| Author |
Message |
Tube_rat (66.169.172.144)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, September 17, 2002 - 3:03 pm: | |
I don't even own a bus yet but have been looking at equipment and accessories. From the choices of backup cameras I find them very expensive and pretty limited. I have added a link here that may help others if they are looking. Cameras start at $75 and up depending on what you are looking for. Monitors are fairly resonable also.
{http://www.spycameras4less.com/MONITOR.htm Most cameras come with a 60' cable or purchased separately. Cameras are 12 volt systems. |
Gary Stadler (Boogiethecat) (68.7.217.217)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, September 17, 2002 - 5:50 pm: | |
These little cameras work really well. They're also usually availiable on ebay for about 1/3 the price. Like Scott, I'll be using the little black and white infrared version for my backup camera.
I'm doing something different for my monitor though... I've found the the little 4-7" LCD versions seem to cost a lot of $, usually in the multi hundreds. CRT monitors are black and white and too big physically for what they do. Turns out that if you watch ebay you can fetch a nice 15-19" LCD VGA monitor for around $200 or even less (I got my 17" for $150) and then I'm using a cheap little box called a "Video to VGA converter" (found all the time on ebay for $55) to translate the analog video to VGA for the monitor. Mine is simply named VGA BOX ...search that name and you'll find tons of them almost daily. It has four analog video inputs and one VGA input, as well as the VGA output, and buttons to select the source. It's super simple and works really well, good image quality.
SO I'll be mounting the monitor overhead above my dash, running my computer, my DVD/VCR, and my backup camera thru the little VGA box and into the monitor; I'll have a nice big "backing-up" image for cheap, and it'll double for both my computer and as my color TV entertainment center as well! To reverse the camera I'll just do it optically by sticking it thru a mirror back in it's housing. Simple, one doodah does many jobs- perfect!!
Cheers
Gary |
Jayjay (65.134.221.51)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, September 17, 2002 - 8:10 pm: | |
Try Lowe's Lumber for a B&W infrared (no wires) camera and 5" monitor . I've been using mine for about two years with no problems, and at $99.50 I thought it a bargain! Cheers...JJ |
Jason (24.207.157.60)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, September 18, 2002 - 5:30 pm: | |
Sam's club sells the Remington security monitor which comes with multiple cameras and a black and white monitor. It even has sound cababilities. The camerea is small and the whole unit sells for $100. This is what I did and it has worked great! Good luck |
doug tuttle (24.164.37.155)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, September 18, 2002 - 7:41 pm: | |
The remington from Sam's is great, but the current model has a 12" monitor. A little on the big side for the dash. |
David & Lorna Schinske (Davidschinske) (67.240.192.151)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 19, 2002 - 10:32 am: | |
I just picked up a small 13" colour CRT (IBM P/S computer monitor)for $5 at one of the local thrift stores! A lot of the Goodwill stores and various church related thrift stores in the Chattanooga Area quite often have them for about $20 max. If you are rebuilding your dash I don't see why it would be considered "too big". Besides I would rather have a slightly bigger screen and save a few bucks in the process than shovel out $$ I don't have. But like I say about alot of stuff..."This works for US and might not be right for YOU!"
Lorna
Franklin, NC (for Now) |
Henry R. Bergman, Jr. (Henryofcj) (63.164.175.3)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 19, 2002 - 4:51 pm: | |
Year ago I got a tiny 6 inch B&W 120VAC/12VDC TV at a garage sale. Been in storage for awhile.
Would this TV work as a screen for a back-up camera? I think I paid $20 for it and it still works fine.
Wondering how much fooling around it would take to make it work as a back-up view gadget?
Since it is soosss small, maybe I could strip the chassis and install it in the overhead above my head
Where the school bus inside rear view mirror is right now. Anyway, sounds like a good idea. CROWNS FOREVER!!! |
DaveD (216.18.113.69)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 19, 2002 - 4:58 pm: | |
Back-up or security cameras that I've had experience with get their power from an output in the monitor chassis. I don't recall what's required to power the cameras. That may be a consideration.
DaveD |
Tom Caffrey (Pvcces) (64.114.233.88)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 19, 2002 - 10:22 pm: | |
Henry, regular TV monitors can be made to reverse their pictures by crossing the leads for the horizontal sweep on the yoke.
For an application where you might sometimes want a picture that is not reversed, you just use a switch on those leads so that one way is forward and the other is reversed.
The horisontal coils are on the sides of the neck of the CRT. For running down which lead is which, a schematic might be a real help. Somebody working in a TV shop shouldn't have too much trouble.
For it's worth.
Tom Caffrey PD4106-2576 |
Scott Whitney (66.82.9.36)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 20, 2002 - 9:34 am: | |
FWIW, I think my Remington (Sam's club type) back-up cam/monitor may have crapped out on me. Started working intermittently and now won't come on at all. I have sound, but no image. Checked all my connections. Maybe the vibration finally got to it. One of these days, I'll go over it all more carefully on the bench. But just thought I'd mention it . . .
Scott |
Henry R. Bergman, Jr. (Henryofcj) (63.224.197.10)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, September 21, 2002 - 5:25 pm: | |
Know we have this conversation before on another board----but I can not resist asking the same question again because I really do not understand.
What is the reason why the image on the TV screen needs to be reversed to function as an intermidant rear view camera? Seems to me it would not matter a all?
Does this have to happen to make the image the same as perceived by the rear view mirrors? Is it a right brain-left brain thing? Does it actually matter if you do not hardly ever use it?
