Does anyone know where there is a continous 6 volt feed in the car, I am trying to install a Eclipse BEC-105 camera but requires a 6 volt feed. Also, that feed needs to switch off when the car turns off

 

No converter box included, make your own- grab a 7806 voltage converter from Digikey(TO-220 casing)for about eighty cents along with a 0.1 and 0.33 uF electrolytic capacitors- you can hook it up to a swtiched 12 volt source and will output a constant 6 volts. Max current draw is about 1 amp but should be plenty for this app.

 

Depending on current draw, make sure you heatsink the TO-220 to some aluminum. Dropping 7.8 volts (13.8volt vehicle-6volt output) at 1amp is 7.8watts converted directly into heat...you'll let the smoke out in no time.

 

Ok, I am going to go get those parts today, but I have no clue how to use them, lol, buy any chance, can you explain to me how do I wire that all together?

 

Easy:

7806 has three pins - input, ground, output.

1. Switched 12v from car to input pin of 7806.

2. 0.33uF cap on input pin - the cap has + and/or - markings - the + side goes to input pin of 7806and - side to ground.

3. Ground on 7806 goes to chassis ground on car - if you mount the 7806 directly to the chassis metal with the metal backing of the TO-220 casing, you will have killed two birds with one stone - a grounded heatsink!

4. 0.1uF cap on the output pin - same rule applies - + marking to output pin on 7806 and - marking to ground.

5. That's it - you now have swithed 6 volt power on the output pin to tie in to your camera.

The datasheet link I posted should have a diagram of this circuit in it to help you out.

Good Luck!

 

Thanks rdenis for writing that up for me, that's gonna be my project after work today, the datasheet link never posted by the way, but your explanation is great! One more question, the 7806, are the terminals mark input output and ground?

 

If it is a TO-220 casing, then bottom view (front up) left pin should be input, center pin ground and right pin output. See for example http://pdf1.alldatasheet.com/datashe.../KEC/7806.html

 

UPDATE - if anyone else needs a 6 volt feed for a camera it is already available on the camera connector on the back of the MMCS. The pink wire is the 6 volt feed and the white wire next to it is ground. Apologies if this info is a little late, it had been a while since I pulled out my MMCS and today I was determined to find out what the other wires on that particluar connector were for.

The 6 volts is switched on when you first engage reverse and swtiches off when you turn off the car.