pep boys has a rear camera with monitor on sale for $99.99

Originally posted by ChevyHighPerformance:
I bought one and tried it out on the lab bench.

The monitor has an active matrix screen with about 90,000 pixels (r+b+g). Brightness seems good. The housing disassembles and there ar a few potentiometers on the back of the circuit board only marked VR1, 2, 3... (Could be brightness, contrast, color, etc. Not sure.) Monitor has on/off button and a camera view rotation that pages through 4 different views (up - down, right-left). If anyone has a good mounting spot please post.

Camera has decent light sensitivity. Field of view isn't bad at 110 degeree horizontal and 80 degree vertical. I though about mounting it just above the hitch on the bumper. Any thoughts?

There are three power connections ground, +12 volt ACC power, and +12 volt reverse light. The reverse connection only monitors voltage so that when you go into reverse the system automatically comes on. The camera and monitor draw about 0.27 amps total. When the the reverse connection is off, about 0.05 amps is drawn to power the camera and monitor's memory. If you connect the ACC and reverse together to an ACC source, you have to manually turn the monitor off and on. If you connect the ACC input to switched power, then the camera rotation setting will be lost every time you interrupt power. The constant current draw is 0.05 amps - so if you park the H3 for ~ 1- 2 months it will drain your battery.

Still sounds promising. But needs to get out of the lab and on the back of a truck for real world testing hopefully.

S.