02 Nissan Sentra (Black Dragon) Journal.

gizak · 04-20-2005, 04:09 PM

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!

theheel · 04-20-2005, 04:24 PM

id like to see how the image shows up on the xenarc screen. can you take a picutre of that please.

antimatter · 04-21-2005, 12:46 AM

me too

gizak · 04-21-2005, 09:13 AM

I'll try and snap some when I get a chance today.

pplante · 04-21-2005, 09:22 AM

the camera does look nice. i wish i had the time to finish my carputer

gizak · 04-25-2005, 10:40 AM

here's 2 shots I took on Saturday, was hard to get the exposure right on my cam, but after about 10 shots, this is the best I could do hehe.

gizak · 04-25-2005, 10:53 AM

Here are some shots of the case I manufactured out of some plexi I had sitting around.

It's slanted and fits under the driver's seat just atop the air conditioning ducts. (that's what I'm pointing to)

I dremeled out vents on the bottom of the case so that the air can blow into the case and cool it down.

Shelbrain · 04-25-2005, 11:13 AM

Looking good...I wish I had that kind of room under my seat to make everything clear...

alti · 04-27-2005, 01:03 AM

Coming along nice, how is the clearence under the seat? I thought about doing that but my alti has heating ducts down there for the people in the rear did you have thoose as well? are they under the computer? love the plexi case and nice job with the camera install.

gizak · 04-27-2005, 10:00 AM

Thanks alti!

Clearance is BARELY. I don't think I could fit a standard PCI card in there. My CPU's heatsink/fan are huge! I originally wanted to place the opening of the plexi glass in front of the vents, but the case stuck back a bit too far and I feared rear seated passengers might kick it, so I propped it up on top of the vents and cut venting holes underneath. I figured, if it was too big, I could always grab a washer or two and put 'em on the bolts to get that extra cm of clearance, but it wasn't necessary.

The ducts are just like the air/heat vents in the front, but for rear passengers. I "usually" don't have to worry about turning ON the heat, living in Arizona, but if/when I do get around to it, I will probably force all the air out the top vents only (or if air still comes out the bottom, I'll fabricate or tape some sort of cap on it).

lagunatl2k · 05-03-2005, 02:06 PM

Can you send the link to who you bought that camera off of ebay thanks ? Nice install

Cris · 05-03-2005, 02:25 PM

Looking really promising Gizak> If possible I'd like to see a pic from the cam with an obstacle behind, so I could see if it's worth the trouble dremeling the keyhole.

PatrickB · 05-03-2005, 02:57 PM

looks great minus the tails and exhuast.

Fraychild · 05-03-2005, 04:12 PM

Nice job man!!... I wish I could fit my Biostar under my seat too... But clearance is a real pain in the arse...

gizak · 05-03-2005, 04:36 PM

Thanks guys,

lagunatl2k - Here's a link to the ebay store of the person I bought the camera off of on ebay: http://stores.ebay.com/dvoneb-Powerseller-Team

cris - I'll see if I can snap one sometime this week. It's a bit hard to change the habit of looking over your shoulder though! I'm sure it will be much more useful if I ever get around to putting some dark tint in the rear hehe. My keyhole didn't require too much dremeling, and I'm pretty sure I could still put the keyhole back in later if I want...just be careful not to nick the paint!

patrickB - thanks for the honosty =) The original exhaust was pretty puny and ugly, so I bought this one cheap off ebay, it's not great, but it's better then factory. As for my taillights, I like 'em! Some people say it's faded out, but I like the black and chrome look.

fraychild - if you arn't too tall, wedge some nuts and washers under your chair! haha, j/k. There's a small dip in the floor under the chair so I'm lucky. I really didn't want to run more cables all over the place, although I do have to remove the chair to do any hardware work on it.