Reverse Sensors Problem

[prasad]

Hello there,

I've installed a front(2) and rear(4) reverse sensors on my vehicle. The front sensors are always on, the rear ones come on with the reverse gear lamp power. one cable is connected to the break lamp also.

The problem is if I engage the reverse gear the while the engine is off and break off, the rear sensors work fine, If I engage the break the rear sensors get cutoff. There is no way I could engage the reverse gear without using the break. So how do I get my reverse sensors to work even if I have my break on.

Please help

Koka

[TMC]

Why not take the cable off of the brake lamp and see what happens?

Tony

[Roger Mills]

I presume that by 'break' you mean *brake*?

I presume that, to power the sensors, once wire needs to be connected to a

12 volt supply - for which the reversing lamp is fine, and is live whenever you are reversing - and that the other wire needs to be connected to earth. If you connect it to the brake light instead, it will earth through the brake light filament, and the sensor will work. *However*, as soon as you use the brakes, the brake light is fed with 12v - and you thus have 12v on *both* sensor wires, so they don't then work.

Disconnect the wire from the brake light, and connect it to earth instead.

[Steve Pearce]

On Mon, 24 Sep 2007 15:15:20 +0100, "Roger Mills"

I think that is spot on, a similar thing happen to me when I fitted reversing sensors, with the exception they wouldn't work when sidelights/headlights were on. Once I found the real earth connection they worked just fine.

[John Rumm]

;-) my thoughts exactly....

[prasad]

Thanks chaps let me try it and come back to you:)

[Andy Dingley]

Please do. I'd be fascinated if there really was a good reason why they needed a connection to the brake lights. What do the instructions say?

[prasad]

Thanks chaps, it worked when I connected the wire to the earth. Its fine now. A pal bought the kit for me from Malaysia without the instructions.

Thanks once again.

Koka

[Dave]

The one's I got came with 6 sensors - 2 front and 4 rear. I'm going to fit them this weekend but I'm not bothering with the front ones because, if I'm reading the instructions correctly (you gotta love the translation - here's a scan

they (and so presumably, the display) operate when braking, which is OK when pulling into a parking space I suppose, but I don't fancy it every time I pull up behind someone at the lights or in a queue, or when braking to go round a bend or corner.

Dave

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I wondered how the front ones were activated. I've had a DIY fitted rear only set up for some time - you can tell as it cost well over 100 quid.

Brake operated sounds weird, though, unless you have an auto and use the brake to let it creep forward. Speed sensing might be better.

Most aftermarket units seem to give you a graphic display of what sensor is seeing an obstacle. I found this of little use and hid it out of sight

- just relying on the bleeper. The display might be of more use with front sensors as well, though.

[Dave]

Mine were just under 24 quid

from fleabay so I'm not complaining by any means, but it wasn't the bargain I *thought* I was getting.

I landed on a page where the auction had just *two* minutes to go and there were no bids, just the starting price of 99 pence, so I didn't hang about and hastily put in my bid. WOOHOO I thought, and won the auction for the

99p - and it was only afterwards that I realized that the postage was £22.99 :o)

Dave

[Roger Mills]

As far as I can see, it doesn't make any noise until the front sensors get within about 0.8 meters of an obstacle, so that shouldn't be a problem unless you're literally sitting on the bumper of the bloke in front. Even the blue light doesn't come on until you're 1.5 metres away.

[Dave]

DOH! Yes Roger, you're quite right - and I'm the one with the instructions. How the hell did I miss that? :o) I'll now fit the front ones as well then. Cheers mate

Dave

[manatbandq]

[e-mail]...

So, you should have refused to pay and informed Ebay. I know of at least one auction that was pulled by Ebay because the seller was trying to get around the minumum =A350 reserve by setting the postage at =A320 (It wasn't mine and I wasn't the one who complained).

MBQ

[Dave]

I suppose I could have complained about the way that they've done it but I don't really see that any harm's been done (in this case) because it seems that around £25 is the average price for the set of sensors I got. If, on the other hand, the postage had caught me out and meant that I had paid well over the odds for what I got, then yes, a strong complaint would have been made.

Dave

[Mike Barnes]

ISTM that the reason eBay took action in the case you quoted is because it was an attempt to thwart eBay's policies. However there's no indication that that there was any such attempt in the auction Dave won. Inflated postal prices are so widespread on eBay that it's difficult to imagine them taking action except in the tiny number of cases where they (eBay) have something to lose.

Buyers should always look at the total price, and I think it fair to assume that most people do that (though there will obviously be the occasional mistake like Dave's).

[manatbandq]

I'm more inclined to believe it was because someone complained. Yes, a lot of people do it but only a fraction get caught doing it.

MBQ

[Mike Barnes]

Possibly but "catching" people doing would be so laughably easy that "catching" doesn't really describe it. Anyone at eBay could knock up a program in a few minutes that would "catch" as many thousands of sellers as they wanted. In lots of categories anyone can sort items by price (lowest first) and find literally hundreds of offers for items at £0.01 and postage at several pounds.

Just the other week I bought a couple of mobile phone adapter leads for £0.01 the pair, plus postage at £1.99, plus mandatory insurance (hah!) at £0.50. I don't imagine that if I complained, any action would be taken, though I suppose it's possible that eBay would pull the item, with the obvious result that the seller would simply list it again.