Backup camera install in duck bill

[crankine3]

I am in the process of installing a backup cam and dash cam DVR as a full replacement rear view mirror. After looking over things, I determined the best spot to put the rear camera was on the duck bill under the LED light strip. Taking the duck bill off was easy, only 4 bolts to undo, three built in screws that you slide the duck bill back off of, and some very worn out double sided tape.



Just to see how deep it was, I took out the LED strip, and it isn't any deeper or bigger than what you see from the outside. So that insured the area under the LED strip was hollow.



This is the camera I chose http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AWQYVNO It is adjustable in it's socket as I had no idea what would be the best viewing angle before mounting it. It is low profile behind the surface, and it comes with a hole drill. The arbitrary guild lines are built in. The only downsides are that it rotates a hair when you tighten the adjustment locking screw, and what I think is a small power converter on the DC input gets rather hot.





After drilling the hole, I knew I would not have room to reach behind the camera and screw in any flush mount hardware, so I had to press it in through the front. With maybe 50 pounds of force I got it in, and it as snug. So snug I can't rotate the camera, but I did have it lined up before I pressed it. The up/down adjustment had to he tweaked when the duck bill was on the car, but to tighten the locking screw I had to remove the duckbill to access the little screw. This became a hassle as when I would tighten this screw, it would rotate the camera in the socket a little bit, so it took several iterations to get it right.




I am able to position the camera in just a way to see the end of the bumper, and in the corners I see the edge of the red LED strip. I measured the distance out from my bumper where the camera picks up, and it is about 14 inches (as shown by the tip of the blue funnel in the picture). I can see the LED strip light up, when I apply the breaks, but it isn't very distracting. The second pic shows the bumper and LED strip highlighted.

[corlon]

nice work. what dash cam dvr did you go with?

[TadS]

That's pretty cool, what sort of a total bill did you run up?

[crankine3]

The DVR / Dash cam is this rear view replacement.http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00C070Q2S/ref=wms_ohs_product?ie=UTF8&psc=1



So I needed a new rear view mirror as my stock one has this odd golden flake thing going on. And while I always back into spots all the time with no problems, I hope to one day get a body kit and I don't want to back into a concrete barrier and destroy that body kit.

The points I like about this DVR mirror thing are that it can record two camera feeds, with one of them being the front facing camera built into the mirror, and it doesn't have a dozen buttons built on it instead using an IR remote control. (Other dash cam review mirrors have all kinds of buttons). The odd thing with this particular model is that the 2nd DVR feed and "reverse gear activated" camera feed are two different feeds. As I want to record everything behind me, but only see my rear when I am in reverse, I am going to splice in a standard automotive relay. And a simple RCA splitter won't work as it'll show the reverse camera all the time. My multimeter at home is busted, so I am going to do the pin out at work early this week, and get the wiring done later this week when I tackle a few projects under my center console. I can post info about the relay pin out after I get it done. Also, this mirror doesn't have the auto headlight dimming function, I am probably going to miss that.

The dash cam dual DVR mirror is a little steep at $260, and I added a 32 GB MicroSDHC card for $20. The camera with included drill bit was only $20. That camera can be used with probably any existing device (like double din after market radios) that can take a rear camera display. You will just need to get a long RCA cable and figure out the power wiring.

[1gSE]

That's a nice set up! Subtle, most people probably wouldn't notice the camera. Nice work

[Toy1mzfe]

Nice job man! I was always trying to figure out a non tacky spot to put the backup camera since i have a deck that can support a cam.

[crankine3]

I guess I should have added this before .... I had no issues taking the 4 bolts out of the duck bill. But, the 4 bolts do not have any taper on the end like many other car bolts do ... so you have to be dead on when you go to put them back in. I missed one bolt hole, the bolt came out, it fell in between the metal panels of the trunk lid, and I had to take the lid off and shake it upside down.

Not counting my fun times playing the metal maraca, the entire process took about 25 minutes, with 1/3rd that being the camera alignment with my particular camera. The little plastic tabs that hold the gray trunk carpet to the lid of the trunk are much thicker and much less fragile than other plastic tabs located throughout the car, and I was able to remove them by hand. I only needed to remove the upper half, not the whole piece of carpet. I think the bolts were 10mm (if not then they were 12mm, but they were probably 10mm). Have some cleaning rags on hand, and caulk or RTV on hand to redo the rotted gaskets for the bolt holes and the wire hole between the duck bill and trunk lid.

I plan on having a touchscreen double din head unit some day, and I would have wired this camera into that. But I wanted the dual DVR setup and dash cam, so I am going to just leave the reverse cam on that mirror. Given 25 minutes of trunk install, and maybe 35 minutes of running the wires under the rear seat and along the sill and below the dash ... I'd recommend this to anyone that has a camera capable head unit already.