the camera) to the ground bolt on the boot .

Right, I don't actually have a soldering iron - So I've been tightly twisting all the wires together and taping them over with electrical tape and since re-doing the ground connections the flicker has disappeared. So thanks a lot for your help with it all! I'm very grateful.

Only problem remaining is this:
Even after re-doing the ground - this hasn't been affected at all. Have you got any ideas on this?

Cheers,

Larry

Also @samisnake this issue of the camera activating in reverse gear intermittently is not a problem when in ignition. It is only a problem when the engine is on. And the headlights make no difference when in ignition as it functions perfectly with or without headlights.

 

[samisnake]

no worries.

i would look at the connection from the reverse light to the headunit. thats the wire thats telling the headunit that the car is in reverse.
the wire you used in pictures 8 and 9 are incredibly thin, plus its a relatively long distance from the boot to the headunit, as well as the reverse wire having to power the relay, reverse lights and send a signal to the headunit.

what i would do is connect cable 9 to pin 30 on the relay, rather than directly to the reverse lights.
that way its using the stronger 12v from the wiper motor. all the headunit wire is looking for is 12v, you could hook it directly to the battery and itd switch to the reverse image. if it isnt getting the voltage it needs, it wont switch to the reverse image.
by using pin 30, youre getting a 12v that only comes on when the car is in reverse, as well as being from a much stronger source.


as to the whole soldering vs twisting approach, i mean if it works it works, its just that you come to learn that doing things the proper way ends up paying in the long run. those twisted wires can come loose in the future.

 

[LarrySFU]

no worries.

i would look at the connection from the reverse light to the headunit. thats the wire thats telling the headunit that the car is in reverse.
the wire you used in pictures 8 and 9 are incredibly thin, plus its a relatively long distance from the boot to the headunit, as well as the reverse wire having to power the relay, reverse lights and send a signal to the headunit.

what i would do is connect cable 9 to pin 30 on the relay, rather than directly to the reverse lights.
that way its using the stronger 12v from the wiper motor. all the headunit wire is looking for is 12v, you could hook it directly to the battery and itd switch to the reverse image. if it isnt getting the voltage it needs, it wont switch to the reverse image.
by using pin 30, youre getting a 12v that only comes on when the car is in reverse, as well as being from a much stronger source.


as to the whole soldering vs twisting approach, i mean if it works it works, its just that you come to learn that doing things the proper way ends up paying in the long run. those twisted wires can come loose in the future.

Okay so does that mean that Pin 30 only has a 12V when it's in reverse? And the reverse light doesn't have a stable 12V when the engine is on as opposed to when the ignition is ok - okay that makes sense. Only thing that doesn't, is why does it work better when the headlights are on? Oh and the 30second delay sometimes for it to recognise that I've put the car in reverse so the camera can come up...

Will connect the Cable 9 to Pin 30 in the morning and see what happens .

Well, I've twisted them (quite tight, I hope!) together and taped them for now. I've bought and am going to be upgrading the front door speakers and installing speakers and wiring into my rear door in the next few days (even though I've only got half a clue on what I'm doing!) - so will invest in a soldering iron and solder the reverse light wiring too(once I've sorted out that issue).

Let's hope it works once I move Cable 9 over to Pin 30. Will update you once I've tried this.

Also, thanks for the explanations - it really helps me to understand what I'm actually doing rather than connecting random wires together.

Cheers

Larry

 

[samisnake]

yeah, pin 30 is only live when the the car is in reverse. the relay is a switch that gets turned on when the reverse light turns on, as thats how youve wired the relay up.

