ok, i wheel all the time without any spotters and usually without a passenger to use as an extra set of eyes and in some of the more technical areas it sure would be nice to see if my rear tires are going to miss that big rock or just when they are about to drop off the ledge so that i can go slowly to protect my not so hot departure angle. Anyways, i plan to mount a camera underneath the drivers seat, most likely to the bottom of the body or the top of the brace that goes under the tranney so it will be better protected, and i plan to mount it inside a waterproof box for stream crossings. My problem, is that for this to work i need the video stream to be real time. At the time that I install this, I will also be installing an integrated computer system and screens for the top of the dash and full passenger controlls. Because This will be run by standard computer equipment I am planning on using the usb interface to make this work. My first though was to use a web cam but they are too slow. I have thought about industrial usb cameras but they are very expensive. Does anyone have any other ideas or have any knowledge about attaching a camera to a computer? I appreciate any info

 

Go to the Wal-Marts and buy a rearview camera kit and mount it to the undercarriage. I like duct tape for mounting.

 

hmm thats interesting, do the monitors that those come with have the ability to also be used as comp monitors?

 

thats a big no on the USB compatibility.. the cameras that are sold with the little 4 inch monitors usually are only meant for the monitor provided. the cameras that are sold without a monitor are intended to be hooked up to an existing screen or dvd player and have one yellow RCA type cable.

 

I think you'd need at least a couple cams to make it worthwhile.

 

i've seen it done before... they mounted a wide angle at the tcse... he could see from wheel to wheel with a 7" indash dvd/nav set up.. it was SICK.. when i win the lotto and have more money than i need, i'll have the same setup

 

tofer, would you possible have any more info on what camera they used, how they mounted it, what screen they used...etc? I'd rly appreciate it
on the other hand, im thinking ill try to find a screen that both has an rca input and a standard monitor input that way i can get the camera/cameras feed and/or operate my in dash computer system

 

The backup cameras are all very wide angle for obvious reasons, so you can use those no problem. You might as well buy an in dash A/V receiver like alpine or something. They have the backup camera option. If you want more than one camera, maybe one pointing back too? Then you can put them on a switch before they go into the head unit so that you can flip it to toggle between the two cameras.

You could wire the cameras to the backup-camera-in on the A/V receiver. Then, the receiver probably has a wire to sense the trans going into reverse by getting 12v (or something similar). So if you wire that to the battery through another toggle switch then you could just flip the switch and the receiver would automatically change to backup camera mode. And you have the other switch to toggle between cameras.

Hope that made sense.

 

for the dvd players that wont let you watch movies while driving (same applies for the reverse mode) all you do is take whatever wire they tell you to use and ground it out and youll be able to select reverse mode while driving.


sorry for the block typing.. i broke both of my wrists on monday

 

Here you go:
http://www.bajataco.com/totalvision/totalvision01.html

 

WOW.......that's nice.

 

wow that total vision kit is awesome...don't think id need 5 cameras but i plan on getting in touch with them and seeing what all it entails, as its lookin like the way to go although in the meantime i may hook up a simple backup cam to test the theory before investing that much. Thanks guys for the great info, n id be happy if anyone had anything else to add.