|
Jack Mayer's Rear-View Camera
System |
| SITE
CATEGORY -
PROJECTS -
JACK'S
REAR VIEW CAMERA SYSTEM
|
Here's a very
nice job of putting together an affordable &
efficient Back-up Camera system designed by
Jack Mayer .
Jack and his wife
Danielle
live fulltime on the Road and were very nice
to allow us to add their excellent How-To
info here on our site.
A Back-Up or Rear-View Camera system is an
important safety feature that belongs on any
large rig ..and even comes in handy on
smaller tow setups.
We bought 4 of the
X10 Anaconda
color wired cameras Jack uses for his system
and instead of using the monitor he has
,we'll use our Bus's Computer & 15 Inch LCD
monitor. |
6.8" Monitor
The monitor is positioned so the Jake Brake
switch is easily reached |
Since these X10 cameras are so affordable (
approx. $150.00 for 3 cameras...X10 Home Page ) and can
easily be wired up to work with any computer
, they'll come in very handy for folks
living off-the-grid who want to keep an eye
on what's happening around their
Homesteads....
Jack Mayer.....
"In my opinion, a big negative of
everyday use of our Volvo 610 (or
any sleeper) is restricted rear
vision - especially in parking lots.
Yes, you get used to using the
mirrors and getting out and looking,
etc. But stuff that is close is
still in danger, no matter how
careful you are. I find having a
rear vision system convenient. As of
7/2005 we have three cameras on our
tractor. One on the back of the cab,
one on the right mirror bar, and one
directly behind the hitch"
The Cameras
I
wanted a cheap system, but still
effective. This meant assembling the
pieces myself. The pre-packaged
systems are great, but run upwards
of $800 (as of 4/2004 you can find
nice systems on Ebay for as little
as $350). After researching it, I
decided to buy a good monitor and a
cheap camera. I thought this would
suffice for my needs and it has
turned out OK. I used an X10
Anaconda color wired camera as the
primary camera on the back of the
cab. Using a wireless camera is
iffy, according to the people that
have tried it - some work out - some
don't. And since you have to supply
12-volt power to the camera you are
running wires anyway. This X10
camera has 60-degree field of view.
This is the minimum you need. I can
see three lanes behind the tractor -
one on each side of my lane. More
field of view would be better, but
this camera only cost $49 - which
met my price goal. The image quality
is acceptable for rear viewing of
cars and other stuff, but marginal
for hooking up. The issue is partly
a function of the size of the
monitor, in combination with the
size of the lens on the camera, and
the distance of the camera from the
hitch - the hitch is a pretty small
object as it appears on the monitor.
I put white alignment stripes on my
hitch plate and hitch head and this
allows me to get real close to
perfect alignment. A better quality
camera would improve hookup
tremendously, as would mounting the
camera lower on the truck cab. The
disadvantage of mounting the camera
lower (say on the lowest grab bar)
is that it is more difficult to
route the wires invisibly.
Everything is a tradeoff. The
position I chose gives me good rear
vision but is not optimal for
hookup, but we pretty much do the
hookup without the camera anyway.
To
make hookup super-simple you could
mount the camera on a stalk right
behind the hitch. Several people who
hookup without assistance have done
this, and it works well. This does
minimize your rear view, though. To
solve this "quandry" we recently
installed a third camera dedicated
to hooking up. It is directly behind
the hitch plate itself. This camera
is a "Sams Club" $39 color camera
with IR capability. The image
quality is about the same as the
X-10's, as is the field of view. The
real difference is that the Sam's
camera is not weather resistant, so
you have to build some sort of
enclosure to protect it. I used PVC
pipe.
My primary camera is mounted below
the rear (little) window, resting on
the horizontal rain gutter. The wire
is run within the gutter, and down
the gutter line along the vertical
airfoil, then under the truck. It is
not very noticeable, being nestled
into the gutter line of the vertical
foil, but you might want to paint
the wire the color of your truck.
The camera and wire is held onto the
truck with white adhesive
door/window caulk (good thing we
have a white truck - if you have a
colored truck, you might want to
consider black caulk). It holds it
fine. The camera comes with 60' of
wire - more than enough. Everything
(power/data) runs through one wire
set, so hookup is simple. Check the
X10 site for details -
X10 Home Page
This camera is intended for use with
home automation and security
systems, so it uses 120-volt power
reduced to 12 volts by an integral
power brick. Just cut the brick off
and wire the camera directly to an
ignition-switched 12-volt
power source in your fuse block. The
camera uses minimal power, so don't
worry about overloading whichever
circuit you tap. I just found an
unused fuse block that was
ignition-switched and plugged in
there.
Make sure you maintain polarity
- the white-striped wire is the
positive feed. My ground is supplied
from the back of the CB Radio power
supply. The X10 wire code and
pinouts is in a diagram at the
bottom of this page. After using the
camera for a year, I added a sun
hood to it (the white cover in the
picture, below). The camera would
occasionally blank out, due to
direct sun on the LCD. I used some
PVC pipe and cut it to an
appropriate size. It is held on with
adhesive caulk
The Monitor
I used
a Mobile Authority M681 6.8" color
monitor. This has reverse image and
flip screen (horizontal/vertical).
Also, a credit-card size remote
control that allows direct access to
the major functions. The quality and
brightness (300 cd/m) is fine for
application with the X10. Hooked to
my sat system the image is much
better...the camera is the limiting
factor in this setup. However, I
would not buy a monitor with less
than 300 cd/m - monitors with up to
500 cd/m are available, but are
significantly more expensive. The
monitor also supports two video
sources so you could attach a second
camera and easily flip between them
with the remote. There is a
reverse-sense wire that would allow
you to detect when reverse is
engaged and flip to the video feed
with the reverse camera
automatically. I did not use this.
