Reversing Camera drained battery ?

[CasualNerd]

This might not be a transit specific issue but... Got out to the van this morning and the key fob wouldn't work, no lock movement whatsoever. Lots of mucking about before I tried to see if the van would start and it gave absolutely zero lights or movement on the key start.

I wired in a cheap Chinese reversing camera a few weeks ago and the van has sat ever since, so I'm pretty sure that's the culprit as nothing else has changed and the leisure battery is all disconnected. However, as it's wired into the reverse light, it shouldn't be possible to draw any power right ?

The monitor is wired via a fuse tap on the cigar lighter fuse, which is definitely only on when they key is turned, so it shouldn't be able to draw power either.

Now if I had left something bare and it shorted, surely a fuse would have blown instead ? Am I missing something here ?

[Airthies]

Depending on age of van? The lighter sockets are permanent live. May be better making sure and finding an ignition source like the radio feed.
It's not something silly like leaving an internal cab light on?

Sent from my anu5 using crapatalk

[CasualNerd]

I was careful enough to check the cigar lighter was dead without the key in, but after charging the battery it happened again, and after checking more closely, I actually tapped the cab interior light fuse which obviously has power to it without the key. Bit of a bummer as there's a reasonably high chance I've done some damage to the battery now.

It's interesting that the monitor draws enough power on standby to drain a transit battery in a little over a week

Anyway I'm running new cables and I'll run a relay off the cigar lighter properly this time

[Altransit]

I wired in a cheap Chinese reversing camera a few weeks ago and the van has sat ever since

If your van has sat for a few weeks without using it, then that's probably the reason that the battery is flat. You'll get a certain amount of residual drain through items such as the alternator diodes. I have a couple of vehicles sat on my drive that aren't used, and I have to charge the batteries every 2-3 of weeks, otherwise they won't unlock with the fob.
A small-ish solar charger may keep the battery topped up, but that depends on how much sun light it gets during the day.

[CasualNerd]

Looks like I already solved it (see previous post) but I was concerned about that too. However it's sat for many weeks at a time previously without an issue.

Now I think this issue is sorted I'll start finishing the campervan stuff, and I'll wire in the Victron battery combiner - so the van battery should always stay charged via the leisure.

[RustWidow]

Looks like I already solved it (see previous post) but I was concerned about that too. However it's sat for many weeks at a time previously without an issue.

Now I think this issue is sorted I'll start finishing the campervan stuff, and I'll wire in the Victron battery combiner - so the van battery should always stay charged via the leisure.

Ooh I wouldn’t want to do that! I’d be scared to end up with two flat batteries

[CasualNerd]

Ooh I wouldn’t want to do that! I’d be scared to end up with two flat batteries

It's like a two way VSR, so it won't connect unless it's fully topped up on either side, no risk of running the second one flat either way.