Anytime Camera Mod. Another Variation. Front and Rear view camera.

I have no clue on where to penetrate her yet. I have not actually looked under the hood yet because I have not found the camera I want. If you find out where to penetrate please let me know!

 

I did a quick look under the hood and it looks like there is a large hole in the firewall right behind the inverter. This may be a way to get to the inside of the car. It looks like it would be hard to get to it without taking things apart.

 

Well my supplies should come in today. I'm off all next week so I should have a prototype working by the end of the week.

I think I found the camera I want to get. The company has the reverse version of the camera and what the instructions said there is a forward version of the camera too. I'm going to contact the company and see if they can get the forward version of the camera. The camera is very small and can be mounted on the top of the license plate frame. It is color, has 120 degree field of view, has a low lux rating, weatherproof, and best of all its small! Very small!

http://www.supercircuits.com/index.asp?Pag...amp;ProdID=5628

If you want to follow my progress on the help this other forum is giving me you can visit the at this address.

http://www.dutchforce.com/~eforum/index.php?showtopic=8802

[EDIT] Added picture of the camera.

 

Just a quick update. So far everything is coming along just fine. I have my voltage regulator working. I got my switch debouncer working. and I'm in the process of getting the 4017 decade counter to work. I'll have all week to play with it since I'm taking a short vacation.

Here is a schematic of what I plan to have the finished product look like. Note that I still need to get transistor values and some resistor values for the transistors.





Here is a pic of my breadboard. I currently have the voltage regulator, switch debouncer, and the 4017 decade switch on the board. The 4017 is not currently hooked up in the picture.

 

I finally got a working circuit!

I still have some changes to make and update the schematic. I'll try to post some of the mods I made so far.

There are some resistor values that have changed for certain parts of the circuit. Plus I added values for the transistors. I will be adding decoupling caps to each of the ICs. And I had to mod the IPA button to allow a custom resistor for the indicator LED.

The indicator LED in the IPA button ran off of a 12v supply voltage. I did not want to give it 12v but just supply it 5v from my regulated source. The IPA button has a diode and a 911ohm resistor in series. I had to desolder the 911ohm resistor and replace it with a jumper wire. Pictures of it are below. I then added my own 390ohm resistor on the breadboard in series. This lets me pass about the same current at 5v as the the 12v 911ohm combo. This lets me have the same brightness as the 12v but with a lot less complicated circuit work.

Here is a video of the working circuit. VIDEO

I have added LEDs to the relays so I can see whats going on. When I power up please note the Red LED is lit. The Red LED represents the reverse video signal and it is always connected when the circuit is off. This relay contact is NC. This lets the reverse camera signal pass through to the MFD so when I kick the car in reverse I have the reverse camera. Then when I turn on the circuit with the first button press you will see a Green LED light up as well as the IPA switch indicator LED. These LEDs are lit up to let you know the MFD is activating the anytime part of the mod. Also note that the Yellow LED is lit and the Red LED is off. This tells you that the reverse camera signal has been cut and in its place will be the front camera. Then you press the button again the Yellow LED turns off and the Red LED turns on letting you know the reverse video signal is being displayed. Press one more time and the anytime circuit is turned off and your back to normal operation. B)

This is the back of the IPA circuit board. The arrow is pointing to where the 911ohm resistor was and where the jumper wire is now. This was kind of hard to desolder. Had to apply heat to the end of the resistor and just wiggle it off. The wire was even harder. I had to use a small alligator clip to hold the wire down and the solder that was on the board took care of the rest.


This is the front of the IPA circuit board. The LED I'm using is the one on the far right. Right below the 925. The other LED you see there is for the rheostat and that is tapped directly into the rheostat wires like the EV mod.


And here is my breadboard. Still not finished and its a little messy. I'm not that great at dressing the breadboard but it sure got the job done. I plan on rewiring it to make it easier to transfer to a project board.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Cheap! @ Sep 28 2006, 09:13 PM) [snapback]325350[/snapback]</div>

Thanks.

The desolder wick works great on larger objects but would not have worked to well on this small of a component.

 

IT WORKS! I'M FINISHED! Well almost. I still need to mount it in a project box, find a camera, and get a week off from work to tear my car apart.

