Reversing camera and sensors

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Originally Posted by Keithy P38

Pbrown, the D4's have the surround camera option, very similar to fantom's setup! I had a chance to take one for a bush bash a few years ago and fell in love with the idea! You can see exactly where you have placed wheels, very handy when you really need to pick your line!

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Cheers, I just had a look.

While very impressive and I'm sure you found it useful, but none of the cameras point downwards towards the front tyres. Without driving the D4 with the cameras (so don't trust my judgement completely) I guess the front cameras work similar to a bumper mount camera except there are two of them with less viewing angle and less distortion from the wide angle.

What I'd like is to see part of the body, or ideally wheels, so there is more judgement for heading down or up rocks.

Mind you the reason I originally ordered the front mount camera was for going over blind mounds, and not really knowing what lied ahead other than waiting for the bonnet to come down or get out and have a look. So for this a normal bumper cam would work. Also when approaching rocks shelves and not knowing if the front approach is gonna hit without getting out or touch testing where really the camera needs to be behind the bar for better judgement of height.

Or just wait for guidance which sometimes just aint always there when your impatient :)

Sorry if I have hijacked this thread.

Edit: So the two front cameras would probably work better to judge the lines I guess than a central camera?? Is this what you found Keithy P38?

Edit 2: And I guess the cameras mounted in the mirrors, but pointing down towards the wheels, would help with lines and also distance. But not so good on approach angles and also involves cutting wholes in the mirrors.

Hey Paul it is me (Martin) changed about a month ago I think!
Anyway view is ideal as you can see along bodyline and also great view of front wheels. I picked up some spare mirrors quite cheap and used outer covers from them rather than potentially butcher originals just in case it didnt work out too well. I routed cabling thru same locations as mirror wiring thru door in behind dash so no wiring visible either, bit fiddly to do but worth the effort.
As I said not had chance yet to test offroad but from view in street looking good.
I just picked up adjustable multipole dial switch from Jaycar to allow me to control power & video feeds from one switch, works a treat & very neat.
Still not had chance to get some good pics, maybe next couple of days.
Cameras are eyeball type with 20mm hole required in bottom of mirror housing. No one would know they were there unless you showed them!

Just remember when ordering cameras to make sure they are for forward viewing, unlike my first attempt ( didnt think to specify & recieved rear viewing). Next addition could be similar setup but fitted to underneath of rear door handles - perfect position to view rear wheels! I have a set of spare handles & now also 2 spare cameras to check if they will fit. If memory serves me correct I think you have similar stereo/dvd player in your P38 Paul so you could easily set up similar system.

Nice work Martin, looking forward to seeing some pics.

So, I am thinking I might need a 6 position multi-pole dial. My cunning plan is to have:

• forward facing camera looking down over the winch in the front bar
• replace the current reverse camera with a better resolution model
• forward facing cameras below the side mirrors
• rear facing cameras below the side mirrors (better view than the door handles?)

If I wanted it to switch the Kenwood 7" display automatically, I guess I could wire in an additional switch before the multi-pole to provide power and use the existing reverse camera input on the stereo. Otherwise I would need to select the AV input on the screen manually.
Hmm, what might happen if one of the cameras was operating and then I selected reverse?
ah! the 2-way switch before the multi-pole could be reverse-signal on one pole and battery power on the other? Just need to remember to have the multi-pole dial in reverse cam position most of the time.
Sound do-able?

Next project might be to mix the signals to provide a 3x2 screen layout to show all at once with the ability to touch/zoom the individual feeds... maybe a bit much to ask of a 3yo Kenwood ;)

As far as I can remember the cameras on the D4 are adjustable too... I'm not sure how many cameras there were but it was quite a few (9 maybe)?

Hi Paul,
I decided to wire the head unit aux video input to dial switch with first position on switch as OFF then to various inputs after that.
This way it does not iterfere with normal use of reverse camera also if you were to be using other cameras off road and selected reverse it would switch back and forth as you would expect automatically. After all if you needed aux for something else this could then be selectable on dial switch anyway, for example I have set aside 2 poles one for a HDTV tuner and another to share my rear rooftop dvd player to indash screen!
So it seems you can have your cake & eat it too!

Hey Paul,
On the split screen front I did purchase a multichannel video converter box which allows you to connect up to four video inputs and will give a split screen view on any monitor (1/2/3) I think but only reason I didnt use this was another lot of wiring & something else to mount where you need access to buttons to select different views etc! & I am trying to keep interior as clean looking as possible. So far it looks very standard with exception of reverse parking sensor display, Plus a couple of 3mm led's which tell me if eas pump is active & other is on if my eas disconnect switch is active. Both very discreet and directly above eas controls on dash.

Well I finally got around to taking some pics of my current camera setup.
Although it is not completely finished yet happy with results so far pics of screen images did'nt turn out the best due to some reflections but gives you an idea of view.
Knob on side of instrument cluster allows me to select whichever video feed I want except reverse camera as I still have this setup to work when reverse is selected no matter what is on screen.
Cameras are quite discreet as you can see in pics and quality of video is very good. These are not infrared cameras but at night when headlights are on there is sufficient light for good viewing.
The dial knob is connected to aux video input on dvd player, so to use cameras need to select that function.
Can only upload five pics so will do another post for remainder!

Rest of pics!

Fantom, that looks like an excellent and uncluttered installation :D. Well done! It will be interesting to see how useful it is once off the bitumen.
Gary

Nice work mate! You know that means you go first ALL the time when we are out now?