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Coax types for automotive camera systems

Discussion in 'Technical Chat' started by Rusty66, Aug 17, 2024.

  1. Aug 17, 2024 at 6:00 AM
    #1
    Rusty66

    Rusty66 [OP] Ain’t Afraid

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    Have a vehicle in the shop (GMC Sierra) and the coax for the front view camera is damaged on body harness side. I need some Fakra connectors to put it back together but I’m having trouble identifying the coax types as it’s not marked on the jacket.
    Any tips on identifying the coax so I can get the correct connectors to splice them. The wire off the camera is about 4mm thick and the body harness side is maybe 50% thicker. GM is useless for this information they just want to sell me a $3000 harness.

    TIA
     
  2. Aug 17, 2024 at 6:01 AM
    #2
    deanosaurus

    deanosaurus Caveman

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    Can you get me a Pic of the cross section of the coax and the inner conductor diameter/outer diameter with a set of mics? English and Metric please!
     
  3. Aug 17, 2024 at 6:05 AM
    #3
    Rusty66

    Rusty66 [OP] Ain’t Afraid

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    Damn….no. I let the guy take his truck (it is the last part the repair and didn’t want to hold the vehicle hostage). I suppose I could get him back in and get a cross section of both cables.

    My thought was to find out the most common used in automotive camera systems and maybe narrow down what I need to order.

    @deanosaurus thank you for the fast reply!
     
  4. Aug 17, 2024 at 3:09 PM
    #4
    deanosaurus

    deanosaurus Caveman

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    How is it terminated at the camera end? Is it molded to the camera or are you lucky enough that it had a connector at that end?

    I would be willing to bet it's just some specialty/automotive grade RCA cable if the camera is powered by a separate connector. If you have jacks at both ends (device and car) make a new cable or splice away.

    Make a test splice first with a male RCA end and check it in an RCA-in capable device.
     
    Last edited: Aug 17, 2024
  5. Aug 17, 2024 at 3:18 PM
    #5
    545

    545 Well-Known Member

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    Pictures and exact measurements would likely be able to identify it, or hit a junkyard
     
  6. Aug 18, 2024 at 6:43 AM
    #6
    Rusty66

    Rusty66 [OP] Ain’t Afraid

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    The harness from the front camera to the main body harness is terminated on both ends with a Fakra type A connector.
    The body harness connector is the one that is damaged, that coax is a different diameter than the camera harness, which is why I am trying to identify it. I have some black Fakra connectors coming for RG174/RG316 cable but they offer them for RG58/LMR-195 as well. I think I’m going to order a half dozen of each so I don’t have to inconvenience the customer to come back again without a repair.

    I have spliced coax for audio signals many times without any problems but this video signal must be very high frequency because I wasn’t able to get a good signal with the normal way I splice them.
     
  7. Aug 18, 2024 at 7:51 AM
    #7
    soundman98

    soundman98 Well-Known Member

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    that's extremely odd. not saying you did anything wrong, but typically coaxial cable usage is for noise/interference rejection. for short runs, one could typically run speaker wire as a replacement for the two conductors and still get a great signal.
     
  8. Aug 18, 2024 at 12:14 PM
    #8
    deanosaurus

    deanosaurus Caveman

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    Oh yeah, I've seen Fakra used for stuff up beyond 5GHz, I have no idea what the specs are on that camera but it is entirely possible it's way up there, signal frequency wise. I do have experience with video over coaxial in a couple of non-automotive applications and neighborhood of 1GHz is not unheard of. (Edit: it looks like MCA supports up to 20GHz. Yeesh.)

    You might also want to look at RG-59, RG-6, and RG-62, those are smaller (6-ish mm OD) and might be what you're dealing with. It also looks like RG-62 is used in a bunch of automotive applications. I also don't really know that the difference among the 5* and 6* families will be enough to matter here.

    Good luck and please post how you end up.
     
    Last edited: Aug 18, 2024

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