Installed a new reverse camera on my XK8. Wired the power straight into the reverse lamp harness just below the right side tail light. It successfully sent a 12v signal to the headunit and turned on the camera when shifted into reverse. Problem was that every time I hit the brakes, the headunit would shift to reverse camera mode and display "no signal."

Turned out I had enough current generated in the reverse light circuit when braking that it read 2 volts and turned on the head unit. Swapped out my LED reverse lights for regular incandescent and that was enough of a resistive load to kill the current and prevent the head unit from going into "reverse mode."

Just a lessons learned that I hope helps someone else.

 

you can also use the reverse light to trigger a relay that will provide a hard turn on / turn off to your interface, this is a common concern and can also really play havoc when camera's are run directly from the reverse light circuit (especially on newer cars that come with LED lights, often times, those circuits are Pulse Width Modulated to make the circuit more efficient, cameras generally don't perform correctly on those circuits), they want to see a solid 12V+.

 

Out of interest, cdre, where have you placed the screen? (and are you a naval commodore, which is what cdre is used for in the UK?

 

I installed a double din unit that has reverse inputs. Probably going to need the relay option since battery was low and fooled me into thinking the led was the prob.

Not a Commodore, but I am a USN Commander (O-5). Just a couple of letters off... Didn't know the abbreviation. Thanks for sharing!