Rear camera works on battery, but not on running light circuit. - Escape Trailer Owners Community
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Old 09-12-2020, 04:14 PM   #1
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Join Date: Nov 2015
Location: Moultonborough, New Hampshire
Trailer: 2017 Escape 19
Posts: 34
Rear camera works on battery, but not on running light circuit.

HELP! I bought a Hopkins vueSMART wireless rear view camera which is designed to connect to tail or running light power. I tapped into the E19 center high tail light white & black (- and +) wires and connected and then turned on running lights. The LEDs surrounding the camera came on intermittently and the camera's WiFi network did not show up on my iPhone. I contacted Hopkins Tech Support who said that when it is working properly, the LEDs would stay on continuously and then the network would show up and I could pair with it. They said the voltage was probably low and needed to be above 12V. I measured voltage at the camera at 12.6V. Hmmm. So I tried starting the TV and the voltage went to 13.4V and this time the LEDs still blinked on and off, but the WiFi network did show up. However, it would not accept the default password and soon disappeared. At this point both I and Hopkins thought I had a bad camera so I bought another, but had the same results. So at Hopkins Tech Support's suggestion I connected a camera directly to the TV battery at 12.6V and sure enough the LEDs came on solid and the WiFi network worked fine. But I apparently do not have good quality 12.6V power at the running light to connect to.

So... what is different about the 12.6V in the trailer's running light circuit and the 12.6V at the TV battery? Not enough current capacity for the camera in the trailer light circuit and so the voltage drops below 12V and the camera just cycles on and off?

Or does the Prodigy RF brake controller, installed electrically between TV and trailer wiring and which passes through the running light power, modify the solid 12.6VDC from the TV to be 12.6V with some sort of modulated or chopped waveform that is no longer true DC and does not allow the camera to start up successfully?

And why is this camera so fussy about what kind of DC it runs off of?

I'm stumped. Does anybody have any experience with this camera? Or had a similar experience with a different camera that did not get enough current from lights to work properly?

Thanks for your help!
Bruce W
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Old 09-12-2020, 10:45 PM   #2
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Posts: 81
Why not just run separate power and ground wires to the camera with a fuse and a switch? I realize that is more trouble, but it is infinitely more reliable.
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Old 09-12-2020, 11:08 PM   #3
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Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: Santa Rosa, California
Trailer: 2014 Escape 15B sold, 2019 Escape 19
Posts: 367
I noticed (from your public profile) that your TV is VW Toureg. Some of us with europeans towing vehicles found similar issues with the Escape installed Furrion backup camera (something to do with the way your TV is keeping tab on LED trailer lights). Look in the following thread for some solutions that probably will work for you.

https://www.escapeforum.org/forums/f...g-15369-2.html
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