On Wed, June 15, 2005 4:11 pm, jon@dakota-truck.net said:
>
> I've never
> tried it, but I have a little battery back which takes a few AA or AAA
> batteries that an X10 camera mounts to so you don't need to worry about
> external power.
Well, that would probably work. And it would avoid the question of
drilling holes in the wall of the trailer to route power to it.
> If you have a back window in the trailer you could mount it
> inside, otherwise you'd probably need to think about some sort of
> weatherproofing, in which case maybe an X10 camera would be the way to go
> anyway.
Nope, no window. Probably I'd just figure out some kind of easy-on,
easy-off mount so I could attach it before traveling and remove it once
it's parked.
> As far as the singnal goes, maybe just take the portable TV from the
> trailer and put it up in the Dak?
Well, that TV isn't terribly portable (13" tube plus a built-in VCR, runs
on AC only). There is an entire category for portable TVs on eBay,
though. There are plenty on there that will run on DC power from the
vehicle electrical system. Yeah, I know you can run an AC television with
an inverter, but I believe it's more efficient to just use DC instead of
converting it to AC. A big part of my thinking there is that a TV
designed to run on 12V DC will probably consume a lot less total power
than one designed to run on household 120V AC.
As far as mounting on the dash, I realized that I wouldn't want to do that
anyway. If the camera is on the back of the trailer facing backwards,
then the driver's side of the vehicle will be on the right side of the
screen. That would be weird if the screen were mounted normally. RV
systems must flip the signal side to side in order to get the expected
mirror image. What I'd need to do is figure out how to mount the TV
somewhere in the back seat where I could see it in the rear view mirror.
That mirror is useless anyway when pulling the trailer. Either that, or
put a fish-eye mirror on the back of the trailer, and mount the camera
facing forwards pointed at that mirror. I like the back seat solution
more, assuming I can figure out some kind of mounting system.
-- Jason Bleazard http://drazaelb.blogspot.com Burlington, Ontario his: '95 Dakota Sport 4x4, 3.9 V6, 5spd, Reg. Cab, white hers: '01 Dakota Sport 4x4, 4.7 V8, Auto, Quad Cab, black
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