Wireless front parking camera with monitor for front bumper protection

[Robbo770]

I will post a more details later. It looks like the PIC is providing clock and converting from UART over LVDS to I2C.

For the technical geeks like me here is the proposed schematic and layout for the switch. The board is designed in a Newageenclosures case.

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View attachment 35807

this work is mind blowing!,

i am am attempting to find a person who can build a system for my land rover with two front bumper cameras and two side. Ire or cameras and construct a unit that can tell them to power up and then output all four camera feeds at the same time allocated to a portion of the screen to let four feeds to viewed at once on the original analogue screen.

would anyone be willing to be paid for a construction of a stand alone camera controller, with single button activation?

very impressive cars and the work here is award winning congrats to you all, Rob in Aberdeen , Scotland

 

[artsci]

I installed a first production version on my car this evening. This was the last step for completion of production and shipping. Everything worked perfectly.

Tomorrow I will shoot and post a video of the camera switch in action. The complete kits should start shipping to all buyers in a week or so.

 

[DITB]

I installed a first production version on my car this evening. This was the last step for completion of production and shipping. Everything worked perfectly.

Tomorrow I will shoot and post a video of the camera switch in action. The complete kits should start shipping to all buyers in a week or so.

Any news on this?

 

[swegman]

it was posted in a related thread entitled "Front camera vs front parking sensors: Which provides better protection".

 

[artsci]

Any news on this?

The kits should start shipping at the end of this week. After the original 75 orders have shipped another 25 will become available on OpenEVSE.

Here's a

.

 

[DITB]

The kits should start shipping at the end of this week. After the original 75 orders have shipped another 25 will become available on OpenEVSE.

...

Are there any plans to sell the kit including the camera, or do you still have to buy it yourself, directly from Tesla Motors?

All nice functions there, and the logic is good too. Two questions here

1) When you say "remote", is that like a wireless remote control car alarm, or a "remote" fixed switch installed on the dash somewhere?

2) Will it be possible to avoid the "camera unavailable" screens in future incarnations? Ie some logic that delays the switch until the other camera is ready?

 

[artsci]

The only source for the camera is Telsa and its Service Centers. The remote is a small hand held wireless remote that can go anywhere -- key chain, pocket, on the dash, etc. Two are provided with each kit. Here's a photo.

The electronics for the switch are very complicated. If there was a way to eliminate the "Camera Unavailable" notice I'm sure WhiteP85 would have built it in. Any interruption in the signal to the touch screen, no matter how short, produces that notice.

 

[artsci]

Last week I shipped a production version of the camera license plate mounting bracket to an owner with a low-mounted j-bolt attached license plate frame. We wanted to see if it would work mounted on the top of the license plate frame even though it was designed to mount on the underside of the stock Tesla frame.

It appears to work as the photo below indicates. With the front/rear camera switch kits shipping in a few days I was pleased to see that this mounting approach for the front camera is another option.

BTW the mounting brackets will be powder coated in black. In this photo the camera still has the protective plastic cover on it.

 

[swegman]

Rick, since the camera is mounted upside down (as evidenced by the screws showing in the bracket, I think the image on the screen may be upside down. Was this checked?

 

[Gizmotoy]

Rick, since the camera is mounted upside down (as evidenced by the screws showing in the bracket, I think the image on the screen may be upside down. Was this checked?

There's nothing about that bracket that makes it look obviously upside-down to me. Seems fine. And I spent a LOT of time staring at that stupid bracket.

 

[artsci]

Rick, since the camera is mounted upside down (as evidenced by the screws showing in the bracket, I think the image on the screen may be upside down. Was this checked?

Good call swegman. I think it is mounted upside down as it appears the cable is extending from the right side of the camera. If the cable extends from the left of the camera it's mounted correctly.

 

[swegman]

Rick (Gizmotoy),

I still have the camera mounted to the prototype bracket that Rick sent me. The bracket and camera are secured to my Tesla license plate holder, so I can't check the following. But I am almost positive the image will be upside down. Can someone remove the mounting flange attached to the camera itself and see if it can be rotated and re-screwed to the Tesla camera. The cable from the camera needs to extend towards the passenger side of the car for the image to be right side up.

