Using 2nd battery to power rear-view camera display?

Hi @rojid, I wouldn't recommend pulling power from the second battery because you shouldn't need the unit to have power all of the time.  Also, the second battery is charged by a stand alone battery charger in the car and not by the engine charging system.  The best place to pick up 12v power is the stud on the back of the master switch.  It has room to add additional power wires but attaching an eye on the end of the power wire.

@rojid I've connected a rearview camera to my AiM MXS dash. If you have a new AiM dash, chances are it's got a camera port. I use a button on my steering wheel to toggle the camera view.

Some photos

To switch back to gauge view, just push the button again. I've debated using a timer -- maybe have the camera come up for 3-5 seconds, but this seems to work ok. 

@parsonsj aye that was my first thought, to get the aim patch cable and camera (which oddly enough, they sell for considerably more than a camera which they themselves recommend and link to in amazon, in the documentation, which is almost a 3rd of the price!) 

my car is a bit of an oddball and has a mix of aim products and XX PDM. 

here's what i've got (attached vid of me starting it for the very first time earlier this week). I had a feel around the back of the display for that 3rd video feed port output but either its been blanked off or what i've got is an old display. 

in any case, i think i'd rather have a permanent feed showing rear view at all times, i figured i could just stick the additional tft display behind the steering wheel as there's a nice gap. 

@charleyhradicalsportscarregistry-com 

is this the connection you're on about? it's definitely the master plug, just checking that you mean this bit in green, so this is actually a 12v power source? 

@rojid, The one in my car looked a bit different but yes, that looks to be it.  Just make sure you put the wires on the side with switched poser so you don't drain your battery when the car isn't being used.

Charley

Have you made any progress on this? I was thinking of doing the exact same thing. I have a significant blind spot directly behind my car. Not such a big deal when racing other Radicals, but when I am in mixed-class racing, knowing where the other cars are can be a big deal.

This is what I was thinking of adding. Mounting the camera rearward high on the bottom of the roll hoop and mounting the 'mirror' up behind the steering wheel.

@tommymills 

i bought this 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0797SYRGR/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

haven't had a chance to fit yet. 

I never even thought about mounting it on the rollhoop.... good alternative though. I'll have a think about it, i was just going to thread it along the chassis towards the rear and stick it next to the rain light. 

well thought i'd update this as i finally got round to wiring up the camera.. 

turned out pretty good. I'm still debating whether to stick it at the rear of the car and wire it back up, but that'll require a bit more effort and i'm not sure if i can be bothered. It does the job for £53. 

The alternative was to plug a camera directly into the PDM via a patch lead they sell, which i can then set up to display on the PDM display....according to the manual. But i wanted a permanent rear view display to act like a miror, so this was the better solution for me. 

The radical PDM loom has 2 spare 12v auxiliary plugs for any other devices you want to add......trouble is they use plugs which are very expensive to properly crimp and connect - ITT Sureseal cannon connectors - the connectors themselves are cheap but you need some insertion tool to push the wires into and crimp, which are insanely expensive - so i opted for superseal plugs which are cheap and you can buy a pack of pre-crimped ones all done up. 

To join the wires up i used heat shrink with solder seal - made it very easy to join the wires up and have a secure connection. 

So now when i turn the car on, i have a rear view miror 👍