Backup Camera
- Thread starter BRUSHHOG
- Start date
porthole
Retired
Jsaulsbury
New Cycloner
Wow, these are pricey... We saw one at AutoZone or Advanced Auto for $80. I wonder what the differences are...
In a nutshell - wireless video backup cameras are "for the most part", not a good choice for a backup camera on a long RV. The distance the signal needs to reach combined with the interference picked up while moving - usually yields poor results.
The best setup is a wired camera from the rear of the RV to a monitor in the cab of the truck - hard wired all the way. That is why it is pricey (decent camera, long cables, larger, nicer LCD monitor - sometimes audio too).
That all said, one can find higher quality wireless cameras and separate high-power wireless transmitters with crystal controlled receivers. But here again, your talking some serious money.
If anyone here has installed a commercially available wireless camera system or hand selected components and have it working very well on the rear of their RV, please chime in with details on the equipment and costs.
Jim
The best setup is a wired camera from the rear of the RV to a monitor in the cab of the truck - hard wired all the way. That is why it is pricey (decent camera, long cables, larger, nicer LCD monitor - sometimes audio too).
That all said, one can find higher quality wireless cameras and separate high-power wireless transmitters with crystal controlled receivers. But here again, your talking some serious money.
If anyone here has installed a commercially available wireless camera system or hand selected components and have it working very well on the rear of their RV, please chime in with details on the equipment and costs.
Jim
Jimmyt5
Well-known member
I had a wireless system and for the most part I was unhappy with it. One time setting at a red light I had a picture of people buying a mattress, I was picking up the store along side the rig.
I purchased a 7" monitor on E bay and a camera from a place in Vegas( will look for name) the whole system cost about $200 and it works great,use it on the road all the time.
Make sure you get either a monitor or camera the will reverse the picture, if not you will see the guy on the camera passing on the left but he will be on your right...
I purchased a 7" monitor on E bay and a camera from a place in Vegas( will look for name) the whole system cost about $200 and it works great,use it on the road all the time.
Make sure you get either a monitor or camera the will reverse the picture, if not you will see the guy on the camera passing on the left but he will be on your right...
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porthole
Retired
You get what you pay for.
Easy, cheap, solution that works great
I have a camera on the back of my 36' fifth wheel that I can watch on my Nav system's "backup camera" input. You could do this with just about any kind of TV-type display in the truck. My whole setup was professionally installed for less than $400, including everything but the TV in the truck. I very much wanted a wireless solution. For trailer-to-truck connections wireless is truly KISS if done right.
My local "car audio" guy found a wired camera with night vision and 40' of cable leads (I believe the brand is BOYO or something like that). At the end of the 40' cable are two RCA connectors: one for video out and one for audio (this cam has a built-in mic too -- great for listening to DW's instructions), plus two 12VDC power leads. The pro installed the camera on the back of the trailer and ran the 40' cable along the frame to the battery box compartment on the front right side of the trailer. That was easy (for him).
To get the signal from the trailer to the truck I bought a pair of "watch TV in another room" audio/video repeaters. The xmtr has three RCA inputs and the rcvr has three RCA outputs. I only use two connectors: one video and one audio. I deliberately chose a system that uses 12VDC for power (guess why?) and shelved the two 120VAC transformers they came with. Some people complain these repeaters are "subject to interference" or "not great video quality" etc. At my range (6' nominal; 3'-9' when turning) there is no range problem. Video quality is not critical either since the display screen is only 7" (less than that for most people).
Anyway, the pro mounted the xmtr in the battery box compartment of the trailer. He plugged the cam's RCA plugs into the xmtr. He hand-made a couple of "bare wires-to-12VDC barrel" cables for the tx and rx boxes. The only hard part for him was finding a nearby wire for the trailer running lights (parking lights, marker lights, whatever). He wanted to tap off the coach battery and put in an on/off switch but I wanted something much easier. I always have my lights on when I'm pulling the rig so when the rig is in motion, there is power to the cam and xmtr, and when disconnected from the truck, the cam and xmtr are off. Anyway, once he found that lead he just twisted the xmtr and cam power leads into that. (Okay, *I* would have twisted and used wire nuts and black tape. Mr. Pro used installed a Y with quick disconnect connectors, inline fuses, butt connectors, heat shrink tubing, wire tags -- the whole works -- it really is much better his way and he already had all the stuff on his bench.
Inside the truck, he mounted the rx box on the bottom corner of the back window (on the same side as the battery box -- clever guy!) with double stick tape I think. He ran a three-headed RCA cable (better quality and lower cost than a two head cable) and a 12VDC cable (with connectors, inline fuses, etc.) from there up to the nav system in the dash. The 12VDC got hooked to some 12VDC output on the nav system that only goes hot if the nav system is on and hooked the video and audio feeds into the nav system's inputs.
The beauty of this is that it was actually easy for him to install (car audio installers do hidden cables like that all day long so it turned out to be a no brainer to pay him to do that). And it is easy to use. I don't have to remember or do *anything* to watch my camera (as long as the 7-pin is attached and the headlights or parking lights are on -- which I do anyway). You can use this with any display that accepts RCA inputs (most do).
If you buy an extra receiver unit, you can even watch your camera on a TV in the rig, but only if you do that "15A fuse trick" to make your trailer running lights come on when you're camped. I suppose I could put a switch or relay in the battery box that would energize from house 12VDC power if the rig was on shore power ... or maybe have a mechanical timer in the bedroom TV cubby to jumper into the coach battery. Hmmm, another project...
