Afternoon all,

 

The wife has decided that she needs a camera and monitor in her car (Honda CR-V, I'm afraid), with which to keep an eye on the little ones in the back. She reckons this will be far safer than turning around to look... which is awkward at the best of times in this car, and I do actually agree with her... especially since one of them is epileptic and could potentially have a fit while wife is hooning down the motorway or something.

 

To that end, we're looking for some recommendations on camera models, options, etc.

 

Doesn't have to be über-top-end fancy - Indeed, I thought to just rig up a cheap £50-ish reversing camera in the roof, with a rocker switch and monitor screen up front, all wired to a switched live?
She's happy with holes being put in the dash and stuff like that for screen mounting, so really I guess it's down to what will work well enough for a quick glancing look.

What do people think?

 

 

Also, regarding the legality of these things - I assume it's not outright illegal, as companies like Garmin themselves do dedicated BabyCam things that link to their SatNavs?

would a video based Baby monitor work ?

20 hours ago, Wet Kipper said:

would a video based Baby monitor work ?

If it runs off 12v power, perhaps... Most are stupidly expensive, though.

Go on eBay and you can get cheap non brand cameras for like £25 with monitor all in. 

 

The quality is usually always the same for them, they all use composite so expect low resolution but for a use like this, more than enough.

Fairy snuff - After much browsing of what may or may not turn out to be utter tat, I settled on one that was UK based and looked like it would be OK.

 

Camera pivots on a bracket, has various leads, reasonable looking monitor, includes IR imaging and so on.

I even understood the Chinglish instructions well enough - Works off the reversing light wire, so I should be able to wire that to a dash-mounted switch off a switched live instead...

Should be delivered by next week.

 

I'll try and remember to take a few photos during the install, if anyone's interested?

Fair enough, good luck! I trust you have a dash cam too? May as well wire one in if you're taking apart the dash for that. I tapped into the interior light 12V feed with a 5V voltage reg...., looks great now the dash camera lead is hidden.

No dash cam yet. She's not interested in one, really, although she has considered it.