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Vans & Minivans Honda Odyssey Honda Odyssey Accessories & Modifications
902 messages, Last post on Nov 21, 2009 at 7:11 PM
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Replying to: txuser (Apr 17, 2007 1:12 pm) |
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I bought the VR3 wireless camera reviewed in this months' Consumer Reports. I will make a long story short(er) by leaving out my experiments and mistakes.  First, I removed the liftgate passenger side access panel for the taillights, and the access panel for the latch. A butterknife levered them loose. I found that an old plastic driveway marker stake could be pushed from one to the other with a little bending. The licence plate area proved difficult, and, finally, I drilled a hole for the wires. I suggest you drill about 2 inches directly bellow the driver side licence plate mount screw hole. I fished a speaker wire through to pull the camera wire. From the drilled hole to the latch pannel, then to the taillight area. The hole has to be large enough for the thicker base section of the camera power wire (I think that's where the antenna is) Check the supplied grommet, I think it requires a 3/8ths inch drill; and you can easly drill into the very soft steel. The back-up light socket(top) power wires have a thick protective plastic surround; I cut it away and spliced the camera cord into the wires to the socket. The outer pin on the plug is for the hot, positive wire and THE POSITIVE WIRE IS colored GREEN. The Ground wire is Blue. Comments: 1. The electrical taps supplied are too big to work. So I spliced. 2. The camera is tilted down with 2 sets of plastic wedges; they don't tilt it enough. There should be additional wedges. The view angle shows the ground about 4 feet behind the bumper. An object a foot high could be seen about 2 feet behind the bumper. The top of the view angle is about 20 degrees above horizontal. Width is just pass the width of my garage door opening- I can see the door frame when the car's rear is 4 feet from the door. 3. When the car enters reverse, the camera requires about 10-15 seconds to compensate for bright sun, and the picture to be clear. In reduced light, its instantly working. 4. This camera runs on the same frequency as wi-fi computers and Radio Shack's television senders, and X-10 cameras. There may be some momentary interference. 5. The monitor power cord is kinda short; I placed the monitor just above the dashboard air vent by the drivers' door, routing the cord from the power outlet over the steering collum. 6. It works! 
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| No offense, but that writeup made very thankful that I ponied up for the Touring R&N. | |
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Replying to: library1 (Apr 19, 2007 6:27 pm) questions: 1). where did you purchase it? 2). how much? 3). does the VR3 you purchased have the contrast control buttons? 4). did you drill from the inside of the vehicle out or from the outside in? 5). could you have gone through the license plate light lense? (i kind of hate to drill through the body). 6). is your intent to lessen the likelyhood of hitting an object (parking / tilt down) or a person (tilt up)? ultimately, do you think the device is worth it? comment: it may interfere with bluetooth. 7). any mention of interference with bluetooth phone accessories in the instructions?
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Replying to: user777 (Apr 20, 2007 10:07 am) 2. About $120; if it was in stock at Wall-Mart, it would have been $70. Someone on E-Bay is selling them for less, but requires Paypal which I have problems with. 3. No. Picture is perfect after it stabilizes. The Monitor can reverse and invert the picture, so I experimented on where to place the camera first...considered the spoiler and under the bumper. 4. Outside in, just next to the licence plate screw hole- after trying to find a way not to drill in. Adding the supplied grommit made me feel better, like the hole was well finished. I hated to drill too! Top layer of steel. 5. The interior of the hatch is more complex than you can believe! There are 2 licence plate lights, and you can probe past them all the way to the taillights, but that path is one layer removed from the taillight access. 6. In the Mc Donnald's parking lot I can see their roof! That's unnecessary, and I would prefer seeing lower, like the ground closser to the car. Its not bad, even a small child could be seen. Not hiting a car is also good, and it works for that. Yes, less than $150 to save a life or even a dent is worth it. 7. No, its opperating on the 2.4 gigahertz band, but remember, its only on when your car is in reverse. I took some photos, and can send them or post them if you like.
