Made a wireless backup camera system cheaply

Hey everyone, I had been meaning to post this for awhile, as I have in some other forums I frequent.

I found a wireless camera system at Wal-Mart, that not only being inexpensive, meets many needs that can be adapted for our camping/trailer uses. You can use it to see how to hitch up, how to back in sites/garages, a rear-view camera while driving, and other things. You can even set it up at the campground/or home to monitor things there. The monitor will record onto a micro sd card. There is even two way intercom between monitor and camera. You can also add three more cameras to the system.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/GE-Wireles...ype=10&veh=aff

It's very portable. I've been keeping it in my truck and using it to hook up trailers at my business.

The camera can run off the provided AC cord or AA batteries, while the monitor can run off the provided AC or it's built-in rechargeable batteries. It operates on 2.4 Ghz, and I will transmit to my truck cab from the rear of my 32 travel trailer while in motion.

Many of my friends in the other camping/rv forums I frequent have purchased one.

Instead of trying to copy over everything, I am going to post a link to where I posted about it on a local geocaching forum. It has the pics and videos I made with the system (including a youtube upload).

http://www.nelageo.net/index.php?opt...5306&Itemid=54

I also posted about it in the Forest River forums here.....but this is a lot of reading and has many posts to it.....but is more detailed than the first link.

http://www.forestriverforums.com/for...ply-33506.html

Hope this helps anyone who may be interested.

Very good idea, I will check this out thanks for this information.

Dave

[Bill]

Bobby -

The listing at WalMart says that it has "night vision". I'm never quite sure what this means. Does it have IR illuminators? Assuming not, can you give me some idea of how dark it can be and still produce a usable picture? If you are in a dark campground (no streetlights, no car headlights, no porch light, etc) and point it out into the forest, can you see anything?

Thanks

Bill

Originally Posted by Bill

Bobby -

The listing at WalMart says that it has "night vision". I'm never quite sure what this means. Does it have IR illuminators? Assuming not, can you give me some idea of how dark it can be and still produce a usable picture? If you are in a dark campground (no streetlights, no car headlights, no porch light, etc) and point it out into the forest, can you see anything?

Thanks

Bill

Bill. it has the IR illuminators. Actually I made a recording of it at night. I will find these recordings and post them so you can see.

Using it as a hookup camera (attached to my tailgate) so I can see to align the ball and tongue of the trailer....the IR works great in pitch dark.

I also made a video standing about fifteen feet away from my trailer and it lights up quite well too, but the trailer being white helps a bunch.

I need to find my micro sd to sd card adaptor to load these to my computer so you can see. I will post back later with this.

Let's see if these night video pics upload.

The one from my tailgate to the hitch is in almost pitch dark. The IR illuminators are providing all the light, and are reflecting off the ground almost to the point of blinding the camera.

The one on the back of my trailer is the IR lights from the camera which is sitting on the corner of my travel trailers back bumper........ aiming across the bumper, spare tire, and ice chest I have on a bumper rack.

And the one to the side of my trailer is from fifteen feet away (I stepped it off), with the IR providing the light.

I have lost some pic quality in the transfer from video to screenshots of the video.........but you should get some kind of idea what to expect in the dark with this camera.

[Bill]

Thanks, Bobby! That's a lot better than I expected it to be.

Bill

Originally Posted by Bill

Thanks, Bobby! That's a lot better than I expected it to be.

Bill

Bill, not sure if you are referring to the light or the pic quality.

If it's the picture quality, it is a lot better when just viewing it on the monitor in real time.

To get the screenshots of the videos posted, I took the following steps:

1.Copy the avi (or it may have been a wmv) file from the micro sd card onto my computer

2. Open the video file with Windows Media Player and make it full screen. Then I pressed the pause button to freeze the video.......which takes away some of the clarity.......as did making it full screen.

3. Now I just pressed the "print screen" command button on my keyboard and then used the paste command in Microsoft Paint after opening that program.

4. I saved the pic as a jpeg file (again losing some clarity)....and uploaded these jpegs to the forums.

I'm sure in each step, I lost something as far as pic quality goes.