Or does it matter a whole lot? I really have a problem trying to visualize the difference in my head--thus these serious questions. Thanks for bearing with me. |
Gary Stadler (Boogiethecat) (68.7.217.217)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, September 21, 2002 - 5:43 pm: | |
It's a head thing. If you don't reverse the image and try to steer via the monitor, you'll turn the wrong way by instinct and probably hit stuff the first few times you try it. You can learn it but what's the use of beating your head on yet another wall when switching a couple wires or mounting a little mirror fixes it right in the first place!! |
Henry R. Bergman, Jr. (Henryofcj) (63.224.197.10)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, September 21, 2002 - 6:35 pm: | |
You mean the two rear view mirrors reverse the image all the time and your/our/my brain automatically adjusts for this all the time when we use the rear view mirrors and.....
And if we/you/I had a rear view TV camera it would be extremely important to have the image reversed sooossss the image would be like that of a rear view mirror?
Sossss we would not get brain locked and quickly back up into something and smash it all up? Yea, this I can grokk very well indeed. Thank you for explaining it to me. CROWNS FOREVER!!! |
Scott Whitney (66.82.9.12)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, September 21, 2002 - 10:10 pm: | |
Also, not just when backing up, (I tend to use my mirrors mostly and the back-up cam as a double check to make sure nothing is in the way) but even when going forward the image flows more logically if it is reversed to simulate a mirror. When you are passing someone (or being passed) the other vehicle travels along the edge of the monitor on the same side fo the vehicle you will see it thru the windows as the pass occurs. It is hard to put into clear words - but if you imagine how the vehicle will be perceived in your peripheral vision as it goes by, it makes more sense.
Scott |
Henry R. Bergman, Jr. (Henryofcj) (63.224.197.10)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, September 23, 2002 - 5:08 pm: | |
Thank you for explaining it all to me. Maybe it is because I am left handed or something and I can't do basic math either. Yea, it now makes a lot of good sense to me and I think I grokk it. Thanks. |
JackInKc (24.94.180.233)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, September 23, 2002 - 6:45 pm: | |
A CRT image may be reversed by swapping the horizontal wires on the neck of the tube but you need a simple program to reverse the image on a LCD screen. The commercial backup cameras have the image reversed. Does anyone know of a cheap or public domain program that does this for the laptop? If not, the mirror trick works pretty good. |
Perplexed (12.94.0.184)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, September 23, 2002 - 11:14 pm: | |
grokk??? Translation, please! |
Bradd B. Smith (Bbsrtbusproject) (216.18.141.214)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, September 23, 2002 - 11:50 pm: | |
Hi, From the Robert Heinlien book, Stranger in a strange land. Martian for understand. Bradd |
Henry R. Bergman, Jr. (Henryofcj) (63.224.197.10)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, September 25, 2002 - 5:00 pm: | |
Bradd; My congradulations---not everyone would know that one and I got it from someone else with a Crown. Forgot who. |
Henry R. Bergman, Jr. (Henryofcj) (63.224.197.10)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, September 25, 2002 - 6:14 pm: | |
Think it was either Gary or perhaps R.C., both of whom own Crown Super Coaches. No...wait....now I think it was GARY!!!!! He he he. Can you GROKK it? What a send off!!! CROWNS FOREVER! |
Gary Stadler (Boogiethecat) (68.7.217.217)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, September 25, 2002 - 8:34 pm: | |
It was me. I've been grokking things for...well....since about 1976 or thereabouts....ahem...how old I am....ugh...
The funny thing is that I incorporated grok into my language set waaay back then because I grokked what it meant to grokk and I loved the concept of grokking things, but I've never actually grokked (or read) the book!! It's my wife's fave though. Weird....groooooooooooooooookkkkkkk......
Gary |
Bradd B. Smith (Bbsrtbusproject) (216.18.141.35)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 26, 2002 - 1:39 am: | |
I KNOW what you mean Gary, I think I first read it in about '72. Things were, shall we say, a little different then. It is a strange book from a man from Ohio. If I had known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself! There is a great website about back-up cameras. It is: www.funndealernet.com . They have a variety of systems and the links to get the components. Bradd |
Gary Stadler (Boogiethecat) (68.7.217.217)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 26, 2002 - 3:15 am: | |
Hmmm, tried the link www.funndealernet.com and it came back "sorry"..
Is it correct or is it my stupid ISP again?
gary |
Bradd B. Smith (Bbsrtbusproject) (216.18.141.155)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, September 26, 2002 - 9:06 pm: | |
Nope, my old eyes. Try www.funddealernet.com. Bradd |
Lin (65.184.0.189)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 27, 2002 - 12:31 pm: | |
The problem is that the camera is simply pointing toward the rear. If you put your monitor behind the driver's seat and turned around to look at it, everything would be perfect. What was on the right/left would appear to be just where they were. But why crane your neck if you don't have to, so we move the monitor to a convenient spot in front of us thereby reversing the image 180 degrees. What is really on the right side of the vehicle now appears on the left side of screen. If you could override all of your brains wiring and conditioning so that it will interpret the monitor image as if you were looking backwards even though your head is facing forward, there would be no reason to reverse the image. With your side view mirrors, things are a bit different. Even though the image is reversed, things on the left side of the vehicle (which would be on your personal right side if you turned around) still appear on your left. Therefore you don't have to compensate in the same way. |
Henry R. Bergman, Jr. (Henryofcj) (63.224.197.10)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, September 27, 2002 - 5:29 pm: | |
Well explained Lin! Why is it that with some things just trying to think about it makes my head swim? Now it is beginning to appear logical to reverse the rear view camera view. I do believe I can now GROKK it. Thank you. |