Another backup camera options.

[SheepShagger]

After a lot of searching, I decided what I wanted was a camera mounted up high (so I can see what I'm towing / bikes on a rack etc ), also had a wide enough field of view that once mounted up high, can still be used as a backup camera. Wireless was not an option for me, for the usual reasons, and I'm lucky that I have a head unit to support a camera. So a wired unit plugged into the head unit was my choice.

So after searching all the options, I went with the one below.
http://home.comcast.net/~yanlab/usa/pro ... a_086.html
I've seen the same one re-branded for more, and this guy has an eBay shop, so it was $110 delivered.
Have to admit, I was very impressed with the quality. It's all metal casing, stainless hardware and a ton of IR LED's to help at night. Pic quality is also very good for this price camera. It's up with the quality I have seen from $500 RV cameras.

[bitburger]

Nice. That does look like a beefy unit!

Where and how do you route the cabling back inside the van?

[SheepShagger]

Originally Posted by bitburger

Nice. That does look like a beefy unit!

Where and how do you route the cabling back inside the van?

It's a very sturdy unit. I was going to come in through the light, like the recommendations on the vancamera website. http://www.vancamera.com/installation.html
But, after pulling it all apart and studying it. I don't think it's a good idea, I think you'll be asking for water issues.
Next idea was to come in at the top of the door jam, kind-a how ford run the door speaker / central locking wires, but at the top. This would be the best method, but decided against it, since it would look messy and you would see a wire hanging over the gutter and into the top of the door jam.
So, I did the last resort. Drilled a hole in the roof, used a good quality gromit (nice one came with the camera), and a lot of silicone. Eventually I will be running some lighting wires to the roof, so I figured this way I can us the same hole.

Running the wire this way, was a last resort for me, but it was the cleanest solution without asking for problems. If I had a dark color van and wasn't going to add roof lights in the future, then running the wire along the rack to one corner, then over the gutter and down into the door jam would have been the better option.

Below is a better pic.

[rogers112869]

How does that interface with the Alpine?

[SheepShagger]

Originally Posted by rogers112869

How does that interface with the Alpine?

Standard RCA jack. I did need a 28ft cable run to connect the headunit to the camera, but the longest I could find was 20ft. So I got a 15ft stereo RCA cable, split it down the middle to make two 15ft lengths, and use a RCA barrel connector to join the 2 lengths together.

Only thing you need to watch out for when using different manufactures for viewing the video and the camera is the reverse image. Some camera's reverse the image, and some do not. Some head units reverse the image and some do not. So if you are in the situation where both camera and head unit reverse the video, or both do not, You are in a situation where the video is opposite to what you would normally see in the rear view mirror.
This camera has a little switch, so you can reverse the image, or not reverse the image. That way it's compatible with just about anything.
What's also nice with most headunits, is if you hook up the reverse switch, every time you put the van in reverse, the head unit will switch to the camera feed without having to go through the menu's.