 

[artsci]

Rick (Gizmotoy),

I still have the camera mounted to the prototype bracket that Rick sent me. The bracket and camera are secured to my Tesla license plate holder, so I can't check the following. But I am almost positive the image will be upside down. Can someone remove the mounting flange attached to the camera itself and see if it can be rotated and re-screwed to the Tesla camera. The cable from the camera needs to extend towards the passenger side of the car for the image to be right side up.

A very good suggestion. Hopefully someone who's not mounted the front camera can give this a try.

 

[Gizmotoy]

Rick (Gizmotoy),

I still have the camera mounted to the prototype bracket that Rick sent me. The bracket and camera are secured to my Tesla license plate holder, so I can't check the following. But I am almost positive the image will be upside down. Can someone remove the mounting flange attached to the camera itself and see if it can be rotated and re-screwed to the Tesla camera. The cable from the camera needs to extend towards the passenger side of the car for the image to be right side up.

I didn't notice the cable direction. Ooops.

Tesla's metal bracket is not reversible on the camera, so that's not really an option if that's what you mean. There's a little cable stress relief bulb on the bracket, and while I don't have the model in front of me, I don't think it's symmetrical, either.

That said, with only two aligned screw holes, there should be two ways to mount the camera/bracket to the licence plate mount: One where it's "hanging" from the Tesla bracket and pointed slightly down, and one where it's "sitting" on the Tesla bracket and pointed slightly up. It's hard to tell from the camera angle, but that looks like it's pointing up a bit. Is it? With no knowledge of the license plate mount design, I would think it should be in the "hanging" position as it is in the rear of the vehicle.

Edit: This picture should help. On the bracket, the cable goes towards the dimple. Were this mounted on the rear of the vehicle in the stock spot, this angle is how it would look with Superman X-Ray vision from the inside of the car. The camera hangs from the bracket and points towards the ground.

Now flip your monitor (or your head) upside down. Screwholes are still in the same place, but now the camera points up slightly and the cable comes out the other side. Hopefully that's all it is.

 

[swegman]

Sorry, I don't follow what you are saying. The contours of Rick's bracket follows the contours of the Tesla camera bracket. The screws used to bolt the camera to Rick's bracket are M5.8 (if I recall correctly). If you position the camera so that the cable travels toward the passenger side of the car, there will be a space between the non-threaded holes in Rick's bracket and the threaded holes in the flange of the camera (when Rick's bracket is attached to the top of the license plate holder). Perhaps a longer screw plus a spacer will allow the camera to be tightly secured to Rick's bracket.

 

[artsci]

Sorry, I don't follow what you are saying. The contours of Rick's bracket follows the contours of the Tesla camera bracket. The screws used to bolt the camera to Rick's bracket are M5.8 (if I recall correctly). If you position the camera so that the cable travels toward the passenger side of the car, there will be a space between the non-threaded holes in Rick's bracket and the threaded holes in the flange of the camera (when Rick's bracket is attached to the top of the license plate holder). Perhaps a longer screw plus a spacer will allow the camera to be tightly secured to Rick's bracket.

I heard from the owner in question after I emailed him about the problem. It is upside down and he's appreciative that you were able to spot the problem. He's working with the mounting bracket to see if there's a way get it mounted right-side up on the top of the license plate frame.

Of course, given the position of the license plate frame one could argue that the bracket may not be needed at all. It appears there's room between the top of the frame and the bottom of the nose cone to mount the camera on the grille so it peaks over the top of the license plate frame.

 

[skip8jj]

Is there any chance that the front mounted camera will be available again?

 

[Plugsuvohio]

Will this give you the view to make it easy to center the car in a parking spot as you approach it head on? I have a tough time seeing this in MX

 

[HankLloydRight]

Absolutely. It's the same view as if you were backing into a parking spot.

 

[scottm]

In the meantime, it's simpler to mount a $15 backup cam and $30 7-inch LCD monitor (sits in your cubby, pull it out when needed)

These are ebay / amazon parts.. made in China, sure. but mine has held up very well for years on my Model S

You can get these wired, or RF wireless transmitter pairs... Mine is wired but if you buy wireless it means you don't have to run a wire through the firewall .