I did a full test of the circuit and it switched the video just fine. I also did a stress test at full load for 5 min and the voltage regulator only got a little warm. I'm not worried about it overheating boxed up under the dash somewhere. I will be drilling holes in the project box as a vent just in case.

Here is the final schematic in case anyone wants to copy it.





The top of the switch.




The bottom of the switch.

 

I have put the circuit into a project box now. Its not a professional looking box but it gets the job done. I think I will call it the Prius Video Brick V1.0. Why do I call it a brick? Well thats because the box is about the size of a brick. I have some smaller boxes on the way and I'm going to try to shrink down the size of the circuit to fit them. If I have to I can make the power supply a separate box to get the switch in a smaller one.

As you can see I made a custom adapter out of some of the 8 pin header connectors. This will allow for an easy disconnect without having to open the box.

The pinout is...

Red - 12v in
Black - Ground
Green - N/A
Yellow - Trigger + out to switch
Blue - Indicator LED +
Brown - N/A
Grey - Red wire form backup relay
Orange - To pin 21 on the MFD

There is no return feed for the switch ground or the indicator LED because I plan to terminate them on a ground wire near the rheostat.


The RCA connectors are...

White - Video IN - Front Camera
Red - Video IN - Rear Camera
Yellow - Video OUT - Out to MFD

Anyway here are 2 more pictures.

The box and the switch inside.


The closed box.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Cheap! @ Oct 15 2006, 10:30 AM) [snapback]332968[/snapback]</div>

Why would I need shielding? That is the wire that will carry the 12v to activate the MFD when the Car goes into reverse or when I activate it manually.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Cheap! @ Oct 15 2006, 11:52 PM) [snapback]333284[/snapback]</div>

They will all have shielding because I will be using standard RCA cables for the hookups. All I will have to do is add female RCA connectors to the cameras and the MFD. Or I could go the connector less route and just splice them in. I havnt really decided yet

 

Here is version 1.1 the Prius Video Briquette. Its a little smaller in height. A little wider and a little shorter. I think I could get it smaller but I think this is just the right size.

I now have 2 video switchers. I have enough supplies to build 2 more I think. After I test the Brick for a while I will want to sell it. Then after I test the Briquette I might make and sell a few if people are interested. The only thing is that I really cant support the switcher. I just don't have the time for support. These are not professionally made by any means. They are basically a hack in a box. I did try to do my best on them. I would suggest that you have some electronic experience if you want one so you can debug the circuit if anything does go wrong. Installation is all up to the end user, and I could only guarantee that it arrives to you in working condition. I would not be responsible for any damage to you car. Great way to sell a product huh? I would want to sell it between $30 and $50. or what ever is a fair price for my hard work.

Now I'm just waiting for my camera to come in. I hope that the camera has a reverse/normal selection or I could some how mod it to reverse the reverse image. If anyone knows of a stand alone box that will mirror a video signal please let me know. I may have to buy one.

The top


The bottom


The two side by side

 

I finally got my camera. I went with the Mito 20-EYLS2F Color Backup Camera. This version of the camera is the forward version. If you want the rear view version do a search for 20-EYLS2R. This is the cheapest place I could find it.

http://www.simplycheap.com/mito20-eyls2f.html

Now I just need to find a place to mount it, find a way to mount it, and find a way to penetrate the firewall. Then after all that get a week off from work to do the install.

 

I went out side and checked on where I could run my video IN cable and I only found 3 places. Two on the passenger side and one on the driver side. The two on the driver side are blocked by a bunch of stuff on the inside and would require a lot of disassembly to get to them. The one on the driver side is my best bet as its a little hard to get to on the outside but very easy to get to on the inside.

There is another option that Cheap! suggested and that is to route the cable under the car and up through the trunk hole and then all the way to the front. That would be a really long cable and I don't feel comfortable having the cable ran on the underside without some kind of protection. I will keep this in mind in case I find penetrating the firewall to be too hard.

Has anyone penetrated the firewall with anything yet? Do you have any tips on getting a wire through the firewall? It looks like I will have to cut the rubber boot on the inside so I can pull the wire through. Does anyone have any suggestions?

This is the locations of the holes from the engine compartment.




This is the locations from the inside.




This is what the hole and the wires really look like form the inside.