Uraijit

Sorry, I posted that from my PPC phone, which doesn't display externally linked photos, so I didn't realize the link was wrong. It's fixed.

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The Hoe-Puter Worklog

Progress (Phase one):

Planning:
[----------] 97.3%
Parts Aquisition:
[----------] 95%
Install:
[----------] 95%

http://www.speedtest.net/result/187304447.png

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sonvan

is it possible fi you can post pictures of your setup ?

[H]Bugster

this is very cool, thanks for all the info on it. How are you powering this btw? If anyone can shine some light on it, that would be great.

erkme73

For the 5V items (DVR and my separate Garmin GPS) I'm using an old cell phone charger (12 in 5 out) hidden beneath the dash). Everything else comes off 12V

[H]Bugster

Thanks! The 12V, from the battery? Are you running it through some kind of regulator? Perhaps...through your PC if you have one?

Im looking to put this in without the overlay stuff for now ($$$$!!!), someone keeps messing with my truck antenna and i want to catch them and turn them in. The bastards!

wi77iam

Here's another video overlay card that can add any RS-232 text to the video. With a little programming, you could have ECU parameters along with GPS. More flexible than the previously mentioned overlay device, which does GPS data only.

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[H]Bugster

That looks very interesting. I havent looked into it very much, so i dont know how much more work it would involve integrating it AND writing the program to display what i need. But the good part is, its a very small package.

Scruit

I have a custom dashcam in my car also.

Components:

DVR: AverDigi EB134MOB ~$400 4ch. Records 15fps on all channels at full resolution, or realtime at half resolution. Records to hard drive (250GB) and stores weeks and weeks of video. You can batch-backup many individual driving journeys to you laptop using USB and play/rew/ff/review them in the comfort of your house.

Camera 1: Toshiba IK6410 with auto-iris lens, forward facing. $200. This is where the action is, can't cheap out here. The auto-iris and brand-name camera provides a usable picture even when staring at the sun. Cheaper cameras will streak/smear or simply corrupt the entire image when the sun is in shot.



Camera 2: Driver-facing no-name ebay small box camera $65
Camera 3: Rear-facing no-name ebay small box camera $65
Also has a small project box with LEDs displaying the turn/brake/tail lights status in shot.


Camera 4: GPS overlay on blank background. (If the overlay requires an input video signal then I'll just loop a copy of the front camera, or install a 4th camera with a wider front view) This is going in next weekend when the parts arrive.

The GPS data comes via a Garmin GPS 18 PC antenna that transmits GPS data in NMEA format through a DB9 serial port. $80
http://www.nextwarehouse.com/item/?88069

The text overlay comes from a clever little product that takes NMEA GPS data from a DB9 and overlays Lat/Lon/heading/speed onto a video signal. Perfect! $120
http://www.icircuits.com/store/prod_osdgpsid.html


The DVR is mounted in the trunk using wingnuts to attach it to a custom metal frame a welded up against the back of the rear seats. The frame is hidded byt he trunk trim and only the bolts show through. The thumbscrews allow for easy removal of the DVR in the even of a major accident where the car must be towed from the scene. All connections are BNC and all video images are transferred via RG59 cable. Power is unfiltered 12v into the DVR, and the DVR has a filtered 12v output for the cameras. All wiring is hidden and runs through factory conduits. The cameras are attached to the glass using custom suction cup mounts. They haven't failed yet.

Test fitting using a no-name camera


External view of the final mount with correct camera



I have a small 7" LCD screen I carry with me in case I need to view video immediately, but the USB backup of the DVR's HD is so simple and convenient that I never use it.



There's plenty of light at the front for the camera to see under all conditions so I don't have any IR emitters.


Here's an example video without the rear camera or GPS. The PIP was done after-the-fact using my video editor - the DVR actually output two fullscreen video streams.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Hl7G8enhQ8


Any questions?

[H]Bugster

Wow scruit, that is very cool. Tell us more about the overlay unit you are using. How does it interface with the gps, and incoming video stream? Did you have to do some soldering to wire three independant devices together? Programming involved?

Scruit

No programming involved. The board has input video, output video and input serial. The GPS device connects to the serial port to provide the GPS data and the circuit overlays it on to the video in a standard layout. No muss, no fuss. The camera connects the the overlay circuit's input, and the overlay circuit's output conencts to the DVR input for channel 4.

[H]Bugster

thanks, that is really slick.

tj!2k4

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/clas...uy-policy.html


This is too good of a thread to see locked or deleted.

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Scruit

Got GPS overley device today. It's just a board with the components on it - you have to mount it and solder your own wires etc on it.

The connections are:

1) Rx and Gnd from the DE9 serial port that connects to the serial device. Must be NMEA coming in at 4800 8-N-1

2) Power 12v

3) Video in and video out


The GPS overlay board cost ~$130 after shipping and the Garmin GPS18PC adds another ~$70. The project box and other mounting stuff came to ~$20. Overall about $220 and maybe 3 hours of total work to find, order, build install and test the finished GPS overlay box.

The intructions for soldering are very simple and the PCB is well marked and professionally made. Took about 5 mins to solder it all together - another 30 mins to mount connections in the project box that would allow the unit to be removed easily form the car - nothing hardwired. Plus add 15 minutes to quadruple-check polarities and ensure the video signals were's shorted. (Letting the smoke out of a DVR is a mistake you only make once.)

I hooked it up to my ancient handheld Garmin eMap GPS device and it worked like a charm - Location, Heading, Speed and time (UTC/GMT/ZULU). I didn't see where I could change the timezome, but that's not a problem because the DVR already has a timestamp, the 4 or 5 hour offset is easy to explain and I'd probably wind up having the switch the time with daylight savings anyway.

The DVR setup is becoming more complex now with a few external project enclosures that I didn't have initially. GPS overlay, Dual 5a 12V power regulator to provide clean power, a multiple isolated trigger module (so the DVR can be triggered by opening the door or via a vibration sensor), power on-off timer (keeps the DVR on for at least 30 seconds per run so that there's no suddent dropout during start etc.) and the tank battery (to survive the crank). I'm going to have to change the DVR mount to allow space to arrange all these extra boxes. :-/









I'll post a picture of the gps data overlaid when I can get a change to get out a drive the car and get some real numbers on the screen.

One problem: If the GPS overlay board loses power or has some problem then the video signal it is passing through is cut off. Because of this I'm going to loop a copy of the front camera from ch1 back into ch4 and add the overlay to ch4. In the event of a loss of video due to the GPS board I want to make sure the dashboard-mounted front camera is preserved. It also allows me the option of exporting the front camera in fullscreen with or without the speed reading depending on if I want people to know how fast I was going. ;-) ch will have the front camera, and ch4 will have the front camera with the GPS data burned into the recording, so the evidence is going to be admissable.

Scruit

GPS Overlay demo:

Scruit

Followup: The speed displayed by the GPS overlay device is whatever the GPS antenna sends it in the $GPRMC sentence - which is KNOTS not MPH. The conversion is easy enough though when you're playing the video back. I'm going to look at building a converter daughterboard based on a Zilog Z8 processor that will take and parse the GPRMC sentence and replace the speed with MPH.

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