no idea why it works better when the headlights are on, and i have a strong feeling the 30sec delay will be solved by the stronger/cleaner 12v.
the engine off vs on thing, the bulbs are controlled using pwm, which is like turning them on and off rapidly. ive read that pwm is only used when the engine is running, and is also used for the bulb blown dash warnings.
interestingly, one of my numberplate lights is blown. when the engine is running, and i turn on the headlights, the bulb out warning comes on.
however, if the engine is not running (eg. after just getting into the car, turning the key to position 2) and i turn on the headlights, i get no warning on the dash yet the bulb is still blown.
so my guess (and canbus/pwm systems are not my stengths) is that when the engine is not running the 12v feed to the bulbs is stable. when the engine is running pwm is then used.
as to why its only used when the engine is running, it might have something to do with the battery outputting 12v (12.4 or something) when the engine is off, vs 14v (or thereabouts) when the engine is running, so its used to make the bulb last longer?
eg
https://www.audi-sport.net/xf/threads/number-plate-light-flicker-when-engine-is-running.273129/
in the above, the flicking is the pwm on/off/on/off/on etc feed being seen in the led. cant be seen in regular filament bulbs as the time between on and off is not long enough for the filament to cool, so to our eyes it appears they are constantly on. notice how he only had that issue when engine was on.





btw i would order something like
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Auto-Car...136138?hash=item3b0a7e8c8a:g:qG8AAOSw2xRYQU66

comes in handy, eg. you could attach that to pin 30 when in and out of reverse. i used it to find out which of the wiper motor wires was ignition live.

 

[LarrySFU]

yeah, pin 30 is only live when the the car is in reverse. the relay is a switch that gets turned on when the reverse light turns on, as thats how youve wired the relay up.

Of course yep. I keep forgetting about the presence of the relay.
Funny story. As you can see below, the relay itself detaches from the wiring socket. So (when I was initially installing the relay), I wired it all up to the socket and nothing seemed to work properly. I read your tutorial post above countless times and swapped the wires over more than countless times!!! Traced back every inch of wiring around the reverse lights, camera and stereo lmao... Nothing seemed to work... Until I realised finally, I hadn't attached the relay to the socket and had wasted a good hour troubleshooting this!

no idea why it works better when the headlights are on, and i have a strong feeling the 30sec delay will be solved by the stronger/cleaner 12v.
the engine off vs on thing, the bulbs are controlled using pwm, which is like turning them on and off rapidly. ive read that pwm is only used when the engine is running, and is also used for the bulb blown dash warnings.
interestingly, one of my numberplate lights is blown. when the engine is running, and i turn on the headlights, the bulb out warning comes on.
however, if the engine is not running (eg. after just getting into the car, turning the key to position 2) and i turn on the headlights, i get no warning on the dash yet the bulb is still blown.
so my guess (and canbus/pwm systems are not my stengths) is that when the engine is not running the 12v feed to the bulbs is stable. when the engine is running pwm is then used.
as to why its only used when the engine is running, it might have something to do with the battery outputting 12v (12.4 or something) when the engine is off, vs 14v (or thereabouts) when the engine is running, so its used to make the bulb last longer?
eg
https://www.audi-sport.net/xf/threads/number-plate-light-flicker-when-engine-is-running.273129/
in the above, the flicking is the pwm on/off/on/off/on etc feed being seen in the led. cant be seen in regular filament bulbs as the time between on and off is not long enough for the filament to cool, so to our eyes it appears they are constantly on. notice how he only had that issue when engine was on.

The headlights bit is weirdly frustrating. Let's hope the delay is fixed And hopefully, it should work every time I go into reverse?

I'm getting the same dash warning about one of my numberplate lights being blown. Haven't noticed whether its only with the engine/ignition. This has only started since I've installed the reverse camera.

My gosh, don't get me started on dash warnings for lights!
So between December and February (I installed my aftermarket stereo in November 2017 - not sure if this contributed as have been told by a local car electrician that aftermarket stereo's cause electrical faults? Not sure how true this is..), I occasionally had the odd dash warning, generally halfway through a journey that a light wasn't working. And once one of these dash warnings appeared, I'd probably have another 2-3 warnings for different exterior lights. These messages ranged from any of my front headlights, fog lights, rear tail lights, reverse lights, brake lights, and numberplate lights. So pretty much every exterior light on the car would occasionally give me a warning message(except indicator lights). And it wasn't just the message - these lights were actually not working for the time the message was there. But if I turned the engine off, these messages would generally go away for a while. Then they may return later(maybe minutes, hours or days), but not necessarily for the same light - it could be different exterior lights. To my knowledge, the indicator lights were working fine even though a lot of the others were not.