The monitor comes with a stand that
is easy to mount on the vertical flat
panel on the right portion of the
drivers dash area. (the vertical
fuse cover). This is the only area I
found that allowed unrestricted view
of the fender spot mirror by both my
wife and myself. She is so much
shorter than I am that mounting the
monitor on the dash interfered with
her view of the spot mirror. I
thought of integrating the monitor
into the door of the overhead
storage bin above the driver, but it
was too awkward to view there.
Total
cost was - $49 camera, $196 for
monitor (off of Ebay, including
shipping/insurance). There were no
extra costs, since the stand that
came with the monitor was
sufficient.
Future Additions
There is a blind region around
4-o'clock on the truck, because
there are no windows on the
passenger side of the sleeper. This
makes it exciting to pull out of any
intersection that Y's to your right.
I do not have a powered passenger
mirror, which would help minimize
this problem. Because the monitor
supports two video feeds I'm
thinking about mounting a second
camera on the passenger-side
vertical foil angled out to the
right of the truck. This would help
with blind-side back-in campsites as
well. Adding the second camera for
$49 is a lot cheaper, and probably a
superior solution, to adding a
powered right mirror.
Update:
after almost 2 years of living with
limited vision to the dead area at 4
o'clock I installed a second camera.
Joe Johnson gave me a "spare" X10
B&W camera (thanks Joe) and I
mounted it on the mirror arm with
"tacky-tack" (used to mount things
in the RV). I'm a little concerned
with impact from closing the door
affecting the camera over the
long-term. We will have to wait and
see. It works great when you need
it, especially for blind-side
backing - no more guessing where you
are when backing the trailer into
those "backwards" campsites! Of
course, if you have a powered mirror
you can pretty much circumvent this
problem that way.
I will probably paint the camera on
the back of the cab white at some
time - it will blend with the truck
better this way
So far, glare on the monitor has not
been a problem, but shrouds are
available that will help keep glare
from the screen, or you can easily
make your own. If this proves
useful, I may add a shroud in the
future. Positioning the monitor up
on the dash would make it more
subject to glare, and I think a
shroud would be necessary. [Note:
after using it without a shroud
for over two years I've realized a
shroud is not necessary.]
Managing
Multiple Cameras
If you have a monitor that supports
multiple video inputs then managing
multiple cameras is not a problem,
unless you want to have more than
two cameras - the typical number of
video sources monitors support.
Since we now have three cameras I
thought I would put in a switched
system to feed the monitor, and
circumvent the selector in the
monitor itself
If you use X10 cameras, they only
power up when they are "selected" by
the base module. They take a little
time to warm up, so ideally you want
them all powered up and ready to
use. The easiest way to do this is
with a "selector box", which you
will build yourself.
In order to do this you need to know
the pin-outs on the cameras RJ-45
connector. The X-10 pinouts,
left-to-right, as viewed from the
end of the connector, with the tab
on top is: 1 - ground,
2- video (yellow wire), 3 - ground,
4 - 12 volt (red wire), 5 - ground,
6 - audio (white wire) - see the
diagram at the end of this page.
I built my selector box from a
medium size plastic project box
obtainable at Radio Shack. I used a
6-position rotary switch, also from
Radio Shack. This switch requires
you to solder the feed lines on, but
it is a fairly simple process. To
feed the camera outputs from the
back of the truck to the dash I used
category 5e Ethernet cable with
connectors already on - 25' was more
than enough. I ran this from the
truck electrical panel mounted in
the drivers compartment to the
dash. Camera power is supplied by
an ignition signal sent down the cat
5 cable on one of the lines from the
fuse box at the dash to a relay. The
relay controls power to the camera
bank at the rear. The relay is used
to simplify the wiring run from the
cab - everything goes across the
very light gauge cat5 cable. All
cameras are "hot" when the ignition
is on. This allows instant switching
between cameras with no warmup time.
At the project box on the dash the
cat5 cable terminates in an RJ-45
jack mounted in the box. Within the
project box the various camera
inputs run to the appropriate switch
position. A single output from the
switch feeds the monitor. This way,
the switch allows you to flip
between camera views, while
maintaining power on all cameras. It
sounds complicated, but is really
quite simple. It is best if you
solder the connectors onto the
rotary switch.
At the driver compartment electrical
center, where the rear camera inputs
are centralized, I built a video
jack board to plug the cameras into.
The excess camera cable is tied to
the frame under the truck. You
could easily cut this excess cable
off, and just patch the raw wire
ends to the cat5 cable. I used the
plugboard to make changes easy. To
interface to the cat5 cable I cut
the plug off and used a terminal
strip to terminate all the ends. The
plugboard is wired directly to the
terminal strip. This way I can move
things around easily. You certainly
would not have to do this complex of
termination...you could simply
wire-nut the appropriate camera ends
to the cat5 cable.
|
CLICK-ON PIC |
Camera
Mounted on Truck. Note sun
hood.
Mounting on the lower grab bar might be an improvement, but it would be
harder to route wires. |
|
CLICK-ON PIC |
The
camera is tiny - fits well
Tacky-tack seems to hold it on the arm OK |
|
CLICK-ON PIC |
For
X 10 cameras here is the
wire breakout |
| SITE
CATEGORY -
PROJECTS -
JACK'S
REAR VIEW CAMERA SYSTEM
|
