Boyo VTL 351 - Rear View Camera Install

[kots]

I have installed my newly bought license plate camera on my rogue. Here are some detailed pictures of the product. The License plate frame has a small thin wire to piggy-back with an extension cable carrying both video and power which piggy-backs and split to regular RCA cable and +/- power:http://www.sonicelectronix.com...id=-1

It is ultra-slim and very discreet. It uses CCD which is superior to CMOS. The price is about $150 on Amazon.com. Other cheap cameras can be had for <$50 but they are bulky and I don't think they provide wide angle view and good low-light performance. This camera rocks! It has 150 degree horizontal view and very good low-light performance at night.

Here are some pictures from my install and short descriptions:

Routing the feed involves partially removing the back panel. Start with popping out the top panel where the single brake lamp is located. Then drop the feed on either sides to route the wire to the tiny access window and then piggy back to the connector from the license plate. This may involve slightly popping out one of the side panels (not necessarily removing all the way) Partially pop out one of the side panels below your rear side window. Again, just slightly make an opening should be enough to route your wires to the rubber weather stripping and then to the door edge panels. Find your reverse wire from the driver door edge panel. It is green with gray dots. There may be at least two of them so just keep on tapping until your voltmeter responds to +12V when you shift to reverse. (Thanks to Leo2005, silverboy pics and others for assuring me it is the green wire.) Rear view camera in action: Added a shopping bag on a blind spot to test: Total blind spot from my rear-view mirror. Compare how much I can see with my wide-angled rear view camera vs. just the rear-view mirror.

Hope this helps. I highly recommend this ultra-slim license plate camera. There is no drilling involve and minimal cutting of wires. I tap the camera power to my stereo ACC so it will stay on when the key is in ACC or On. The reverse wire is wired to my Kenwood's reverse trigger so it will show the rear view display on reverse.

I'd be happy to answer questions relating to this install.

[Pescakl1]

Really nice find . Seems to be a really good camera.

Could you make a close up photo of the wire from the camera entering the car through the license plate light?From reading on this forum, it seems to be the hard part to do if you don't want to drill the car.

Thanks for sharing.

[crayb]

Nice job, the install of the Kenwood in your Rogue looks great. I have the Kenwood DNX5120 in my Accent and I LOVE it. It is prob one of the best aftermarket units on the market. GPS functions and the ability to add many, many options.

Ray

[Leo2005]

I just want to add one thing. Since you installed the rear camera you should install extra lighting because you won't see much on camera during night: http://www.v-leds.com/Exterior....html

[Pescakl1]

Leo, it mainly depends on the camera.

Most of them are not that good at night but the one kots bought seems to be pretty good.Like he said, it is a CCD camera and I believe they did not filter the camera in order to get some infrared waves, therefore being able to see with barely no light.

What you found is pretty nice, but as usual, inaccurate in their specs: They use 6 Cree XR-E high power leds which can be powered with 700mA each (therefore the 3W claim). At 700mA, they deliver about 200 lumens each, therefore the 1300 lumens claim.

But...

driving them at 700mA, they would have need big heatsinks to not burn them out and there are none of that on it, you will notice them right away (something like computer heatsinks about 2 inch by 1 inch for each of the leds).That means they drive them below 100mA no more in order not to use heatsink. Of course, below 100mA, they don't deliver 200 lumens each. Probably about 20-30.And lumens don't add, two 20 lumens leds don't give 40 in total but more in the 30-35 lumens zone.

So yes, it is really nice what they did, but they lie on their specs in order to boost their sales, but does anyone can notice if a led delivers 30 or 100 lumens without any instrumentation? For sure, I cannot. I just know because I know how high power leds work and their specs.

I am working on back up light with 3 high power leds, each led delivering about 150 lumens each, with a focusing lens in front of them, with a nice heatsink in order to light them for about 1 minute at a time, no more.We will see how it goes.

[Leo2005]

That was an example. By looking at the video it does making a difference but....maybe this is not the best choice like you said. Another option could be adding some fog lights in the back. Also you can turn 'em on when someone is driving behind you with high beam

[Elton Noway]

I am working on back up light with 3 high power leds, each led delivering about 150 lumens each, with a focusing lens in front of them, with a nice heatsink in order to light them for about 1 minute at a time, no more.We will see how it goes.

Please let us know if you come up with a successful design that truly floods the area behind your car with light when you backup. I've done multiple experiments and tried various LEDs with no real luck. (short of cutting out the lamp assembly and retrofitting some type of flood lamp.) I'll admit I never tried the LED license plate frame Leo found. I was hoping someone else would take that leap of faith and report back with a review. In the meantime I'm back to running with the stock backup bulbs. As you know we pretty much beat the subject of backup light mods to death in the thread below.

zerothread?id=427770

[Pescakl1]

Elton, guess for who I try to achieve that? (Hint: my garage entry is lighted up enough).

I took it as a challenge as it is not easy to do them as PnP.I wanted to be ready for the autumn when the days shorten but I am running late, I am sorry.Parts come from China for most of them, so it takes some time to gather them.

I will keep all of you posted on that.

[greg2015]

Like Pescakl1 said, how about a close up of the power/video cable going into the vehicle. I just recently bought a 2006 Pathfinder LE and installed a DDX512 Kenwood DVD same as 5120 but without nav, and have a CCD camera but have not installed it yet. These pics help alot even though this is not a pathfinder , but gives ma an idea of what to expect. Nice job

[kots]

Here are some close-up pics to see the wire going to the right license plate lamp. You will need to squeeze the sides of the lamp assembly from the inside (through the little access window shown on the previous pictures) to loosen the lamp assembly and route the license plate wire to the inside. The right license lamp assembly pops outwards (when done correctly) from left to right.

[kots]

crayb: indeed! i love my kenwood dnx5120. I got it when it was relatively a new product. great product!

leo2005: that's a nice option. i try to stay away from LEDs now and I would go with SMD leds which produces more light and should be more reliable. in any case, the boyo has very good night vision capability. images appear black and white at night but otherwise very clear. i would take pictures next time in complete darkness. here is a sample image from amazon posted by a reviewer of a different model from the same company Boyo: http://www.amazon.com/gp/custo...dex=0

to others looking for lighting upgrade, i would suggest looking for SMD leds (lots on eBay). I have upgraded my interior dome lighting, map lights to SMD leds and it is really bright to a point that my passengers would squint at night because of the bright white lights.

[Pescakl1]

Thanks for the pics: I did not know there was enough space for a wire to do through over there.

to others looking for lighting upgrade, i would suggest looking for SMD leds (lots on eBay). I have upgraded my interior dome lighting, map lights to SMD leds and it is really bright to a point that my passengers would squint at night because of the bright white lights.

SMD leds are bright and small so it is a good solution... for interior lighting.SMD leds spray light around them, they don't project light. In that, they are close to halogen bulbs (large angle). So, you will have some light but the objects need to be close to the source to be enlighten enough.