Blue View - Cameras for Blanche
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Since May, 2018, all new vehicles in the U.S. are required to have backup cameras. The camera must clearly show the area 10’ to 20’ behind the vehicle. Blanche is a 2019 Promaster, and meets this requirement… barely. She has a terrible backup camera - probably the worst I’ve ever seen. If the day is the least bit sunny, the display is almost totally washed out. Our Garmin gps has a similar size display, and has a resolution of 1024x600 pixels (the number of rows and columns of color dots), which is quite adequate. I think Blanche’s display must have a resolution of about 80x60 pixels. Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating somewhat, but her display is really lacking. So, when our older son, Brennan, who is the U.S. Field Services Manager for a company that markets camera systems for large fleets of trucks and heavy equipment, offered to install a new camera system, free of charge, we were all over it.
His company, CameraMatics, is an Irish company that is expanding into the U.S. market. They have a significant presence and considerable experience in the UK and Europe, but are just starting to get noticed here. They were looking for a few vehicles in the U.S. that get driven a lot of miles each year to test new hardware and software releases, and we the fit bill. Their systems, which can employ up to eight hi-res cameras, and a large, solid state DVR (sort of a vehicle ‘Black Box’), are used not only to increase the driver’s visibility and reduce blind spots, but, using AI technology, detect and prevent driver fatigue and distracted driving. There are a host of other features that should be important to companies managing their fleets of vehicles, as well, but my interest pretty much stopped at cameras, DVR… and ‘free’.
We decided on four hi-res, wide angle cameras; one forward facing, one backup, and one on each side. The reason for the backup camera is obvious. The forward facing camera can be used to document the driving of a reckless, distracted or intoxicated driver. It can also record all those scenic drives as we explore new areas. Blanche has good side view mirrors, but even so, when we are merging onto a road or highway, I’m not sure there aren’t still some blind spots; the side-view cameras should eliminate these. The footage from all four cameras is saved to the DVR and backed up to the cloud, and can be downloaded later if desired.
Brennan told me that on a cargo van or commercial truck, an installation like this should take half a day for one tech to complete. On Blanche, the installation took the two of us one very long day to finish. Installing the cameras, DVR and antennas required about 2-3 hours. The rest of the day was spent routing the cables through Blanche’s finished interior.
The rear camera was mounted next to the existing camera.
The forward facing camera was mounted inside the windshield.
The side view cameras were mounted on the front bumpers.
The DVR was attached to the bulkhead in the front of the garage area. We previously had a 1000 watt inverter, but it wasn’t able to charge our ebike batteries, so we took this opportunity to also install a larger 2000 watt Renogy inverter.
Blanche doesn’t have a rear view mirror, which made a good location to mount the monitor.
It took a few minutes to aim each camera to get the best view.
We set the monitor to continuously show the footage from both side cameras as well as the rear camera. After driving with the system for a few days, I’m finding the display too busy. I think I’ll change it so that the right side cam is displayed only when the right turn signal is on, and the left side cam is displayed only when the left turn signal is on. If I’m not turning or changing lanes, the rear cam will be displayed. The system is easily reconfigured, so it shouldn’t be a difficult change.
So, we’re now officially a Beta site (or test mule?) for CameraMatics, and quite happy with the arrangement. Next, we’re hoping there’s a new, startup electric van company that’s looking for Beta site testers. We’d be happy to help out.
See you next week…