Backup Camera Install - Interested?

[Keith]

Greetings from Texas Y'all

I am a Junior Guy here with a bone stock '04 DTR.

I am upgrading some comfort and function stuff with the car and wanted to see if there is interest in a project thread. (Knowing the depth of expertise on this site, this could have been done a million times already.)

I'll be putting in a backup camera system with the video readout in a replacement rear view mirror. Taking pictures as I go and will be glad to post the progress to this Forum if there is interest. If there is interest, it will be a challenge in other ways as I have no idea how to attach pics etc. But what the heck, we'll figure it out.

I'm going camera as opposed to the round sonar bumper sensors for now. This could be a mistake, as I like the sensors and have experience with them in a different car. The reason is, I really don't want to change the stock look when I do any of my mods, and drilling holes in that rear cap seems sacreligious.

I'll feel like an idiot if the rear cap gets crunched because of no sensors, but we'll see what happens.

I'll be doing the work whenever a nice warm weekend presents itself. The work will be done in parallel with an Escape Head Unit upgrade and a Sat Unit install with the Sat gear having been provided by a new friend of mine, Mr. roylpita. Here's a plug for that guy, he has been great to do business with. Thanks, Mr. "Roy!"

The camera itself has already been installed and pics are available. Next, gotta take the interior apart and run a bunch of wires.

Let me know, if there is interest I'll get started posting.

Keith in Houston
'04 DTR

Here is the starting point

[ChiTownMaraud3r]

Added a camera in mine, definitely worth installing. I went with a Pioneer NEX head unit though instead of any mirrors with screens.

[Gryphonzus]

I also have a pioneer NEX unit with the back up camera in the license plate holder. I really like it.

[fastblackmerc]

License plate camera here. Feeding video to a Pioneer AVIC X940BT head unit.

I also have a "ultrasonic' rear parking sensor system. No holes needed to drill in the bumper.

[ChiTownMaraud3r]

The cool thing about the new NEX receivers, they allow multiple camera inputs, I think I might put one on the front bumper just for kicks when parking close to stuffs.. I thought about adding one to under the side view mirror for curb parking (hondas have this and come on when putting the car in reverse.)

[Keith]

Great feedback folks. Of course all of you guys don't need a thread, you've done it.

Fastblackmerc, interesting. Ultrasonic? I'll have to look that up. Where do you mount one of those? Plate frame or somewhere stealthy?

The reason I'm going mirror instead of head unit is that I'm trying to keep mine looking period-stock. So, that's why I'm doing the Escape head unit instead of an aftermarket version. That may be dumb in the long run because with the Escape I'm only moving forward to about 2007.

I'm an old guy so that's all I think I'll need.

Regarding mirrors, you can get them with a built-in dash cam these days and a port for a memory SSD card which can loop-record as much time as the card holds. Great for insurance or possibly theft / cops.

In Texas they have outlawed license plate frames. You must be able to see everything, even the state of TEXAS on the plates. They don't enforce it very often, but if you get crossways with them they can add it on for being pissed off to the tune of $180.

So I went with a behind-the-plate mount with the camera peeking out over the top of the plate.

There is no real call for this to be published yet, so I'll probably leave it be. I'll monitor for a day or so and see if anything changes.


Keith in Houston

[BAD MERC]

Rearview camera in my trunk keyhole location.

[jaywish]

btw not all bumper sensors drill through the bumper. For example my 08 Town Car has them mounted behind the bumper skin. No exterior way to tell they are there.
Cameras are nice.

[1stMerc]

I have this system.

http://www.nvisionsafety.com/driver_awareness/rearview_camera_system.html

[CrownVictorious]

Hey Keith, i’m interested in the writeup if you’ll still do it

[Keith]

Crown Victorious, no problem. Let's get started!

I have the pics from the camera portion of the install and will post a few later on today. The mirror will wait until I get a couple days of trustworthy weather.

Here is some background info:

The license plate area of the MM is pretty tight. Also, as I said, Texas is one of those states that has a ban on license plate frames. So, I looked at other ways of mounting the camera. I ended up looking at cameras that peek out from over the top of the license plate.

After seeing that GREAT idea of the camera looking out from the trunk keyhole, I realize that there some wizards on this site. Love that idea, but it is too late for me on this go-around.

