So I've been reading these forums on and off for over a year now, and finally at the beginning of this year, it bit me. I finally went hardcore to research and fund my project, studying setups & components, as well as staring at the inside of my car...
old cardomain site here
I finally had the confidence to build my carputer, and while it's mostly finished, I still have many things I need, and want to do, so this will be my "blog" of things I've done, and things to come, so that hopefully I can contribute and help others along the way.
As this is an introductary post, I'll start short. One of the things I knew I'd want was a reverse camera. I realized 5 things necessary for this to work well in my system:
1. 12v powered - didn't want to plug in an inverter and have it on 24/7.
2. weatherproof - it's mounted outside, as I plan to tint the windows darker.
3. reverse image - must be able to look like I'm staring in my rear-view mirror.
4. wide-angle view - 120 degrees + viewing angle, otherwise it's useless.
5. low-light visibility - need to be able to see things at night.
After seeing other people setups, googling, and ebaying, I cam across a suitable, camera to fit the above criteria. It was a keyhole camera, designed it fit in (duh) the keyhole. I did some measurements and it came out close enough, so I ordered it off ebay (50 bucks + shipping). When it came, I found out it was a bit too large in diameter. Very, VERY carefully, I dremeled the inside of my keyhole to compensate - one slip and there goes the paint on the outside! (yes, I had to do it from the outside, as the inside was covered). Here is the result:
It's powered by the reverse lights. With a Xenarc 7TSV, you can set it to auto-sense input av2, and it will change the screen to the camera view when I shift into R. As soon as I shift to anything else, the xenarc returns to the last input.
Although the image-quality is a tad sub-par, it still came out well...and now I don't run over the newspaper in the driveway anymore!
Linear Mode
