What's the range of these cameras and what is required to wire the camera like the Flir into the stock head unit?
Range? Well I can see the temperature difference of the clouds in the sky, and the level of water in a water tower. But to pick out a deer in the middle of the road in ideal? Shoot I’d say 1/2 mile at least.
I'd be willing to bet all these systems use the same FLIR camera as FLIR will sell those as a component to integrate into a custom camera system
I don’t know about that. I think the Hudway one is a knock-off of the Flir. They’re sourcing their other parts in China. I don’t know why Flir would make parts for them to undercut their own sales. Hudway unit is $1500, Flir is $2,500. But I still wonder about the fps rate of the Hudway one. Flir sells an "exportable" version that I believe is around 8fps instead of 30fps. After having 30fps, 8 would suck.
@Swarfworks - just had to say - killer fab work (love my license plate bracket). How did you go about getting an aux input for factory head unit?
Thank you! So the integration is the trick if you don't want a separate display. I'm running a prototype unit of NavTv's COD (camera on demand) module. It allows you to use the factory cameras at any time. This unit also has an auxiliary input, which I connect the Flir's output to. But what makes it even better, is I'm also running their Flir-XW (eXternal Warning) module which when the Flir "sees" an animal or person, it triggers the COD module to activate, as well as sets off a buzzer.
Now the whole this is super awesome. It's one of my favorite mods. But it isn't perfect. It doesn't work when it's snowing, heavy dust or fog (which the Hudway one is falsely claiming it will). The camera is just measuring the temperature of the moisture, or dust, particles in the air. It's not radar and can't "see" through them.
I also get quite a few false alerts with the AD/PD (animal/pedestrian detection). It uses algorithms to determine if there is an animal or person. So it if "sees" a sign that is tall and skinny and the sun was hitting its roughly the same temp as a human, it might alert. Not a big deal as that usually only happens in the daytime. I ended up putting the XW buzzer on an up-fitter switch.
The FOV is also fairly tight. Which is good on the highway, but would be nicer if it was wider when going slow.
Anyway, think that's all for now.
Paul
Always thought there is a final project - again proven wrong - there is always an project this time i added an Night Vision Camera Set - pretty cool