Anyway, the night vision cam with mic and 40' leads was less than $200. The room-to-room TV repeater was less than $50 for the pair on Amazon. I paid the car audio guy less than $100 (a good local guy ... not the monkeys you can *sometimes* get at places like ex-Circuit City -- my apologies in advance to those of you who work for a big chain but are who are also truly craftsmen of your field -- but you also know who I'm really talking about keeping out of your truck and camper
. Where you live the good guys might charge more but support them anyway and you will be glad in the end. My guy might have cut me a break because I've bought three AVIC nav systems from him, tricked out, at near retail. But he took about 90 minutes from start to finish. And it might have been faster if I hadn't "helped" ;-)
I have a camera on the back of my 36' fifth wheel that I can watch on my Nav system's "backup camera" input. You could do this with just about any kind of TV-type display in the truck. My whole setup was professionally installed for less than $400, including everything but the TV in the truck. I very much wanted a wireless solution. For trailer-to-truck connections wireless is truly KISS if done right.
My local "car audio" guy found a wired camera with night vision and 40' of cable leads (I believe the brand is BOYO or something like that). At the end of the 40' cable are two RCA connectors: one for video out and one for audio (this cam has a built-in mic too -- great for listening to DW's instructions), plus two 12VDC power leads. The pro installed the camera on the back of the trailer and ran the 40' cable along the frame to the battery box compartment on the front right side of the trailer. That was easy (for him).
To get the signal from the trailer to the truck I bought a pair of "watch TV in another room" audio/video repeaters. The xmtr has three RCA inputs and the rcvr has three RCA outputs. I only use two connectors: one video and one audio. I deliberately chose a system that uses 12VDC for power (guess why?) and shelved the two 120VAC transformers they came with. Some people complain these repeaters are "subject to interference" or "not great video quality" etc. At my range (6' nominal; 3'-9' when turning) there is no range problem. Video quality is not critical either since the display screen is only 7" (less than that for most people).
Anyway, the pro mounted the xmtr in the battery box compartment of the trailer. He plugged the cam's RCA plugs into the xmtr. He hand-made a couple of "bare wires-to-12VDC barrel" cables for the tx and rx boxes. The only hard part for him was finding a nearby wire for the trailer running lights (parking lights, marker lights, whatever). He wanted to tap off the coach battery and put in an on/off switch but I wanted something much easier. I always have my lights on when I'm pulling the rig so when the rig is in motion, there is power to the cam and xmtr, and when disconnected from the truck, the cam and xmtr are off. Anyway, once he found that lead he just twisted the xmtr and cam power leads into that. (Okay, *I* would have twisted and used wire nuts and black tape. Mr. Pro used installed a Y with quick disconnect connectors, inline fuses, butt connectors, heat shrink tubing, wire tags -- the whole works -- it really is much better his way and he already had all the stuff on his bench.
Inside the truck, he mounted the rx box on the bottom corner of the back window (on the same side as the battery box -- clever guy!) with double stick tape I think. He ran a three-headed RCA cable (better quality and lower cost than a two head cable) and a 12VDC cable (with connectors, inline fuses, etc.) from there up to the nav system in the dash. The 12VDC got hooked to some 12VDC output on the nav system that only goes hot if the nav system is on and hooked the video and audio feeds into the nav system's inputs.
The beauty of this is that it was actually easy for him to install (car audio installers do hidden cables like that all day long so it turned out to be a no brainer to pay him to do that). And it is easy to use. I don't have to remember or do *anything* to watch my camera (as long as the 7-pin is attached and the headlights or parking lights are on -- which I do anyway). You can use this with any display that accepts RCA inputs (most do).
If you buy an extra receiver unit, you can even watch your camera on a TV in the rig, but only if you do that "15A fuse trick" to make your trailer running lights come on when you're camped. I suppose I could put a switch or relay in the battery box that would energize from house 12VDC power if the rig was on shore power ... or maybe have a mechanical timer in the bedroom TV cubby to jumper into the coach battery. Hmmm, another project...
Anyway, the night vision cam with mic and 40' leads was less than $200. The room-to-room TV repeater was less than $50 for the pair on Amazon. I paid the car audio guy less than $100 (a good local guy ... not the monkeys you can *sometimes* get at places like ex-Circuit City -- my apologies in advance to those of you who work for a big chain but are who are also truly craftsmen of your field -- but you also know who I'm really talking about keeping out of your truck and camper
. Where you live the good guys might charge more but support them anyway and you will be glad in the end. My guy might have cut me a break because I've bought three AVIC nav systems from him, tricked out, at near retail. But he took about 90 minutes from start to finish. And it might have been faster if I hadn't "helped" ;-)
Err, umm, you mean pictures of the installed work? I never thought about it because it's so ... invisible ... to me. I'll snap some shots of the equipment tomorrow and post them here. In fact, if anyone's interested, maybe I could find the exact make & model of that camera. It's that 40' cable on it that really makes the whole thing possible.
currituck0209
Well-known member
Back up camera
I purchased a peake backup camera 7" flat screen. Wireless from sams club $79.00 at first had a lot of interference, so i called peake & they sent me a 35' ext/ wire free of charge, now the transmitter is up front close to truck & works great.
Currituck 0209
I purchased a peake backup camera 7" flat screen. Wireless from sams club $79.00 at first had a lot of interference, so i called peake & they sent me a 35' ext/ wire free of charge, now the transmitter is up front close to truck & works great.
Currituck 0209