Here are the spec sheets taken from the Jasco/GE website:

SPECIFICATIONS:

GENERAL
RF Frequency: .................................................. ............................... 2.4~2.48 GHz
Transmit Power: .................................................. ......................................... 16dBm
RF Range: ................................................45 0ft Unobstructed Line of Sight
Modulation: .................................................. .................................................. .....GFSK
Spread Spectrum:......................................... .................................................. .FHSS
Operational Temperature:
.................................................. ...... -20~55C @ 5~85% RH non-condensing
.................................................. ....... -4~131F @ 5~85% RH non-condensing
Storage Temperature:
.................................................. ......-30~60C @ 5~85% RH non-condensing
.................................................. .....-22~140F @ 5~85% RH non-condensing
AC/DC Adapter: .................................................. ...........................Input: 120VAC
.................................................. .................................................. .......Output: 5V @ 1A

CAMERA
Imaging Sensor: .................................................. ....................................¼” CMOS
Lens Type: .................................................. ............................................ 4.9mm F2.8
Minimum Illumination: ..................................... 0 Lux with IR Illumination
System Resolution: ............................................. QVGA (320X240)-Monitor
.................................................. ................................................. VGA (640X480)-USB
Imager Resolution: .................................................. .................VGA (640 x 480)
View Angle: .................................................. .................................................. ..........45º
Night Vision Range: .................................................. ........................................ 16ft
Temperature Sensor: .................................................. ....... -10~35C (14~ 95F)
Current Consumption: .................................................. ........................... 540mA
Battery Type: .................................................. ....................................4AA Alkaline
Battery Life: .................................................. .................................... Up to 4 hours
Dimensions: .................................................. .........3.3mm x 2.6mm x 6.3mm
Weight:........................................... .................................................. ......... 130 grams


MONITOR
LCD Size: .................................................. ........................................... 3.5” Di
agonal
Battery Life: .................................................. .................................... Up to 5 hours
System Resolution: ............................................. QVGA (320X240)-Monitor
.................................................. ................................................. VGA (640X480)-USB
Current Consumption: .................................................. ........................... 850mA
Memory Card: .................................................. ............... Micro SD (32GB max)
Output Port: .................................................. ................................................ USB 2.0
Operational Temperature:
.................................................. .......-10~45C @ 5~85% RH non-condensing
.................................................. ...... 14~113F @ 5~85% RH non-condensing
Storage Temperature:
.................................................. ...... -30~60C @ 5~85% RH non-condensing
.................................................. .....-22~140F @ 5~85% RH non-condensing

What I didn't mention, mainly because I have not used the feature....is that it comes with software to allow viewing/recording of the camera(s) if you have the monitor hooked into your computer.

As far as camping goes, I suppose if you were at a campground with wifi, you could hook the system up to a laptop/netbook.....and use a smartphone to look in on your stuff while away... if you have any programs that allow you remote access of your computer.

Here is a pdf file about the computer software that the system comes with. Funny thing is, after browsing it, I see where I could have used this program to view my video files, and been able to take a snapshot of any part of the video. Would have saved me time with all that Microsoft Paint stuff I mentioned in the previous post. LOL

http://www.jascoproducts.com/support...anual_REV1.pdf

[Bill]

Originally Posted by wmtire

Bill, not sure if you are referring to the light or the pic quality.

Bobby -

Actually, I was impressed that it can see anything in nearly pitch dark. I have no experience with these things, but the fact that the illuminator can work from 15 feet away suggests that it wouldn't take very much ambient light to make a really usable picture on the monitor. Thanks for taking the time to take the pictures and answer my question.

Bill

[mecicon]

Originally Posted by wmtire

Hey everyone, I had been meaning to post this for awhile, as I have in some other forums I frequent.



Hope this helps anyone who may be interested.

I found this option as well, delivered yesterday. Played with it in the driveway seem it will fit my needs.

http://www.etrailer.com/Electronics/...tch/04928.html