Electronic Engineer needed to design circuit for switching front and rear cameras

[zax123]

I just thought of something... Tesla might add guidelines to the rear-camera view window which turn as the steering is turned, etc... these same guidelines will likely appear as on overlay on any other video signal we send to the same input on the touchscreen computer.

For the front camera, that MIGHT not be the end of the world (although I think they will be flipped and not really provide useful information), but if we send any other video signal, they will most likely just get in the way...

Something to consider?

 

[vfx]

I just said that!

 

[zax123]

I just said that!

Oh man, I'm getting old.

 

[markwj]

The homelink solution would be quite elegant. I really wouldn't want another switch in the way, when the 17" screen is the primary interface.

One suggestion you could consider is the use of the CAN bus in the car. We did a huge amount of work in this for the Roadsters, and it was not very hard to find the CAN bus activity for gear selector and speed. We also found homelink activitation messages on the same bus. Some ideas:

• If speed <5mph and forward gear engaged, then switch to front video
• If homelink #n is activated (regardless of whether you are any where near equipment that could receive the homelink signal), then switch to front video
• If reverse gear engaged, then switch to rear video, else front video

It appears that there is a DIAG connector, with access to the vehicle CAN buses, just behind the cubby hole under the 17" screen (which is probably where this switcher project would go, anyway), and there is a handy 12V power there on the same connector. A PIC controller and MCP2551 to read the 1MHz CAN bus is around US$15 BOM cost. Only hassle is that you would need to decode the CAN bus messages to find the speed and gear selector message.

 

[gt1485a]

It appears that there is a DIAG connector, with access to the vehicle CAN buses, just behind the cubby hole under the 17" screen (which is probably where this switcher project would go, anyway), and there is a handy 12V power there on the same connector. A PIC controller and MCP2551 to read the 1MHz CAN bus is around US$15 BOM cost. Only hassle is that you would need to decode the CAN bus messages to find the speed and gear selector message.

Do you have a pinout and part number for this connector?

 

[markwj]

Do you have a pinout and part number for this connector?

Connector (and pins) should be:

http://hk.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=173851-2virtualkey57100000virtualkey571-173851-2
http://hk.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=173631-1virtualkey57100000virtualkey571-173631-1

No idea on Model S, but the Roadster pinouts (for the pins we are interested in) are:

Roadster style cable is this one:

$7.50 OVMS Data Cable for Tesla Roaster 1.x/2.x - Official OVMS Parts at FastTech - Worldwide Free Shipping

Regards, Mark.