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Showing content with the highest reputation on 01/25/2015 in Posts
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20/40 Hindsight
operating engineer O/O reacted to madlock for a topic
I've made pretty considerable progress toward providing my TC with some rearward visibility. I've been wanting two types of rearward view, one that effectively provides the visibility to overcome the Cargo Van's horrendous blind spots and a second that functions as a conventional backup camera. They're two different views from two different perspectives that serve two different purposes. For example the "rearview mirror" camera should be able to operate all the time while the backup camera would activate when the vehicle is shifted into reverse and provide a conventional "bumper view" with superimposed distance markers. TC poses some challenges for both of these. First, there's no way to mount a camera on the centerline without drilling into the bumper. However, it does feature a plastic blanking panel in place of the European supplemental brake light which also makes a convenient place to mount a camera from a higher perspective that more closely mimics a rear view mirror, and the part can be bought for a mere $30, meaning it can be drilled, mutilated, and indulge any manner of "do overs" and the original can always be reinstalled to leave "no harm no foul". The backup camera is another matter. The two obvious solutions are to drill the bumper or mount a license plate bracket camera. I'm no fan of the license plate camera because it's so far off-center; but others have tried it and seem to be relatively satisfied. There's no "great" solution as far as I'm concerned, but I figure I can buy myself some time using the rear view mirror camera until I can come up with something more elegant, both inside the vehicle and out, as so much of the overall challenge could have been resolved by Ford offering any sort of decent and reasonably-functional integrated touch screen to display all this wonderful content. So, I went after the lowest hanging fruit first. I found the Audiovox CMOS2 camera, a very wide angle (170 degree diagonal field of view) that I would mount in the blanking panel. What makes the CMOS2 so good for this application is that it also comes with a series of flexible mounting hardware to accommodate just about any implementation ranging from suspending it below the bumper to drilling and mounting it inside the bumper or even angling the camera from an embedded mount (the option I chose). I ordered the camera and a spare blanking panel; and with a 15/16" bit and my Dremel, I went to work mounting it in the blanking panel, using the included angled collars to overcome the fact that the blanking panel isn't exactly vertical or perpendicular to the vehicle centerline. (Please bear in-mind that I've yet to apply clear coat to the painted parts) Because my Frozen White aerosol paint has yet to arrive from the UK, I used the closest Duplicolor match I could find. Frozen White is a very blue shade of white, and while Duplicolor's "Super White" is about as close as I could come. The finish will be much closer once a clear coat is applied; but for a first attempt, I was pretty pleased with the overall fit and finish. It's important to note that the angled mounting collar doesn't entirely overcome the pitch of the blanking panel and the camera points somewhat "up". Fortunately, the camera is of such a wide angle that it's not nearly as prominent on the display as it would seem at first. Even so, I'm wrestling with the notion of sculpting the hole I drilled in the blanking panel to allow the camera to tilt down just a bit more, making the bottom edge of the lens collar flush touch the blanking panel surface. We'll see. For viewing the image, I could have gone several routes. The first would have been to route it to an in-dash LCD as part of a "Carputer" set-up or aftermarket navigation head unit, but I'm not yet settled on the head unit I want an I'd prefer to have the display appear where the rear-view mirror would otherwise be in a van with rear windows. I purchased an OEM Ford Mirror that's used in Mustang, Fusion, and other vehicles that features a small integrated LCD monitor. While this would have been ideal if there was any useful purpose for an actual mirror, it's otherwise a very expensive way to display a very small image. Instead, I settled on the Magellan 1700T GPS unit which I mounted to the windshield where the rear view mirror would otherwise normally be. It's a whopper of a unit with a 7" display that's perfect for use in van. It's display and touch screen controls are relatively huge and as easy to use as anyone could imagine. Best of all, it includes a n 1/8" video input that automatically switches to display a video signal when it detects one. The result is about as close to a digital rear view mirror as I could imagine. Keep in mind that the cables are only temporary. The left cable will be replaced with a right angle plug an the wires will be run straight up to the headliner by the dome/map light. Even so, it's possible to see just how wide a field becomes visible. One drawback of the Audiovox CMOS2 is that it's low light (nighttime) visibility is marginal. It's certainly usable, but it's hardly as ideal as a fully infrared capable camera. The challenge is to find a camera that's wide angle, infrared, and mountable in a fashion that allows it to be installed so it looks OEM. Even if I choose to upgrade the camera in the future, I'm very happy with the improvement it provides over no rear view at all. To give an idea of the kind of wide angle perspective it actually provides, here's a photograph of the vehicle relative to the buildings. The distance is actually less than 3 feet, yet it's easy to see how wide the field of view happens to be. The only issue I continue to wrestle with is whether it's worth the time and trouble to lower the angle of view a bit by remounting the camera and all of the Dremeling, puttying, sanding, and repainting it would require. I'll have to think about it over time. When driving, I was taken aback by how "ordinary" it felt. It was just like a rear view mirror, and I immediately enjoyed a degree of driving confidence I'd not experienced since buying my Cargo Van. One of the biggest differences from a conventional rear camera, even one capable of displaying such a wide angle, is that the perspective point is at the rear of the vehicle rather than the center of the windshield. The result is that every reasonably close item looks a bit like Jimmy Durante; and any vehicle that appears reasonably close is actually dramatically closer than it appears. Nevertheless, it's the kind of thing to which I'll quickly become accustomed and it's already a quantum improvement of what existed (or didn't exist) before. Because I want this to be "always on", or at least have the option of it being "always on", I've finally found a useful implementation of the reverse fog lamp switch. Rather than wiring the camera into the reverse light, I wired it to the supplementary tail lights that are activated when the rearward fog lamp knob is pulled-out. I can now power the camera whenever I choose. All-in-all, for a 2/3 complete home brew solution, I'm very happy with how it both works and looks. The reverse camera remains an open issue, but it's something I'll continue to work on as I ultimately decide on a touch screen head unit. At least I can now cast a wider net and perhaps use a system that doesn't require an integrated navigation unit since I already have navigation on the rear view mirror GPS. Of course, all of this would be solved for by Ford offering even the most basic of SYNC compatible navigation solutions. With two other vehicles that are SYNC/navigation equipped, it's a void I feel particularly keenly when driving the TC. I'll continue to update the thread as I continue to complete the project after wiring items permanently and adding a proper reverse-only backup camera.1 point