Mid March - I drove up to Scotland (from Birmingham) for a few days. Decided to return on a Sunday afternoon. Left at approx 3pm and had a 10 hour non stop drive ahead of me from Inverness back down to London(was visiting family there) - but as I had the family and kids with me, with about 110 breaks it took us 14 hours. About 30 minutes after we left Inverness, I was bombarded with every ****** dash warning (for lights) that you can imagine, except the indicator lights. Tried turning the engine off and back on. Every time I switched on the engine(naturally I have my foot on the brake as soon as i get in the car) - I'd get those irritating dash warnings with the ****** BLEEEP noise for the brake lights. Then, once I turned on my headlights/DRL, I'd get warning lights for all of these(except for front left headlight and rear right tail light). And the same for reverse lights, as soon as I reversed. I had to make the journey back regardless of whether or not the lights worked and as it was a Sunday evening, couldn't even visit a garage. So I decided to drive the whole way with hazard lights. Once we had reached the M25 - we were pulled over by a lovely convoy of police cars who kindly let me know that asides from the one tail light and one headlight - none of my lights were working at all EXCEPT for my rear right indicator. So instead of hazard lights, it looked like I was ****** indicating right(only from behind)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Called recovery to take us the rest of the journey, as per the request of the police, even though we were 20 minutes from our destination lol...

Anyways, took it to a garage the next day and he didn't speak much english so I didn't quite get what he was doing. Looked light he was using a voltmeter to check all the lights. Then he told me he's giving all the lights direct electricity. He did this with his voltmeter I believe. As soon as he did this to each light, they (one by one) started working again.

This issue has been fine since then, but last week it's starting to come back (little by little) and now I'm back to the same stage as I was in December.

Weird right?!!!

Ahah this pwm stuff makes sense and seems to explain why the camera's playing up.

btw i would order something like
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Auto-Car...136138?hash=item3b0a7e8c8a:g:qG8AAOSw2xRYQU66

comes in handy, eg. you could attach that to pin 30 when in and out of reverse. i used it to find out which of the wiper motor wires was ignition live.

I'm hoping I've used the correct cable for the wiper motor that I think is the 'live' cable. I read on this forum and a few others and came to a conclusion that it was the 4th cable in the socket thing (the black and brown one). I think that a voltmeter would be very useful to invest in. Will have to order that later today.

 

[dg-1984]

I also picked up a 12v. from the wiper motor and -ve. from the proper chassis stud to the right of the wiper motor. No problem this way and my camera is £12 Ebay special.

Link please. I'm looking for one on my S3 8p and there seem to be different sizes.

 

[leonwilliams]

Wow I haven't seen one of them in years I've one somewhere in garage at home.

Of course yep. I keep forgetting about the presence of the relay.
Funny story. As you can see below, the relay itself detaches from the wiring socket. So (when I was initially installing the relay), I wired it all up to the socket and nothing seemed to work properly. I read your tutorial post above countless times and swapped the wires over more than countless times!!! Traced back every inch of wiring around the reverse lights, camera and stereo lmao... Nothing seemed to work... Until I realised finally, I hadn't attached the relay to the socket and had wasted a good hour troubleshooting this!

View attachment 154143



The headlights bit is weirdly frustrating. Let's hope the delay is fixed And hopefully, it should work every time I go into reverse?

I'm getting the same dash warning about one of my numberplate lights being blown. Haven't noticed whether its only with the engine/ignition. This has only started since I've installed the reverse camera.

My gosh, don't get me started on dash warnings for lights!
So between December and February (I installed my aftermarket stereo in November 2017 - not sure if this contributed as have been told by a local car electrician that aftermarket stereo's cause electrical faults? Not sure how true this is..), I occasionally had the odd dash warning, generally halfway through a journey that a light wasn't working. And once one of these dash warnings appeared, I'd probably have another 2-3 warnings for different exterior lights. These messages ranged from any of my front headlights, fog lights, rear tail lights, reverse lights, brake lights, and numberplate lights. So pretty much every exterior light on the car would occasionally give me a warning message(except indicator lights). And it wasn't just the message - these lights were actually not working for the time the message was there. But if I turned the engine off, these messages would generally go away for a while. Then they may return later(maybe minutes, hours or days), but not necessarily for the same light - it could be different exterior lights. To my knowledge, the indicator lights were working fine even though a lot of the others were not.

