Hi,

Some time ago I acquired a venture-cam dock with a camera. I finally got round to fitting the dock a couple of days ago & have today tried the two cameras in the dock, for about an hour each. Neither showed any signs of life afterwards.

I was expecting the batteries to be dead so thats not a problem.

However, when I've checked the voltage supplied to the two pins in the dock I only get 1v. (so the cameras were never going to charge).

The fact there's some power there demonstrates it's connected. The CCF has been edited to show the camera & docking station are fitted and the button appears in the 4x4 info screen. I have no idea what year vehicle the dock was from, but it fitted an upper glovebox perfectly.

Does anyone know why I would be getting only 1v to the pins in the dock please?

Cheers
Richard 2010 Range Rover Autobiography TDV8 Santorini Black
2010 Range Rover Autobiography TDV8 Zermatt Silver [Gone]
2003 Range Rover HSE Oslo Blue [Gone]
1985 Camel Trophy 90 (Netherlands Team Vehicle) [Gone]
1990 Camel Trophy 127 (Workshop Vehicle) [Gone]
1989 Camel Trophy 110 (Workshop Vehicle) [Gone]
1998 Camel Trophy Freelander (South African Team Vehicle)
1995 Camel Trophy Discovery 300Tdi (Raft Unit) [Gone]

The charging circuit may well have to 'see' a connection before it lets loose the full charge voltage, a voltmeter is too high an impedance to trigger the circuit.

That's what I'm hoping might be the case......

I took the battery pack out of one of the cameras and I get .03v (total, across all cells). Could that battery being almost completely dead also fail to trigger the charging? (I can sometimes blunder my way round a wiring diagram but stuff like this is beyond my limited knowledge on the subject!)

I should have said by the way........ my meter probes have tiny little ends and as I was finding it impossible to get them both on the pins I taped two strips of tin-foil to the camera, one over each charging connection (& to the other end of the camera, so it was dead easy to get the probes on), so the 1v was measured with the camera (albeit with almost completely dead battery) in the dock (& the dock closed).

Cheers
Richard 2010 Range Rover Autobiography TDV8 Santorini Black
2010 Range Rover Autobiography TDV8 Zermatt Silver [Gone]
2003 Range Rover HSE Oslo Blue [Gone]
1985 Camel Trophy 90 (Netherlands Team Vehicle) [Gone]
1990 Camel Trophy 127 (Workshop Vehicle) [Gone]
1989 Camel Trophy 110 (Workshop Vehicle) [Gone]
1998 Camel Trophy Freelander (South African Team Vehicle)
1995 Camel Trophy Discovery 300Tdi (Raft Unit) [Gone]

I've got a bit of spare time tomorrow so I'll prod mine with a voltmeter and see what I get, although 0.03V may not be enough for the charge circuit to recognise it as a connected device, I think it also has to see something from the IR LED, although that may be more to do with pairing and reporting charge level, but if there's not enough voltage to activate the control circuit, then that won't work anyway.... so a bit of a 'Chicken & egg' situation.
At that terminal voltage (0.03V) it's also a fair bet that the batteries are well below their recoverable minimum charge level, if you can temporarily connect something like 5 - 6 V (with a polarity check first!) between the dock and the cam, then that may provoke the control circuit into life, whether the batteries will charge to a usable level is anyone's guess though.

Good bit of thinking with the tin foil BTW!

Thanks for the info!!

That would be great, thank-you! Hopefully it'll turn out you also get +/- 1v without a camera!

I've ordered a battery pack, will be interesting to see if it comes to life & starts charging when that is replaced! I hope so as I really don't want to have to get the dock back out!

The tin-foil idea was a flash of inspiration, I could do with a few more of those haha

Cheers
Richard

I recently resurrected a Bluetooth earbud by building a small charging circuit on a piece of breadboard and using that to force a bit of charge into the battery. It was then recognised by the charging circuit and has been working fine since.

All you need is a supply and a resistor to limit the max current to, say, 100mA. Attach for a few seconds and check the battery voltage again. Rinse and repeat. 2016 Skoda Octavia VRS Estate
<gone>2009 FF Vogue TDV8 Buckingham Blue</gone>
<gone>2015 BMW 520D SE (not my favourite car)</gone>
<gone>2009 D3 HSE Galway Green</gone>

Interesting........

I have got some breadboard & have got an arduino (clone) that I could take power off (although I can't remeber if that is 5v or 12v (or possibly both depending on how it's powered)).

The venture-cam batteries are 7.2v, could I trouble you for a quick diagram of what you would put together to try to resurrect one of those please? Although I've ordered a battery pack as a quick swap for one of the cameras I've got another 2 dead ones here so if they could be resurrected it would be great!

Cheers
Richard 2010 Range Rover Autobiography TDV8 Santorini Black
2010 Range Rover Autobiography TDV8 Zermatt Silver [Gone]
2003 Range Rover HSE Oslo Blue [Gone]
1985 Camel Trophy 90 (Netherlands Team Vehicle) [Gone]
1990 Camel Trophy 127 (Workshop Vehicle) [Gone]
1989 Camel Trophy 110 (Workshop Vehicle) [Gone]
1998 Camel Trophy Freelander (South African Team Vehicle)
1995 Camel Trophy Discovery 300Tdi (Raft Unit) [Gone]

It was literally the circuit Big Clive draws here (skip to 4min 15s)

https://youtu.be/5yFwhWeqyq4?t=256

And I didn't include the optional diode

In my case, I think the battery voltage was around 3.3V so it was +5V -> 100 Ohm resistor -> +ve battery and -ve battery to 0V.

