Project No Blind Spots (Page 1 of 2)

Oddly enough, Tesla autopilot cameras have a similar issue to being obscured by crap in the rear camera.  Someone came up with an overly complicated method to blow air across the camera lens.  If you can figure out a lemon's friendly way to blow air across the lens, it will be surprisingly clear.

CPU cooling fan into a baster tube, and split the output via tubing to each mirror? Integrate next to a defroster vent...

I'm not going to worry about keeping the cameras clean yet. I want to get a race done with the basic setup to see how it does. I'm sure there will be some vibration, but I don't expect it to be enough to care. I'm not looking for perfect 4k video here, just good enough to be able to look up and go "there's someone in my passenger blind spot."

Learned a lesson today. Got my two other screens, which are a different one than the first I bought. they are in fact different dimensions, just different enough to be annoying. So I am printing new cases to fit them. Check back in 24 hours and they'll be done.

I think I have all the printed parts done. The last screen case wrapped up some time this morning and I just have to pull all the support material off it.

Printed a simple enclosure to hold the connectors, it will get hidden under the passenger dash somewhere.

Last pieces I need, some filters for passing power to the system to try and keep noise out of the signals. The saab comes up from my dad's house the beginning of march for a 2 week thrash prep for PittRace and I should be able to get this system installed.

All ready to go in the car.

only thing I'll change is swapping out the stupid long RCA cables for some shorter ones on the side cameras. No need to bundle 30ft of cable somewhere. the flying leads out of the RCA>Ethernet box are power and ground leads. I could integrate a bunch of barrel connectors, but the spades will hold better in the car. There's a power for each camera, then a 12V in and a unified ground.

Car will be here March 2nd for install along with a million other projects like swapping the timing chain, remounting the seat, improving brake ducts, better oil cooler, and half a dozen other little improvements.

That's my biggest worry honestly. I know the screens are cheap little POSs. But we'll see, hopefully even in adverse conditions you can glance up and notice if there's a car sitting in a blind spot.

Honestly? I've never been. I've been told about it many times and just never get around to visiting.

I 100% agree this should not be a mirror replacement. There's always a chance something fails with electronics. They are going to be mounted between the roll bar and the existing mirror, so if you glance up, you're looking at the mirror anyway.

terrible photo from when I was playing with locations.

Yea, the stuff they're adding to the pro cars is pretty trick. i got the idea first from the LMP1 cars when they abandoned mirrors and went to screens for the full cockpit cars. The real time processing and overlay stuff is awesome, but I do NOT have the skills required to do that. I am not a software person, not by any stretch. If someone wants to take a stab at designing such a system on the cheap I would 100% be willing to try it.

Hah, that's the same inspiration for ours.

Hmm, that's a tempting project.  I'll add it to the "That would be cool if I ever get around to it" list.

Nice touch on the indicators. It still looks like just a single camera view, not the 180-degree view combination of multiple cameras, and still a blind spot it looks like as toward the end the car trails off on one side and doesn't appear in the view until well behind.

I also noticed they implemented another idea i had 20 years ago, which was to make a tach display as a light bar.  I built one that swept along the rear of the windshield, it was my first electronics project.
Used analog circuits!

Almost done. Working on aiming and mounting the side cameras. Still too low facing, but the angles are right. The box and radiator you see on the screen are directly out the driver window, so I have a view looking right down the side of the car, all the way to directly beside the driver. Should make for a good view.

They'll be mounted here under the mirror. I'll find some way to fill in that gap from trying to aim the camera right. looks awful as it is.