Mid March - I drove up to Scotland (from Birmingham) for a few days. Decided to return on a Sunday afternoon. Left at approx 3pm and had a 10 hour non stop drive ahead of me from Inverness back down to London(was visiting family there) - but as I had the family and kids with me, with about 110 breaks it took us 14 hours. About 30 minutes after we left Inverness, I was bombarded with every ****** dash warning (for lights) that you can imagine, except the indicator lights. Tried turning the engine off and back on. Every time I switched on the engine(naturally I have my foot on the brake as soon as i get in the car) - I'd get those irritating dash warnings with the ****** BLEEEP noise for the brake lights. Then, once I turned on my headlights/DRL, I'd get warning lights for all of these(except for front left headlight and rear right tail light). And the same for reverse lights, as soon as I reversed. I had to make the journey back regardless of whether or not the lights worked and as it was a Sunday evening, couldn't even visit a garage. So I decided to drive the whole way with hazard lights. Once we had reached the M25 - we were pulled over by a lovely convoy of police cars who kindly let me know that asides from the one tail light and one headlight - none of my lights were working at all EXCEPT for my rear right indicator. So instead of hazard lights, it looked like I was ****** indicating right(only from behind)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Called recovery to take us the rest of the journey, as per the request of the police, even though we were 20 minutes from our destination lol...

Anyways, took it to a garage the next day and he didn't speak much english so I didn't quite get what he was doing. Looked light he was using a voltmeter to check all the lights. Then he told me he's giving all the lights direct electricity. He did this with his voltmeter I believe. As soon as he did this to each light, they (one by one) started working again.

This issue has been fine since then, but last week it's starting to come back (little by little) and now I'm back to the same stage as I was in December.

Weird right?!!!

Ahah this pwm stuff makes sense and seems to explain why the camera's playing up.



I'm hoping I've used the correct cable for the wiper motor that I think is the 'live' cable. I read on this forum and a few others and came to a conclusion that it was the 4th cable in the socket thing (the black and brown one). I think that a voltmeter would be very useful to invest in. Will have to order that later today.

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[Peto Pedro]

Hi all,

I've got an Audi A3 (8P - 2011 1.6L).

Fitted an aftermarket reverse camera(numberplate light one) and connected it to my aftermarket JVC stereo, with power coming from a connection to the reverse light.

When the car is in ignition and I put it in reverse, the camera is beautiful! No issues whatsoever.

However, once I switch the engine on, the screen flickers really badly and the camera screen itself seems to be moving below. My phone's camera is broken so I've found a youtube video which shows literally what my stereo shows when the engine is on and in reverse.

Please can someone help me?! I'm new to cars and I'm now sure what I've done wrong or what the problem is?

Thank you in advance.

exactly same I had shity camera for 10 pounds we couldn't even install it with even more shittier pioneer radio .. just loose mood doing something to the car

 

[LarrySFU]

yeah, pin 30 is only live when the the car is in reverse. the relay is a switch that gets turned on when the reverse light turns on, as thats how youve wired the relay up.

no idea why it works better when the headlights are on, and i have a strong feeling the 30sec delay will be solved by the stronger/cleaner 12v.
the engine off vs on thing, the bulbs are controlled using pwm, which is like turning them on and off rapidly. ive read that pwm is only used when the engine is running, and is also used for the bulb blown dash warnings.
interestingly, one of my numberplate lights is blown. when the engine is running, and i turn on the headlights, the bulb out warning comes on.
however, if the engine is not running (eg. after just getting into the car, turning the key to position 2) and i turn on the headlights, i get no warning on the dash yet the bulb is still blown.
so my guess (and canbus/pwm systems are not my stengths) is that when the engine is not running the 12v feed to the bulbs is stable. when the engine is running pwm is then used.
as to why its only used when the engine is running, it might have something to do with the battery outputting 12v (12.4 or something) when the engine is off, vs 14v (or thereabouts) when the engine is running, so its used to make the bulb last longer?
eg
https://www.audi-sport.net/xf/threads/number-plate-light-flicker-when-engine-is-running.273129/
in the above, the flicking is the pwm on/off/on/off/on etc feed being seen in the led. cant be seen in regular filament bulbs as the time between on and off is not long enough for the filament to cool, so to our eyes it appears they are constantly on. notice how he only had that issue when engine was on.





btw i would order something like
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Auto-Car...136138?hash=item3b0a7e8c8a:g:qG8AAOSw2xRYQU66

comes in handy, eg. you could attach that to pin 30 when in and out of reverse. i used it to find out which of the wiper motor wires was ignition live.

