whojoemama

I know none of you ever get passed, so there’s no reason to focus on what’s happening behind you, but i’m struggling with near-zero visiblity out the rearview mirror. I went to a multipanel ‘wink’ rearview mirror, but this is nearly useless. Does anyone else have the same issues? Is there a rear-facing camera system that provides a realtime feed into the cockpit? Thanks in advance.

38D

I use a panoramic mirror made by Crawford. It works really well. Mine is also a MR so the song is a little higher.

with Motec, you can definitely have a real time camera feed to the dash. The camera can be displayed based on a channel, like when your are in reverse or when you press a button.

zracer196

Interesting topic as I raced motorcycles for over a decade and we didn’t have mirrors, etc. Of course we could turn our head but I was always told to focus in front…Also always used to seem when people looked back is when they were soon passed.

Obviously in DE’s we need to watch for the faster car BEFORE they arrive, etc. But I’ve never had an issue. OEM mirror in my CS but maybe I have more visibility in my car?

whojoemama

well, i pretty much can’t see **** out my rearview….i saw something (expensive) in Leh Keen’s car I think on youtube….

ProCoach

One of the best, least expensive RVC setups is the 5.6" or 7" VDO cameras and displays. Works great. This is the go-to for most club level and even entry level pro GT cars with big wings and limited rear quarter and rear view vision.

I have a few folks that use the HDMI out with the rear facing camera of a VBOX HD2 HDMI to feed a 7" display, very inexpensive and effective add on.

You can spend $15-$20K for Bosch's system, but it will show green, yellow and orange arrows to track cars coming up...

whojoemama

thanks Coach. I have the VBOX but it seems to have a time lag — is that fixed by using the connection pattern you suggest above? I’m thinking about just using an LCD rearview mirror camera

milrad

I bought a whole new Kenwood head unit to integrate rear, and then front, cameras. Not because of worrying about cars on track but because there are so many people, and little kids, wandering around the paddock. Strapped in and in a full-face helmet, I just couldn't see backing out of my space to head to grid.

alasorte

Coach, I’d like to try this approach with my VBOX HD2 HDMI. Do you have any recommendations for a suitable, bright 7” display? Thanks.

ProCoach

I don't have any that I have tried myself, but this one says it has 400 nits (good brightness), runs on 12V and is in a ruggedized case. Plug the HD2 output (after enabling Camera 2 output in the scene file) into the HDMI input and voila.

https://www.beetronics.com/7-inch-mo...MaAqA0EALw_wcB

whojoemama

i'm thinking about just trying this as a cheap and cheerful way to improve my visibility: https://brandmotion.com/product/full...tem-fvmr-1100/

alasorte

Thanks, Coach!

zmon

In one of our E36 endurance racing cars we installed a rear facing camera for the night races and it works great. We work with RRT in sterling for maintaining the cars and BIlly has a guy in the area that has a nice product.

Here is the link to his website https://www.jfracing.net/p/dms

Not sure how to post vid from our car as its in a google drive... anyways its a great system.

jfracing

Small note about using a normal camera system, the image is going to be backwards horizontally from what you expect to see in a rear-view mirror in a mirror. Many HDMI displays have built-in options to do flipping on the vertical axis but many do not.

The aformentioned system zmon shared a link to is of my design, so if anyone has any questions I'll gladly answer them.

alasorte

Here’s my cobbled-together rear view monitor setup, using ProCoach’s idea - the VBox’s rear facing camera.

I chose a monitor with good brightness (1,000 nits) and contrast (cost - under $250) . Mounting hardware from Amazon (around $50). Very sturdy and doesn’t shake at speed.

I’m still experimenting with the display’s location. May move it higher and closer to the windshield.





At normal resolution, more than half of the monitor’s picture was the trunk area, which was useless. But I set the monitor to 2x zoom and it’s much more helpful now. I used it at Sebring last week with PBOC and it worked great.

4MW

Thanks for the information. PBOC looked liked big fun this year - need to get down there.
Quick question: Is the monitor brand “Bestview”?

Thanks!