Thinking of this front view camera & video solution

[SteveW25561]

Thanks for the comments. Here are some more pictures people have asked about.

Also, yes, the guide lines are software adjustable on the Kenwood, unlike most 3rd party cameras. You can turn them on or off with a long press of the control button, and the setup screen for the camera (accessed by pressing the selection button and "+" button on the controller I mounted to the cubby) allows you to set the camera for front or rear (mirrored) view. You can then adjust the lens shift and top-down viewing angle, the width of the parking lines, their angle and as well the "red zone". My redzone puts me about 4.5" away from the obstacle seen in the video. The bottom of the nosecone mounting position is a little lower (~ 16.25") than the camera install spec (18" or more), thus the guide lines don't slant away at the proper angle -- I wish this were more configurable, but I was able to set the WIDTH of the lines to match the Model S's width.

Similar to the rearview camera, the wide angle of the Kenwood camera makes distances look way farther than they are, but in my use, it's really meant for that last 5-12 inches away from the nose.

In brighter light, the camera image is harder to see than at night (obviously), and the reflections of the mirror interfere with the image, but that's the tradeoff I guess for this kind of integration. A dedicated LCD would take care of this but I didn't find a nice spot to hide that. I'm considering putting an LCD in the driver's side sun visor, hidden until I pull it down, but that involves a lot more work to fabricate (I have never done anything like that but suspect I'd oder another visor and find matching fabric to the headliner, then strip down and shape the internals of the visor for an LCD).

1. External view of the camera

2. Routing of wires into the cabin without drilling the firewall. If you are careful, you can route the wires under the rubber cover and between 2 clips holding the rubber seal on the driver's A pillar/door jamb. These little "T" shaped retainers hold the rubber to the car frame, and if you pull on the free edge of the rubber you can stretch the hole out to free the T clip, then slip the wire(s) underneath, then around and into the cabin. I ran 2 wires: 1 for the video camera and the other is a permanent on 12V for my dashcam (my MS doesn't have that handy connector in the microphone grille).

 

[dsmith2189]

I'm considering putting an LCD in the driver's side sun visor, hidden until I pull it down, but that involves a lot more work to fabricate (I have never done anything like that but suspect I'd oder another visor and find matching fabric to the headliner, then strip down and shape the internals of the visor for an LCD).

Have you seen the pre-made LCD visors? I was looking at them a while back but couldn't find any with the same dimensions as the MS.

Example from TView
Example from Absolute USA

 

[SteveW25561]

Thanks. I've seen those, but they're pretty ugly in person (the tan looks off and the plastic looks cheap, and they are thicker than pictured). The MS mirrors are really wide but narrow so these dont fit properly (if I recall the MS mirrors are about 17"-18" wide and much narrower than these).

 

[wormhole]

One problem I see with this solution (which is awesome), is that Homelink is limited to 3 devices. I have a 3-car garage, and thus no addition 'space' on homelink. unless I am mistaken on the homelink limitation.

 

[jerry33]

One problem I see with this solution (which is awesome), is that Homelink is limited to 3 devices. I have a 3-car garage, and thus no addition 'space' on homelink. unless I am mistaken on the homelink limitation.

Has there ever been a Homelink device with more than three?

 

[Musterion]

One problem I see with this solution (which is awesome), is that Homelink is limited to 3 devices. I have a 3-car garage, and thus no addition 'space' on homelink. unless I am mistaken on the homelink limitation.

If you didn't want to give up one homelink slot (do you need the ability to always open any of the three from the car?) then all you have to do is mount the included Oracle remote somewhere convenient in the car. It is tiny and has its own battery, and you could mask the other buttons so you only press "D". On the other hand I'd prefer to just carry a separate remote for the least used garage door and then use one of the homelink slots for this application.

 

[vfx]

Pretty cool!


I had been looking at triggering a light with homelink since the gate is so far from the parking area. This is something I have considered installing for switching at the building.

http://www.liftmaster.com/CatalogResourcesV3/en-us/shared/files/tucmanuals/114A4349.pdf

 

[lloyds]

Steve, I noticed you ran the wires through the passenger door and not through the firewall. Isn't it a possibility of the door opening and closing over time to start pinching and potentially damage the wires?