WHOOOO! IT WORKED!!!

Lool thanks a lot for that one. It's working perfectly - no issues whatsoever with the camera now .

Only thing is my lights are almost completely gone again :-(

Link please. I'm looking for one on my S3 8p and there seem to be different sizes.

Seems as though there are two types of this camera. One that screws in and one that clips in. Amazon product This is the one that I got (the screw in version - but there's an option there for the clip in depending on your car...)

exactly same I had shity camera for 10 pounds we couldn't even install it with even more shittier pioneer radio .. just loose mood doing something to the car

Read the last few posts in this thread and the advice given by @samisnake - use a relay and wire it as he has said to do so, it'll work perfectly .. Mine works fine now.

 

[Peto Pedro]

WHOOOO! IT WORKED!!!

Lool thanks a lot for that one. It's working perfectly - no issues whatsoever with the camera now .

Only thing is my lights are almost completely gone again :-(


Seems as though there are two types of this camera. One that screws in and one that clips in. Amazon product This is the one that I got (the screw in version - but there's an option there for the clip in depending on your car...)



Read the last few posts in this thread and the advice given by @samisnake - use a relay and wire it as he has said to do so, it'll work perfectly .. Mine works fine now.

u cannot use voltage from lights becuse it will share 12v so not proper current will have camera and lights too

 

[LarrySFU]

u cannot use voltage from lights becuse it will share 12v so not proper current will have camera and lights too

Yep that's why I've used a relay and the 12V is from the power to the rear wiper motor.

 

[samisnake]

WHOOOO! IT WORKED!!!

Lool thanks a lot for that one. It's working perfectly - no issues whatsoever with the camera now .

Only thing is my lights are almost completely gone again :-(


Seems as though there are two types of this camera. One that screws in and one that clips in. Amazon product This is the one that I got (the screw in version - but there's an option there for the clip in depending on your car...)



Read the last few posts in this thread and the advice given by @samisnake - use a relay and wire it as he has said to do so, it'll work perfectly .. Mine works fine now.

glad you got it all sorted.

that lights issue you have is weird. have you tried cleaning the plug contacts on the lights?

 

[LarrySFU]

u cannot use voltage from lights becuse it will share 12v so not proper current will have camera and lights too

glad you got it all sorted.

that lights issue you have is weird. have you tried cleaning the plug contacts on the lights?

Thanks again!

And no. Do you mean the wiring harness plug things that go into the light fixtures? If so, would that really be the issue for every light in the car? See, it started working again for a few weeks when the mechanic gave it an electric shock of some sort with his voltmeter.

 

[samisnake]

yeah those.
a fault scanner comes in useful here. on mine, it came up with the numberplate light being pemanently out (which it is, ones burnt out, waiting on the new ones to come), as well as a 'short to ground' on the right drivers side tail lamp that strangely seems to go out when the start/stop tech kicks in.
googling it, ive read the best thing to do is clean the contacts on the wiring harness as they can be prone to corrosion and water ingress, so im gonna give that a go.

it does seem strange how all of yours are doing that though.

 

[JamieXoX]

I have just bought this camera how do i take the cable from the tape to the boot

 

[LarrySFU]

Ah,

corrosion and water ingress

this reminds me... Around the time that the issues started, my rear wiper jet was blocked for a few months and I tried unblocking it but nothing worked. So I thought there was some other error and didn't get round to taking it to a mechanic for a month or so - but me being an idiot I kept trying to use the rear screenwash (the screenwash jet motors were working fine, but it was just blocked)...

