Wireless Reversing Camera & Screen @ Maplins £49.99

sounds just what i would like for use with my caravan!

 

Yup I was thinking along the same lines!

 

i think i'll go to maplins tommorow for one of these....

 

The price is valid till Dec 24th (normally their offers only last for a month).

I will probably resist as although it's a nice idea I doubt that in reality I'd bother setting up the screen in the car every time I was going to tow.

 

To see how long a queue you've managed to build up eh! :bannana:

 

I like it as its a gadget,

I'm just thinking where I could fit it

Handy for the van, Do you think the display is just wired in up front in the car and the rest of the gubbins could stay at the van end?

may go and have a look to see

 

Yes. You have the camera and a small transmitter at the back of the van (powered by the reverse light feed). Then the screen/receiver goes in the car on a windscreen mount (powered from the lighter socket).

 

MMMMmmmm

Not a bad idea for another gadget, would rather hard wire the screen and hide it some where less obvious than the window.

May have a look

Thanks


Will be nice to see all the happy faces behind the van

 

As its 2.4Ghz wireless just be aware that it could posibly interfere with bluetooth devices in the vehicle such as hands free kits etc. A lot of the cheap Chinese wi-fi devices are not particular about accurate channel selection!
As its only powered when in reverse this shouldnt be too major a problem.

Mark

 

Bluetooth uses Frequency Hopping and most wireless devices use Direct Sequence Spreading.
Bluetooth devices switch frequencies so rapidly (~1,600 times per second) and the data packets are so small that interference from other RF sources is highly unlikely, tbh.


That said, I'm more into the idea of a multi function screen that can perform other duties and be switched to a reversing camera input as needed, rather than being a one-trick pony deal.


Each to their own though.

 

I have no experience with that actual camera but I once installed a 7” TV and mounted a miniature camera above the number plate, all hard wired, it was useful for reversing into a parking spaces however my mirrors did that job just as well.

What people really want to know is, what is the distance from the back of there car to the object behind them, while you can see the object behind you on the screen, you cant judge the distance through a TV screen as it is two dimensional, us humans having 2 eyes and have 3 dimensional vision and that is how we can judge distance the screen cant do that and that is why it doesn’t really work as well as we might think it will.

However if the camera were mounted, for example on the top of the rear of a double-decker bus looking towards the ground then it would work fine because it would show a distance of 8 to 10 feet behind the bus but this won’t work on a car because there is insufficient height and the camera can only be mounted looking straight back.

Dec

 

^^ Good point.
You can commonly pick up a parking sensor kit for ~£30 and if you really need wireless, such as for a caravan (which the OP kit wouldn't help with, as it needs a reverse lamp feed for the camera to source power from), you can get them for ~£50 too.

 

Ah. Fair enough... been a while since I had a caravan, admittedly.

Rest of my point still stands though.

 

Actually ... reversing lights on caravans are 'optional' in that they're wired through the secondary (12S) socket. Not on the 12N with the other lights.

The factory twin electrics on my VW Sharan didn't have a feed for the reversing light - their harness didn't support it! I got 2 free services as 'compensation'.

 

I take your point about the usefulness.
My L200 was a very difficult vehicle to reverse park. Rear visibility was non existent with 3 layers of tinted glass to see through because of the hard top fitted on the load bay.
I mounted my reversing camera on the l200 so that it looks down on the towball. It is very easy to gauge the distance using this method. I can in fact perform parking to within a centimetre using the towball as a guide. Without the towball in view I could be yards away. Hitching up the Equi-Trek solo has never been so easy.

When I engage reverse the interior mirror switches to being a 7" colour monitor displaying the rear view in a mirror image. If the image is not reversed then parking is far less intuitive.

The system is made by Veba, and they also do a model that incorporated reversing sensors with a graphical display to show how far obstacles are as well as the image on the interior rear view mirror. The display has a switchable input to allow viewing of any other video feed that you may want to watch.

The system has transformed my confidence at attempting to park in tight spots. I often see other L200s with bent rear tailgates that look like they reversed into a lamppost, and I imagine that missing a small person stood behind would also be rather easy.

 

Mine lasted a week. as soon as it rained the lense was covered in condensation, inside and when it was very cold the thing was totally unstable. I spent some months with it doing some research at 3M.

 

It came from cost co, but believe me, they all come from China and are pretty much the same. fit reversing sensors, cheaper, better.