Laptop & Rearview Camera

[pktwatch]

Some of you may have seen my HOMEMADE LAPTOP MOUNT. It is working out well. I am working on a rack now to carry a few Swing 'N Loads to GTG's. The metal framework is done and I will try to get the teak wood put on it this week. When I have Swing 'N Load boxes on the rack I will not be able to see out of the rear window. I decided I needed a rear view camera.
I went down to The Mox's house today and he intalled a switch to turn the rear view camera off and on. The switch is mounted right on the driver side of the center console, right beside where the cupholders were. He fished the wires for me, they come into the cab through a grommet that the third break light uses. We hid the wires along the side and under the sill trim and then under the lip of the center console. This prosess used a camera that has a reverse image and a wide angle that I got off of eBay. I then ran the video into a ATI USB TV Wonder tuner. From there it just inputs right into the computer! The camera does not seem as high of a quality as a SnakeEyes but it's only about $100 to do it this way ($55 for the camera and $45 for the ATI USB Wonder) assuming that you already have a laptop.
I forgot my camera so there are no pictures yet. I will try to post up some after the mod gets finished.


Butch

 

[bigdaddy]

Need to see the camera and the Teak..........

 

[pdxkevin]

Modding tease!! You know we need to see the photos!

Like the laptop holder though. Wonder how it'd go on the bench seat?

 

[pktwatch]

Patience Grasshopper, I told you I forgot the camera and the teak will not go on till later this week.

Butch

 

[pktwatch]

OK, here are a few pictures. I am going to try to get the teak wood put on tomorrow and it will change the look a lot.

Here is the rack primed and painted. I did not do a very good job and when we took it out in the dayllight I see that I will need to re-spray parts of it!

Here is the rack mounted on the Avalanche

This is a close up of the front bracket. Its stainless steel and the rack just bolts to it. The wires coming from under the drains are the ones that The Mox ran yesterday. They feed into the cab and are routed into the center console and to a switch that he installed to turn the camera on and off. I want to be able to keep the camera on when I wish, not just when the avalanche is put in reverse.

Here is that switch, it looks factory doesn't it? I have the power inverter, the power supply for the laptop and the ATI USB TV Wonder (thanks Mongo Ranger) down where the cupholders were. I have 2 holes drilled into the ductwork that went to the rear air to help keep it all cool. You can see I bought a 3 way cigarette lighter adaptor to make it easier to plug thing into the power.

Its coming along and I hope to be finished with this mod SOON!

Butch

 

[pktwatch]

Here are a few pictures with the TEAK WOOD on the rack.

Here we have the slats laid out and spaced with blocks of wood.

All clamped up and ready to drill the holes.

My woodworking buddy doing a little fine tuning!

In this picture the rack looks like it set above the hard covers more than it really does. Its high enough to get the covers off without removing the rack but not as high as this angle makes it look.

And here is is from the back with the flage attached!

This is a expensive project! The TEAK WOOD alone cost me over $350 but I do have enough left to make RUNNING BOARDS!! I just primed and painted the frame and I should have powder coated it. I may take it apart in the spring and do that but I was in a hurry to get it done before our big trip.

We got the rear view camera mounted on the rear of the rack in a custom made TEAK WOOD block. Its working great, the camera is not as good as teh expensive ones but I can see with it. It rained all day so I don't have pictures of the camera mount yet but you know that I will post them when I get them!!

Butch

 

[The Mox]

And here is is from the back with the flage attached!

The rack has turned out quite nicely. It would look even better if your Avy wasn't parked so close to that Dodge pick up.


Greg
The Mox

 

[pktwatch]

He parked close to me, I did not park close to him

Butch

 

[dunes_av]

that rack looks cool.... kudos on your new mods

 

[pktwatch]

Here are a few more pics:

This is as wide as I could make the rack and still use the side boxes.

Before mounting the camera.

Camera mounted.

The camera in working with the laptop. It is not as good of a camera as I would like, its a little slow focusing and has some problems with bright lights but I can see ok on my laptop screen.

Now, for all of you techies, I have a Windows Media player problem! When I drop a video file into another application the movie is blurred on about the bottom 1/3 of the screen. It will have a lot of vertical lines and is not viewable. The top of the screen looks fine. If I play a clip in the Win Media player it is ok. Let me give you two examples:

I made a PowerPoint presentation and the video clip has that bottom 1/3 blurred out! If I play it in my Win Media player its fine but when I drop it in PowerPoint it does the blurr thing.

Now it is the same when I am trying to view the camera through my ATI software! I think it is a driver or codac problem, any ideas how to fix this? It does not help to reduce the size and I have looked with no luck for a updated driver to my Dell Laptop video card.

Butch