I wonder if this screenwash that I kept pressing for, but didn't come out of the blocked jet could have messed anything up, is that possible?

 

[leonwilliams]

Possible screen wash fluids leaked into electrics somewhere

Ah, this reminds me... Around the time that the issues started, my rear wiper jet was blocked for a few months and I tried unblocking it but nothing worked. So I thought there was some other error and didn't get round to taking it to a mechanic for a month or so - but me being an idiot I kept trying to use the rear screenwash (the screenwash jet motors were working fine, but it was just blocked)...

I wonder if this screenwash that I kept pressing for, but didn't come out of the blocked jet could have messed anything up, is that possible?

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[LarrySFU]

Possible screen wash fluids leaked into electrics somewhere

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I've not noticed any other issues though - asides from the lovely lights

 

[SootySport]

Link please. I'm looking for one on my S3 8p and there seem to be different sizes.

Bought mine 3 years ago and can't find the eBay seller now. There are plenty listed and far as I know only one size for A3 hatchbacks.

 

[dg-1984]

Bought mine 3 years ago and can't find the eBay seller now. There are plenty listed and far as I know only one size for A3 hatchbacks.

Was it a boot handle camera or number plate light camera?

 

[leonwilliams]

Was it a boot handle camera or number plate light camera?

I got number plate one perfect

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[samisnake]

I got number plate one perfect

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does your one light up properly though? the first camera i bought was a numberplate light one, however the light was connected to the 12v of the camera, meaning itd only work when the camera was powered (and depending on how you wire the camera, thatd mean always on or only in reverse). youd also have the bulb out warning on the dash constantly.
i got my money back and bought a boot handle one instead. imo looks more 'oem' and no need to drill a hole for the wire as the wire passes through the pre-existing holes.


this photo is of the camera i got my money back on. i luckily tested it at home before fitting, and noticed it odd how the light came on with 12v power going to the camera so i took it apart and found that the metal prongs on the outside had simply been hotglued onto the plastic case and served no pupose; they werent wired to anything.

personally, for the a3 i think the numberplate light ones arent the best option. even without the light issue i had, which may have been a cost cutting exercise by the producers of that batch or something, the fact you have to drill a hole, the reduced light output and the off centred nature of the positioning mean that there are better options imo.

to me, the perfect solution is something like this
https://www.audi-sport.net/xf/threads/rear-camera-any-advice.366981/#post-3240465

but with a price tag of around £100, a £15 boot handle camera is my personal preference.

 

[SootySport]

Was it a boot handle camera or number plate light camera?

Number plate camera

 

[leonwilliams]

does your one light up properly though? the first camera i bought was a numberplate light one, however the light was connected to the 12v of the camera, meaning itd only work when the camera was powered (and depending on how you wire the camera, thatd mean always on or only in reverse). youd also have the bulb out warning on the dash constantly.
i got my money back and bought a boot handle one instead. imo looks more 'oem' and no need to drill a hole for the wire as the wire passes through the pre-existing holes.


this photo is of the camera i got my money back on. i luckily tested it at home before fitting, and noticed it odd how the light came on with 12v power going to the camera so i took it apart and found that the metal prongs on the outside had simply been hotglued onto the plastic case and served no pupose; they werent wired to anything.

personally, for the a3 i think the numberplate light ones arent the best option. even without the light issue i had, which may have been a cost cutting exercise by the producers of that batch or something, the fact you have to drill a hole, the reduced light output and the off centred nature of the positioning mean that there are better options imo.

to me, the perfect solution is something like this
https://www.audi-sport.net/xf/threads/rear-camera-any-advice.366981/#post-3240465

but with a price tag of around £100, a £15 boot handle camera is my personal preference.

Mines lights up every time mate only issues which is easy fix. It has a bulb fault sometimes but will go for days no issues bulbs ok. Got it checked and it's to do with the resistance of the bulb.

I looked at boot handle light didn't like the look of then number plate is so discreet. Car went to Audi for mot no dramas there and we all know what there like .

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[SootySport]

One bonus I have is, the camera can be viewed whilst I'm driving. I can select the rear view from the Head Unit, handy to check what I'm towing and amuses the grandchildren.