Update On Weldex

[Sixpack98]

It's been 8+ months since I posted some ideas on what was wrong with the Weldex system and some possible fixes. Since my last post the video from the rear camera has been rock solid without ANY blank screens. Some of the things I did was:
1. dedicated 12v to rear camera instead of 12v supplied by Weldex cable. This helped improve the video some but the video still blanked out.
2. Temporary RG6 cable around the Weldex cable. This worked and confirmed that the problem was somewhere in the video stream. Video quality was a little better with slightly less noise (waviness).
3. Bridged video around front and rear connector. This also worked.

Even though the video quality was improved with #2 above I elected to commit to #3 above. It would have been a major undertaking to route RG6 down through the rear cap to one of the chases underneath the coach and back in at the front of the coach. To me it was not worth the hassle for so little gain.

So, if you are like me and was not able to exchange for the replacement rear view system you might try cutting into the cable assembly under the dash and rear cap and soldering in a male and female video connector. The actual culprit is the front connector. POS!!!

It's amazing to me that a redneck from East Texas could figure out what was causing the video blanking and come up with a fix. I'm sure Monaco threw mucho $$$ at this problem and in the end punted and replaced the Weldex with another system.

mark

[Bill2]

Mark, where is this front connector located? Is it attached to the front monitor?
Bill O

[Sixpack98]

Bill,
The barrel connector in question connects to the cable that connects to the monitor. Mine was located mid dash (from left to right) on top of the drawer assembly. The 3 camera cables were in a loose bundle sitting on a piece of plywood on top of the center drawers. The cable is beige in color. You might try locating the cable on the back of the monitor and following it to the barrel connector. The monitor cable is about 3' long.

[bandcworkhorse]

Did you try adding the resistor to the cable, per Monaco instructions? Seems to have solved the intermittent blank out problems on my system.

[Sixpack98]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bandcworkhorse Did you try adding the resistor to the cable, per Monaco instructions? Seems to have solved the intermittent blank out problems on my system.

Monaco did add the resistor but did not help. I really never understood the resistor fix, all the cameras are the same but only the center camera got the "fix". The center camera has tilt but the actual camera is the same. I'm inclined to think when they pulled the camera and plug and reinstalled it reset the connector. On the first warranty trip they also replaced the Monitor which did not help.

[kealpa]

Mark,
What are (were) your monitor symptoms? Mine works well for about 30 minutes, then the picture begins to lean at the top of the screen from right to left. When the lean gets far enough, the picture then begins to jump so as to become unreadable, then goes black. Sometimes shutting off the monitor for a period of time solves the problem temporarily, but after several of these cycles, the screen stays black, usually until we shut down for the night. I've wondered if the problem might be a cooling issue, but the heat build-up behind the monitor is minimal. I had the monitor replaced, but to no avail. Looks like you fix might be the one.

[Sixpack98]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kealpa Mark, What are (were) your monitor symptoms? Mine works well for about 30 minutes, then the picture begins to lean at the top of the screen from right to left. When the lean gets far enough, the picture then begins to jump so as to become unreadable, then goes black. Sometimes shutting off the monitor for a period of time solves the problem temporarily, but after several of these cycles, the screen stays black, usually until we shut down for the night. I've wondered if the problem might be a cooling issue, but the heat build-up behind the monitor is minimal. I had the monitor replaced, but to no avail. Looks like you fix might be the one.

Before the picture blanked out it generally did one of 2 things. Sometimes it would tear similar to what you described. Another times the video would lose some or all of the chroma (color) and look kinda like a sepia print. Both resulted in finally blanking out. Sometimes it would kinda come back for a short period but would go black again. When I found the front connector I could unscrew and rescrew it and the video would come back for a couple of days. That is when I tried running a temporary separate video cable which resulted in very stable consistent video. Of course I had to cut open the cable (both ends) to separate the video coax to the monitor and camera. I then removed the temp RG6 and connectorized the Weldex 60' coax cable at both ends thus bypassing the Weldex connectors. I did not noticed a significant increase in video quality so I did not run a separate video cable.

[bandcworkhorse]

The symptoms described here are different than mine. My monitor would simply go white (center camera only). Side cameras and rear audio continued to work fine. Happened mostly on late summer afternoons. I'm no electrician, but something about resistance in the long cable to the rear leading to heat buildup somewhere. As I said, the resistor seemed to solve my problem last summer. Will check it out again this year.

[kealpa]

Thanks for the info, Mark. I think I'll try your fix to see if that's the problem.