7.3 Установка камеры переднего обзора (in English)

Front view camera in a right-hand drive car

Preface

So. We've got "the right"-hand drive car. What's missing? Right, it's a Subaru, so it motivates to overtake others, which we do a lot... Some people say, that it's not really handy to overtake in the right-hand traffic while sitting on the right.. and some of them are right! We need to see what's on the left, right? Right, then let's do something on the left, before we're left behind :)

Technically, the above paragraph leads us to.. the front-view/overtaking camera! This "bicycle" was invented before me, but this doesn't make me feel sad, what I'm describing here is my way to make another "instance" of it.

Note: This same camera can also be used for registering the road situation, which is beyond the scope of this article though.

The goal:

• Something sitting on the left of the car and showing what's there - camera is our case.
• Something being quite close to the driver and able to display - video receiver, AV center having a Video-IN jack in our case.

Requirements:

1. Image capture quality. We don't want to see the opposite car as dots while being quite close, so the camera should have narrow (13-17 degrees) angle showing the opposite car in 300-500 meters distance
2. Look & feel. We don't want to have hi-tech monsters scaring the front passenger, neither we want any screws/wires showed up being obstacles to a simple panel wipe.
3. Dirt-resistance. Going for a long trip in a bad weather we don't really want to stop every 5 kms just to wipe the lens. So curtains for outside cameras or inside installation should be considered.
4. Proper display. Ideally, it should show what camera gives to it and should not cover (much of) the front screen.
5. Power. The camera is an active device so it should be powered. Once we are in a car, we can have the start-stop power spikes from the generator, so the camera device should not be affected.
6. Clutter-resistance. The video signal may/should be shielded, depending on the circuit surroundings.

Equipment:

Camera: Initially I made a wrong choice - I was advised to get a "narrow-angle" (120 degrees opposed to 160 degrees as most of them have) rear view camera. Honestly, I was disappointed with it - I couldn't see anything in 20-30 meters, the picture quality could only be used for rear views!

Moreover, this one has 10 IR diodes for night view, switching on automatically when it's dark, which produced a white "reflection" of my front screen, even more spoiling the picture. Additionally, the diodes warmed the camera up, it was becoming extremely hot when it was dark!

Finally, having some more reading, I took:

Vision Hi-Tech VB19C-B12 cylindric camera with replaceable 12mm (17 degrees) lens, additional 16mm (13 degrees) lens to replace the original 12mm lense, having standard Video (PAL) output and 12V power input:

This camera vendors advised to power this device through a stabilizer, smoothing the start-stop voltage spikes, so the stabilizer was put between the car 12V+ (taken from the cigarette lighter) and the camera inbound power 12V+.

Display: Sony XAV-W1, having a "Navigation/Back Camera" AUX video input, in "Navigation" mode ( This mode allows audio content (tuner/cd/mp3) played while having the picture in a background). Any other device like a car TV can be used.

Wires. We need to power-up the camera and feed the video-receiver in with the camera output.

Mount

Measure/fit & mark

Bottom-left side was chosen for the placement: the spot that the camera "looks" through is covered by the screen wiper. Fit/measure and mark the camera stand:

Drill

Measure the stand diameter, provide a smaller hole for the wire. Do a couple of holes and then merge them with a knife:

Glue from behind

Here I used some tricks:

- double screw nuts: I put one nut on top of another to make it deeper;

- two-component glue becoming a solid plastic within 30 seconds

- nut "bowls" made of a pen cup - 3 rings around each double nut

Screw

As we left only a small hole for the camera wire, the wire is put together with the stand when screwing (not on the picture):

Install

The small wire hole is on the bottom of the stand:

Finally

Check-out:

• The scale is ~ 1:1 looking at the backlights of the front car - they are the same in reality and on the display;
• The car in the opposite lane can be seen only through the camera
• The matrix is very light-sensitive, so you can see even more in twilights, but the opposite cars' lights which produce big spots of lights can be annoying though