Manufacturers that make good quality cams like this are:

Rydeen
Rear View Safety
Crutchfield
Tadi Brothers
Master Tailgaters
Auto Vox
Rosco Vision
Garmin

There are many more, this is a very mature product.

My goals are to not alter any sheet metal by drilling or cutting. I also will run to a mirror because of the decision to keep a stock-looking head unit. It would have been much easier to simply replace the head unit, because I could have killed several birds with one stone by doing that. Oh well, call me old school.

The easy way to go, but one of the most expensive, is a system from Rear View Safety. They sell parts and systems and appear to have a high quality product with good reviews. They also sell for full retail and I was not able to find any discount even from Amazon. However, you get a full system, and you can make sure that its length is good - you can specify longer cables for zero extra - and it comes with all the gingerbread that keeps you from having to go to Big Box for little accessories like zip ties, etc. You know it will fit together, communicate together, and that it was engineered as one system.

Here are my ROUGH measurements for wiring length to go from Rear License Plate to Rear View Mirror:

plate to mirror, "overhead route" - 16 feet
plate to mirror, "floor route" - 24 feet
These are very rough estimates!
"overhead route" = routing along tops of pass side doors
"floor route" - routing under the sill plates on pass side
The main wiring for the car passes along the trunk lid toward the Drivers Side. I may encounter problems trying to go Pass Side and will certainly let folks know what I find. I also may encounter problems trying to go above the doors. That is what I'll try first.

Being an engineer - "Engineer" comes from the Latin word meaning "Tightwad" - I found a way to save money. This may cause me grief, because I ended up mixing manufacturers.

I ended up with a camera from Rydeen, their MINy IR (Infra-Red) version. I also bought their BL-01 license plate bracket. Amazon discount price about
$63 for both. The Infra-Red LEDs supposedly let you "see" things behind you in Zero Vision out in BFE in the dark of night. We will see about that. (Get it? "See?" sorry -)

I took a hard look at a Brandmotion 9002-7601 from Crutchfield, it looked to have the right configuration for my needs as well.

The biggest thing I can recommend about a rear view camera is spend a lot of time figuring how you want to run your wiring and how it will exit the camera and route into the car. That, along with the perception of quality, is why I bought the Rydeen. You'll see later that the wiring works out really well.

There are a hundred ways to "Skin This Cat" as my pappy used to say, here is but one of them.

Here is what I bought (pic).

[TAKEDOWN]

Rearview camera in my trunk keyhole location.

Yup.... That's where mine is, the only thing I don't like it doesn't have a visual of the end of my bumper to gauge where im truly at ex. Bumper v. Wall, another car, etc.

[WPG_Merc]

The rear camera I use is part of the licence frame hooked up to an older app radio, works great on the freeways for the blind spots.:2thumbs:

[Keith]

OK, here is how one guy did it.

With my rules of no sheet metal mods, how to get the wiring inside?

(Why a wired system at all? I am simply old school. I hear wireless systems can take a couple of seconds to 'light up' on the little screen. But really, total honesty here, I'm tearing my baby apart for the Escape Head Unit and Sat upgrade anyway, so why worry about a couple of extra wires?)

One reason I bought the Rydeen camera is the exit of the wiring. It heads in the direction I need it to go. It also has a very valuable "small plug" in its harness that lets you drill a much smaller hole than otherwise.

I ended up choosing to go through the license plate light lamp fixture. A plastic piece easy to drill and it has access holes just behind. I drilled to suit the "small plug" diameter.

The pics ought to show how easy it is to get the Rydeen cam in place.

Hope this helps somebody. If there is interest I'll document the routing of the wiring and the rear view install. I am happy with how the camera and bracket fits. But remember, as of right now I have no idea how well this will work!

Keith in Houston

[WildCobra]

Yup.... That's where mine is, the only thing I don't like it doesn't have a visual of the end of my bumper to gauge where im truly at ex. Bumper v. Wall, another car, etc.

That sounds like a problem you should sell me the Marauder and get that Mini Van you want :2thumbs:

[TAKEDOWN]

^^^ Ahhhh... yeah.... NO!

[fastblackmerc]

The rear camera I use is part of the licence frame hooked up to an older app radio, works great on the freeways for the blind spots.:2thumbs:

Same here except I used a chrome frame.