5V might be enough to raise your battery voltage sufficiently for it to be recognised. Though you may need 12V, just be sure to limit the current with something like a 200 Ohm resistor (which should keep it to 60mA max). 2016 Skoda Octavia VRS Estate
<gone>2009 FF Vogue TDV8 Buckingham Blue</gone>
<gone>2015 BMW 520D SE (not my favourite car)</gone>
<gone>2009 D3 HSE Galway Green</gone>

Excellent, thanks!

Ah, big clive, an absolute legend!!  2010 Range Rover Autobiography TDV8 Santorini Black
2010 Range Rover Autobiography TDV8 Zermatt Silver [Gone]
2003 Range Rover HSE Oslo Blue [Gone]
1985 Camel Trophy 90 (Netherlands Team Vehicle) [Gone]
1990 Camel Trophy 127 (Workshop Vehicle) [Gone]
1989 Camel Trophy 110 (Workshop Vehicle) [Gone]
1998 Camel Trophy Freelander (South African Team Vehicle)
1995 Camel Trophy Discovery 300Tdi (Raft Unit) [Gone]

Right, across the Venturecam, I get 2.95VDC (not docked) across the dock pins with the ignition on, I get pulsed 5 - 11.5VDC
Hope that helps....

That does help yes, thankyou, although admittedly not what I was hoping you'd say as it seems that there could be a more involved problem.

I should get the battery pack tomorrow so will put that in the camera I've opened up and see if anything remarkable happens. If not I have another camera on the way too.

I suppose it could be the case that the voltage wont be supplied if no cameras are paired, hopefully! Back to, as you said, a chicken and egg situation........

Cheers
Richard 2010 Range Rover Autobiography TDV8 Santorini Black
2010 Range Rover Autobiography TDV8 Zermatt Silver [Gone]
2003 Range Rover HSE Oslo Blue [Gone]
1985 Camel Trophy 90 (Netherlands Team Vehicle) [Gone]
1990 Camel Trophy 127 (Workshop Vehicle) [Gone]
1989 Camel Trophy 110 (Workshop Vehicle) [Gone]
1998 Camel Trophy Freelander (South African Team Vehicle)
1995 Camel Trophy Discovery 300Tdi (Raft Unit) [Gone]

The pulsing voltage was after I un-docked the Venturecam, so it may 'search' for a while for something to charge. It's not clear if the docking detection is via the charge pins or the IR LED

Battery replaced in one of the cameras........ I can now turn it on ok.

No difference in the car though Nothing recognised / shown / no option to pair it (Ive tried out the dock as well as putiing it in the dock on / off / torch on).

I get no voltage across the contacts on the camera body, despite having a good battery in there now (the wires from the back of the contacts to the circuit board are intact). I didn't previously (on either camera) but presumed that was just down to the batteries being dead.

Can only presume that the camera I put the new battery pack in may be broken, picking up another camera later, will be interesting to try that out....... 2010 Range Rover Autobiography TDV8 Santorini Black
2010 Range Rover Autobiography TDV8 Zermatt Silver [Gone]
2003 Range Rover HSE Oslo Blue [Gone]
1985 Camel Trophy 90 (Netherlands Team Vehicle) [Gone]
1990 Camel Trophy 127 (Workshop Vehicle) [Gone]
1989 Camel Trophy 110 (Workshop Vehicle) [Gone]
1998 Camel Trophy Freelander (South African Team Vehicle)
1995 Camel Trophy Discovery 300Tdi (Raft Unit) [Gone]

Mine had to be in the dock for a few minutes with the ignition on before it was recognised, I also deleted all the existing ones in case it was searching for those first.

I've tried another camera with a good battery / which turns on ok and nothing is recognised in the car, it was left in the dock for an hour or so over several journeys.

I get no voltage across the two contacts on any of the cameras, can you confirm please that your camera shows a voltage across those two contacts? (when not in the dock)

I have no idea what year vehicle the docking station I fitted was from, but it did fit an upper glovebox perfectly (including the two screws which secure it). I have a 2008 docking station with a broken latch, if I get a chance on Sunday I'll swap the part with the latch over and try that dock.

There's never been a camera paired with the car so at the moment I just get the options for channel 1 - 4, with of course no delete option.

Cheers
Richard 2010 Range Rover Autobiography TDV8 Santorini Black
2010 Range Rover Autobiography TDV8 Zermatt Silver [Gone]
2003 Range Rover HSE Oslo Blue [Gone]
1985 Camel Trophy 90 (Netherlands Team Vehicle) [Gone]
1990 Camel Trophy 127 (Workshop Vehicle) [Gone]
1989 Camel Trophy 110 (Workshop Vehicle) [Gone]
1998 Camel Trophy Freelander (South African Team Vehicle)
1995 Camel Trophy Discovery 300Tdi (Raft Unit) [Gone]

Last edited by RJPotts on 8th Jul 2022 7:22pm. Edited 1 time in total