Repairing Kmrtn XL intermittent rear camera

I choose to post in this section because I still don't know where is the filter box and associated cables for our rear-view camera, panel vans are different from coachbuilt motorhomes.

The first camera indecent happened within 6 months of us buying our van in 2019. Driving home after dark I drove into a significant pothole which shook our van and blanked out the view from the rear camera. I was using it like having a rear view mirror. Once home things seemed back to normal. Incidentally this stretch of road was re-tarmaced prior to the 2014 Tour de France in the UK, but how quickly after the pot holes reform.

Recently I noticed that the rear view camera had became increasingly intermittent, black screen with just AV2 in the top right corner. Earlier this month during a habitation check I asked A-S Service to look into this. They reported that our camera was OK, a temporary replacement did not work either. They suggested that a camera cable might have got trapped between panels. My research found that this had been an issue in some coachbuilt motorhomes.
A-S would need to have our van for 4 to 5 hours, Oh dear, we declined.

Back home after our holiday I checked out the camera's power feed in the driver's foot well, all seemed well. I was stuck, I didn't then and still don't know where the rest of the camera is connected to its power supply and to our Veba clip-on rear view mirror display.

3 days ago sitting in the driver's seat, engine running I selected reverse to hopefully trigger the rear view mirror, nothing until I applied some side pressure to what seems to be a cable junction that I had pulled down from above the front windscreen, it feeds the Veba display. To my surprise a rear camera view appeared, so there's a connection fault just here.

3 days later after what I view as being a really tough job, I reconnected the two ends of the cables, simples, no it was not, 3 solid and 4 screened wires. I made wooden jig that I mounted to the steering wheel. I learnt that Araldite Instant is crap, using small strips of clear polythene is a better insulator, and having self-amalgamating tape is mighty helpful too.

Conclusions
How come this fault happened in the first place, no issue of water ingress here. There are no panels that this cable is being constrained by. When I opened the Veba display there were a couple of pieces of loose plastic, they rattled, strange. When I re-assembled the Veba unit one of the 4 screws would not bind. I believe that one of the screw post had been broken.

When I was disassembling what I assumed to be an micro-DIN connection I was not impressed, the tolerances were very small.

A-S might have been rough with their install but the cable connection to the Veba display did not look robust.

Veba Display
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Just an additional to my previous post after I was looking again today at the micro-DIN that I removed from the cable going to the rear camera's Veba display that's clipped to our rear view mirror. Putting the connection into a vice, by wriggling I was able to separate the 2 parts of the micro-DIN connection. Don't assume that my photos help with orientation of your cables.


Below I have separated the connection. You might just be able to seen the pins on the left and socket on the right.


Before I did my cable repair I didn't find anyone selling just the micro-DIN connectors.
Having made a manual connection between two cables I am potentially up the creak if I have another problem with this cable to our Veba display, partly because I don't know where the filter and connection box has been squirreled away (hidden) by A-S in our Kemerton XL.
With a 6.4M long Peugeot Boxer I'd say having a working rear view camera is essential, especially if ones co-pilot has any mobility issues as mine had after her recent fall over some brambles.

Just to add that the cable fault seemed more on the Veba side of this micro-DIN connection. Had excessive force been used to connect this cable to the micro-DIN?

Presumably yours is the same as mine, like this?

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I suppose they only bothered running a connection to AV2. I’d like to change the camera to a proper dual camera unit at some point, but I’m not sure I can be bothered with the wiring.

Thanks for your interest v8holic
The area that was faulty in our camera's cabling is in your diagram identified as "Main Harness" an 8 pin micro-DIN connection. Roughly I'd say there was a partial break on the Veba side of the micro-DIN connector, but it could have been a wire fault on its soldered connection to the micro-DIN connector. What I still don't know is where A-S put the box where the other cable connections are made. I was very reluctant to dismantle the front Remis blind. What I did was to use a plastic pry lever to partially unclip the Remis's offside upright. I was able to free up an extra bit of cable to facilitate me reconnecting the cables. Afterward I pulled the cable back slightly to how it was before my repair. I did not see any sight of a box where all the camera cables meet.

Just my rough guess, I wonder if our cable got partially damaged when the Veba display was being installed by A-S, its all rather delicate.

Whilst the Veba display has AV1 and AV2 inputs I am not certain if you could fit a second camera to feed to the AV1 input on the Veba display, the screened input cable is probably there but how to access it?

Just an aside, do others have the rear view camera displayed on the Peugeot Boxer's central LCD display?

PS. Where did you find your wiring diagram?

In my book pack that came with the van were instructions for the Echomaster MM-70-CL Mirror Monitor and the Echomaster IP67 Post-Mount Camera. But as with everything in the book pack (as I don't carry it in the van) I downloaded the PDF versions from somewhere. It says that it came with two GX16 wiring harnesses for the different inputs, and a remote control (which I don't have).

I could be wrong but looking at the diagram again, I'm wondering about the specifics. It looks like there could be any amount of distance between the black box part, which is powered and has two inputs, and the main harness connection to the mirror. If that black box was near the rear light where the camera is, it might be feasible to add a second adapter harness for a twin camera, assuming it's not already in there.

I note that you mention Veba, it's possible that the same units were supplied with different branding. The Veba AV70MM certainly looks the same from pictures. Does it say Veba somewhere?

I've also found this site selling remotes for a fiver, type F being recommended for Auto-Sleeper owners. As it's so cheap I'll get one anyway.

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Nothing to lose if it doesn't work. But perhaps yours came with a remote? Mine didn't, although the instructions imply that it should have done.

v8oholic wrote:I've also found this site selling remotes for a fiver, type F being recommended for Auto-Sleeper owners. As it's so cheap I'll get one anyway.

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Nothing to lose if it doesn't work. But perhaps yours came with a remote? Mine didn't, although the instructions imply that it should have done.

I bought the type F and it works with my Veba set up.

PLOUGHLIN wrote:

v8oholic wrote:I've also found this site selling remotes for a fiver, type F being recommended for Auto-Sleeper owners. As it's so cheap I'll get one anyway.

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Nothing to lose if it doesn't work. But perhaps yours came with a remote? Mine didn't, although the instructions imply that it should have done.

I bought the type F and it works with my Veba set up.

Good to hear. Unfortunately it's out of stock at the moment.

Do you have a twin camera, or just the single one, by the way?

v8oholic wrote:

PLOUGHLIN wrote:

v8oholic wrote:I've also found this site selling remotes for a fiver, type F being recommended for Auto-Sleeper owners. As it's so cheap I'll get one anyway.

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Nothing to lose if it doesn't work. But perhaps yours came with a remote? Mine didn't, although the instructions imply that it should have done.

I bought the type F and it works with my Veba set up.

Good to hear. Unfortunately it's out of stock at the moment.

Do you have a twin camera, or just the single one, by the way?

Single.

I cannot find any instructions from A-S about our Veba / Echomaster display though during the hand-over I was given verbal information. Sorry but I'm not willing to unclip the display to check any further, I'm just happy it is working again.

The remote is B in your link, middle top row. I was told that I could power the rear view camera when I was driving, though as it points mostly downwards it's not really functioning like a normal rear view mirror, pity. You can see if anyone is tailgating should you wish.

Yes I think there is a generous about of cable between the Veba unit and where it feeds into its connection box.

Did A-S use Ecomaster's camera on our van? There is one on their website that looks similar, but from memory it needs a 12 volt supply, but I seem to have read that there's a voltage dropper and my camera might work on 5 volts.

This is the leaflet for the camera that was in my book pack. I haven’t checked, but I assume it’s the one that’s actually fitted to the van! It is 12V.

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