Sounds kinda like the Red Green Show. Those are made for home use. What monitor? How's the video quality? All the wireless ones I've seen suck.

 

I have a 7 inch widescreen LCD that I got on eBay for $50.00 shipped. The video is ok, but is adequate for my needs. I'll suffer a little in the video quality for the ability to move the camera around, and it is a whole lot cheaper than most setups. The wireless camera with receiver was $149.99, the monitor was $50.00, and I got the trailer plugs for free from a buddy. I build a small voltage regulator circuit to drop the 12 volt to 9 volt, but the parts for that circuit was under $5.00. So, I've only got about $205 plus taxes and my time.

 

I can definitely see the benefit of being able to move the camera around in multiple locations. But it sounds to me that you wired for 2 locations anyway (for 9V power); hence I am not sure if wireless is giving you any benefit over the video cable.

I re-purchased a better camera and took the view off the HU, into my 7" Mirror Monitor. Better equipment provides a much better view, especially at night.

I thought about installing another camera inside the van so I could keep on eye on my kids!!!

 

Might see more than you want to though??

A friend bought one of the wireless cams and receivers since he hauls a huge horse trailer, thought backing would be much easier. Seems the combined length of his rig was about 2' outside the max transmiter range so operation was erratic at best. Don't know the brand or model number but it was one of the earliest available.

I'm certain as the demand increases for these the technology will improve and prices fall a bit more. They make perfect sense to me especially if the driver believes them to be useful-----we can't get too many views of things near our vehicles after all!

Thanks again for sharing this install and results---it was interesting to most of us!

 

LOL. My younger one is manipulative towards her 8 year older sibling. We never know which cry is legitimate. I don't know what they do in the rear (sofa) seat, take seat-belts off, or whatever.

My vans were a rolling living room with beautiful panoramic views that change. I don't think there is a better way to travel. We just got back from a trip to Quebec and beautiful Vermont in my Volvo wagon, and boy do I miss my vans.... My kids made fun of my vans "ice-cream truck" or "ambulance" but they loved riding in them.

The point is -- can you do without these accessories? Sure, but they improve the experience tremendously, plus cameras add to safety...

 

The back of the van is wired for 12 volt power at the trailer connection, I just built a voltage regulator circuit to drop the 12 volt from the trailer connection to 9 volt for the camera. Mount the camera and plug it in. The only additional is I added a trailer connection on the back of my trailers, but it was a minimal effort and the plugs were free.

I've thought about the mirror monitors, I just haven't went there yet. I have a separate 7 inch monitor mounted on top of the dash, kinda like a GPS.

I cool thing is the receiver I have can operate up to four cameras, and you can switch between them at the touch of a button.

The camera has night vision, so it is good in low to no light (when in daylight mode it is Color, in night time mode it is Black and White). I can also run the camera on a 9 Volt battery if I want too, but it uses a lot of power so a standard alkaline 9 volt only last a few hours before dying.

Going back and looking at the first post, did you add the line-in connection or is the factory? I wired in my own line-in kinda like that I just have don't have it labeled. I also added a switch inline for the amp remote, so I can turn off the amp for the sub-woofer and keep the audio coming from the rest of the speakers going. Sometimes I like the bass, but sometimes it just needs to go away.

 

Yes, I noticed that your cameras needed 9V batteries, rated at 4-5 hours, which is useless, so providing 9V continuous is the only way to go. I did a custom power board for my Weather Center, a $ 50 thing with remote sensors, which came battery-operated from factory and no lighting. It provided outside temperature, inside temp, outside/inside humidity, forecast, etc. Since you have the 9 v power, you could add one too.

Having a 4-source hub is great. Mine had only a 2-source Mirror monitor. I used the 2nd connection for Video. I used a dedicated GPS unit on top of the cluster pad (different device). I did not like the Mirror monitor for GPS function -- it was just a little too high for comfort. GPS/monitor had capability to also play video/GPS when I used my laptop (with Wikipedia+speech recognition software) for navigation, but that's another story.

There are really two philosophies on the Head-Units and devices -- either have one HU that integrates all these functions, or go with separate devices. I tried both, and found that "separate devices" worked better for me. I settled on a Pioneer HU driving a powerful amp, with Pioneer 12 CD Changer on its tail, plus input for sound, after a 4 or 5-Source Selector (Ipod, Sat Radio, TV, Mic, etc).

Many conversion vans have 2 sound systems (front and rear). It sounded like a busy market in Thailand. I modified it to one single surround sound, by removing the 2nd Head-Unit and game consoles, and installed 2 DVD/VCR players for 2 tvs (inter-connected) with a few wireless headphones. If anyone wanted personal sound, they could just use ipods or even DVD for CD-playing.

About in-line connection -- I did not connect the camera to the Head-Unit, so I am not sure if I am following you correctly. If you mean about the switch "on-demand", yes, I had to do one, since I wanted to turn camera on even when driving or idling or engine-off, rather than only on reverse. Honestly, I don't quite remember if that capability came with the camera (wires) or I had to add it -- it was 3-4 years ago... Amongst mics, camera, audio/video, custom sound, Sirius Satellite, Ipod, 2 DVD players, GPS, laptop connections, solar power, deep-cycle, etc. etc. I had a mish-mash of wires running everywhere. Basically I had to re-do my overhead console to accommodate many switches, source-selectors etc. in addition to the conversion-company switches.

 

The line in I was talking about is the small silver circle under the vent on the extreme right of these pictures, second picture almost misses it. It might be factory or not. I added one one my van that wasn't factory.

 

That Line-In is OEM on the XLT. I don't use it anymore because this radio has an ipod cable that I have running out from under the dash. The radio takes full control of my iphone when I plug it in. All my music, videos, phone numbers, addresses, etc is accessed through the radio. I can just press a button on the radio and then audibly say a persons name in my contact list and the radio can call them through the bluetooth mic, or I can ask to show driving directions to their house.

 

That is pretty sweet. My head unit is a little more basic than that.

I have a separate bluetooth speakerphone for my BlackBerry Bold and the GPS service is included in my plan with Sprint, so I just use that GPS rather that having a separate unit.

 

hi how did you connect the camera to the unit? i mean did you connect to reverse light ? its turn on automatic when you switch gear to R ? did you still can use camera if you not on reverse? let me know i got avic-f700bt and im waiting for my ND-BC4 camera thx

 

what is the model of your camera? it look very nice

 

Sorry to bring this back from the dead but which wire did you use to catch the reverse signal? Did you go all the way to a tail light or simply tap in under the dash? I have a 2010 E250 that I'm trying to do the same thing to.

And good idea on the rear cam, I'll be sure to install mine in the same location.

 

Edit: Double post.

 

You can get the reverse signal wire in the drivers side kick panel, it's a blue and white wire in the harness towards the rear.