 

[SteveW25561]

Steve, I noticed you ran the wires through the passenger door and not through the firewall. Isn't it a possibility of the door opening and closing over time to start pinching and potentially damage the wires?

There's enough of a gap left the wires aren't even touched. For example, I could not see any movement of the wires in the slack proximal and distal when closing the door -- if the wires were being hit by the door you'd see done wiggle. Ill keep an eye on it. Also the radius of bend is very gentle so there's no significant sharp turn or edge to damage the wires.

The rubber seal buffers as well -- it has an airspace that compresses when the door is closed. Finally, by using the passenger side I figured that door is used far less so the possible wear is minimized.

 

[artsci]

I programmed the Homelink to button "D" of the Oracle's RF remote: button D shuts off the entire Oracle unit, whereas buttons A-C cycle different modes like strobe, pulse, on/off -- too unreliable and potentially risky for the camera/mirror. The Oracle unit remembers the last setting you had so if I set the Oracle to have the mirror/camera ON, if I shut the Oracle off, the whole thing shuts down, and when I turn the Oracle back ON, the camera/mirror turn back on. Thus, program button D into the MS's homelink.

Did you hook up the Oracle control unit to 12v power before using programming the Oracle RF D button to Homelink? I'm trying to get this set up to control the lighted T but programming to Homelink doesn't work after a dozen tries and an hour wasted.

 

[SteveW25561]

I hooked up the Oracle to the 12V power first. Then, to confirm it's working, I had to find the magical combination of "Oracle controller ON" and "Desired output channel ON" (and not strobing, pulsing, etc). This is harder to do since the Oracle controller doesn't have any indicator LEDs, but a few trials will find the right combo. I didn't have it, but if you have 2 x 12V lights, you can hook them up to both outputs and see when they turn on. I used trial and error.

Once you have your Oracle ON and the device you want to control turned ON, you can shut it all off or turn it back on by pressing "D". The Oracle remembers the last setting (eg. which output was set to on).

After I did this, I programmed the homelink and confirmed it working. To program the homelink I did have to go out to the nosecone and press & hold the D button until the car honked or flashed its lights to confirm acquisition of the signal.

Hope this helps.

 

[JerryNycom]

Was wondering if I went with the kenwood camera and instead of the rear view mirror, what about a small LCD screen tucked inside the Center Console (whenever it comes out)?

 

[SteveW25561]

@JerryNYcom : definitely agree it would be nice to have a dedicated monitor hidden somewhere that doesn't interfere with the minimalist design of the MS dash. I looked at the center tunnel and figured its a bit low for a viewing angle: I think it's still smart to have your eyes pretty close to forward when driving even with a camera.

I also miss the funky Tesla mirror.

That said, I tried to find some way to mount a drawer of some sort under the cubby. Kind of like those push in retractable drink holders. I'd love to be ale to pop out a monitor that then folds away and hides. I couldn't find anything I could adapt for that.

I also found on eBay a monitor that has a motorized food up screen that might fit on the steering wheel column: there's a nice flat surface there, and I could envision using that as a sneaky hidden monitor space.. That, or some way to pop up or drop down a monitor in front of the speedometer lcd since that cove has potential to fit a small screen as well.

I still am contemplating building a monitor into the drivers sun visor. This would be totally invisible until you needed it. I can't find a good way to do this -- ideally I'd like to source another visor and matching cloth to make that but I have no skills in that kind of work.

 

[artsci]

I hooked up the Oracle to the 12V power first. Then, to confirm it's working, I had to find the magical combination of "Oracle controller ON" and "Desired output channel ON" (and not strobing, pulsing, etc). This is harder to do since the Oracle controller doesn't have any indicator LEDs, but a few trials will find the right combo. I didn't have it, but if you have 2 x 12V lights, you can hook them up to both outputs and see when they turn on. I used trial and error.

Once you have your Oracle ON and the device you want to control turned ON, you can shut it all off or turn it back on by pressing "D". The Oracle remembers the last setting (eg. which output was set to on).

After I did this, I programmed the homelink and confirmed it working. To program the homelink I did have to go out to the nosecone and press & hold the D button until the car honked or flashed its lights to confirm acquisition of the signal.

Hope this helps.

Thanks, exactly what I needed to know.