Quote:

There is some sort of reed switch inside the venture cam, which only activates when in a docking station.

Hi ,

I had problems with my venture cam which appeared to be dead , no lights etc , so I also bought one off ebay which was fully charged on arrival but would not connect to the car systems . Not wanting to damage the "new" one off ebay , I opened up the case of the original one to have a look inside , and found it to be powered by some nicads .
They use 6 AA size nicads to power the unit , so I bought 6 AA rechargeable nicads from the pound shop , wired them in series to give the required 7.2 volt battery pack and attached the flying leads which power the electronics. The camera then powered up ok , but would still not connect to the car system .


The fault turned out to be the docking unit , there was power to the PCB inside the docking unit , but no power on the pins to the venture cam , so the PCB must have been goosed . No Physical damage , but no way of testing the PCB because they use SMT components . I am not sure but I think the docking station also incorporates the bluetooth receiver , because there is a small coax cable attached to the docking atation .

A new docking station was fitted at the dealers ( The Beast was still under warranty but the dealer didn't want to fit a new docking station until I threw my toys out of the pram , but thats another story

As far as I can make out , I think the venture cam is fed with 12v from the docking station , which is dropped down to a lower voltage inside the venture cam to charge the batteries .

I then had 2 working venture cams , but the picture from the ebay camera was much worse than the picture from the original . Traced fault to dodgy ribbon cable from CCd camera PCB to main board .

Then the biggest laugh , found that anything over 5 mph turns off the camera , and I wanted it for seeing behind me when towing the caravan . Dealer refused to configure it - total waste of time and effort !

The process of getting the camera to talk to the car systems is a little tricky , I always refer to the handbook when trying to get them to communicate . ( just used for reversing onto the caravan tow hitch now )

Cheers

Hope this helps

hi bubberman, if you have been through this post you will find that i have brought a number of these venture cams back to life, i would love to see inside one as i have never had to cut one open, did you just run a craft knife around it do you have any pics, the cam transmits on 2.4ghz and does use bluetooth to talk to the car
dave V8 facelift Range Rover Autobiography 22" wheels.
1976 Harley Davidson Iron Head Sportster

Strangely enough, my venture cam now shows it's charging after not doing anything since I got the car 5 weeks ago. The funny thing now is that it says it's charging, and has done so for hours, but when I take it out of the cradlea nd switch it on, it only work for about 5 seconds and switches off again? When I put it back in the cradle, the ring around the power button comes on for about 5 seconds and goes off again. All the while the camera is hot to the touch?
Anyboy got any ideas what's going on? Got - 2017 SDV8 Autobiography in Loire Blue
Had- 2008 TDV8 Vogue SE in Java black
Had - 2007 S/C in Stornoway Grey

sounds like the cells have changed polarity, give it a jump start with 12v if nothing 14v dont go mad or you will blow the board up in side... V8 facelift Range Rover Autobiography 22" wheels.
1976 Harley Davidson Iron Head Sportster

To open up the case of the venture cam , just lever it apart gently with a screwdriver . The case is held on by a bead of RTV sealant to make it watertight , so opening it up will break the seal so you will either have to reseal it ( probably not a good idea to use silicone sealant due to the acetic acid it contains which may corrode the circuit board) .

If replacing the batteries , it is probably a good idea to buy some tagged batteries ( ones you can solder on to ) instead of standard aa nicads because the width when soldered is slightly longer than tagged batteries and may distort the case slightly when refitted .

IMHO , with reference to Daveo's post , it will probably be a really bad idea to reverse the polarity to the venture cam due to the PCB piggy backed onto the batteries .The charging current flows through the board before it goes to the batteries , and I am fairly confident that some component willl go bang if the polarity is reversed .

Remember , nicads only have a certain life span , and for a 7 year old car like mine , with the batteries on constant charge in the docking station , their life will probably not be more than 2 or 3 years before they degrade .


Many Thanks

Blubberman










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Last edited by Blubberman on 3rd May 2011 11:41pm. Edited 1 time in total

oh well , that didnt work , good job I am better with electronics than forums

What have I done wrong ?

I uploaded them to photobox

hi, you have miss understood me, of course dont reverse the power to the unit, yes something would pop. dont mess around with the cradle.....just the cam unit it self...
as you have cut it open what i said makes very little point any way as you have accessed the batteries any way

on the venture cam unit it self when it is left uncharged for a long time the cells can fall below there voltage limit,this can cause a single cell to flip/reverse its polarity and stop the other batteries working or taking a charge.
if a charge is applied it can cause that cell to get hot...

you can flip that cell back to the right polarity by jumping it with a quick voltage of slightly higher voltage,i.e. 14 or 16v and then cycle the batteries, if the cells are beyond taking a charge then yes you may as well cut it open as you have nothing to loose,

if you look at the venture cam at the back you will see 2 round brass contacts, holding it with the cam at the top the left one is the +12v live V8 facelift Range Rover Autobiography 22" wheels.
1976 Harley Davidson Iron Head Sportster

Hi Daveo ,

Thanks for the reply , but I did not mis-understand you . I was not referring to the dock , I was talking about the camera itself . The contacts on the back of the Camera do not go directly to the battery , they go to the board mounted on top of the battery , this board then feeds the power to the batteries , so , yes , if you reverse the polarity on the contacts on the back of the camera you will probably do some damage . If I can post the pics , you will be able to see what I am on about . It is an unusual way of doing things and I was confused when first opened uo the camera too.

Last edited by Blubberman on 3rd May 2011 11:42pm. Edited 1 time in total

duplicate photo deleted

Last edited by Blubberman on 3rd May 2011 11:44pm. Edited 3 times in total

you have the image command around the wrong way....[img] then [/img] V8 facelift Range Rover Autobiography 22" wheels.
1976 Harley Davidson Iron Head Sportster

Last edited by daveo on 3rd May 2011 11:33pm. Edited 1 time in total

Cheers Daveo , think I am starting to get it now

Docking Station