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Replying to: library1 (Apr 21, 2007 2:14 pm) |
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'03 ODY. Wife wanted one. Doesn't need it for parking. She's the parallel parking guru. Worried about small children behind vehicle. Shopped the local Walmart but they were out of stock. Got mine at Pepboys. $119.00USD with $20 mail in rebate through May 5th, making effective cost $99.00USD. This was the 4 button version (which is what I wanted) over a 2 button version I saw in Target recently. The extra buttons provide Contrast and Brightness controls. They are worth searching for the 4 button version! First I removed passenger access panel in the hatch using a putty knife. Anything thin will work. I decided not to go the fishing of wires route. I decided to remove the screws holding the handle on the rear hatch (remove the rubberized screw concealers using the putty knife or a thin screwdriver). Unscrew and remove. Also removed the two plasic screws and pressure fittings on either side of the lock assembly mounted on the hatch. With the screws out, use the putty knife to get the pressure fittings out. Then I carefully pulled the plastic hatch covering from the hatch at 4 points: 2 lower-most corners, and 2 points not far from the right and left lamp access panels. Doing this allowed me to stick my whole arm up into the hatch and fish the wire over to the passenger side bulb access panel. Removing one of the plastic license plate fixture/holders allowed enough light so I could visually see where the wire would be entering the vehicle once I drilled a hole. I drilled a hole in the hatch just to the right and just below the square hole that the license plate fixture/holder is placed into that I had temporarily removed. When wiring the camera to the backup light (black was GND, and green was +12VDC on the '03..I verified this with a voltmeter), I then used a cheap $4.95 wire stipper/cutter. I just made a small circular cut essentially around the backup bulb wires and pulled the insulation back to reveal the wires. No cutting of the wires was necessary!!! Any sharp knife, razor blade would do the same for someone else. This left the wiring to the backup bulb intact and a place for me to loop and mechanically/electrically make a good connection with the camera power leads. I could have soldered it but didn't. I can always do this in the future if I like. Anyway, on the camera leads, I stripped more insulation so I had a good 1.5inches. I made a good mechanical connection of the camera leads to the backup bulb leads where the insulation was exposed, and taped it off with electrical tape. The splicers supplied with the kit are inferior to the connections which I made. I am certain of this. On the '03 dash, there is plenty of dash area to mount the supplied velcro pieces above the mirror adjustment and to the left of the TCS On/Off control buttons. This is to the driver's left side. The color monitor mounts to one piece of the velcro, and the other piece of mating material to the dash. When pressed together, the monitor is flush with the dash. Results of monitor placement and wire hiding are rather decent looking if I say so myself. In addition, I purchased a 4-5 dollar Cigarette Lighter Power Splitter made by Bell (also at PepBoys). Wife can still use her cell phone adapter, or we can use a power invertor we have (we use a laptop to play DVDs for the kids on long trips) without unpugging the camera. I routed the power wire from the plug inserted into one of the female recepticles of the Bell Cig Lighter Slitter to the left side of the center storage bin, up into the wiring behind the dash, over the steering column, down near the left side of the dash, then up towards the driver's vent in the general area where I mounted the monitor. I did not use the little monitor holder. Works pretty darn well. Wife says it's "awesome". There is a little interference in our driveway (we have a Linksys Router) and the instructions do say there could be interference with other 2.4GHz devices. In the nearby cul-de-sac, I had no interference at all. I think if someone is interested in one of these devices, they should search out the 4 button version. I think the 2 button version was the predicessor product, and I personally feel less valuable. Hope this helps someone. Thanks library1 for being the first to report your results and encourage me to jump into the project. I'm glad I did. Not much effort. Results worth it.
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Honda, Thule or Yakima? We need them to support our big ol' cargo box. What do you have, and would you recommend them?
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Replying to: user777 (Apr 22, 2007 12:26 pm) Looks like its going to be a popular product!
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Replying to: 3kids4me (Apr 22, 2007 6:07 pm) Yakima vs Thule? Vanilla vs Chocoalte - you can't go wrong with either. |
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