Baja Camera System custom install

[puulboy]

WIKID has eyes for you... Baja Camera System install
From the Beginning.
I made several configurations of this OH console this is what I went with. Its actually secured from the lip of the front roof frame to the first cross support It will not come loose or down

While I am doing this project I am adding stuff as I go

Since the headliner is down I am doing a few things to make life easier.
Wilson 1000 antenna roof mounted. Say good bye to the lil will Mag mount. You won't see cables on the roof now. This antenna is about the best you can get for a CB The really nice feature is that you can unscrew the base of the antenna with you hand and screw a cap on the stub so you don't have to have the antenna up all the time. Its just a little black cap that is left.

Next will be one more set of cables to run then the headliner can go back up.
I am waiting for the cables though

I decided to quiet the beast some with a product from Second Skin Audio
Sound Deadening Materials for Noise Reduction from Second Skin
The product is called Damplifier Pro. kills, vibration, heat and noise
It comes in 12"x20" sheets that have paper you peel to adhere to the roof. Its very sticky and I cannot see it coming off even if you begged it.

Next will be another insulation product I glue to the face of the Damplifier Pro
Its about 1/2 to 5/8th thick called "heat wave" and has great insulation properties

Friday I will have all the parts and doodads to begin installing the next phase of this project

Second part of insulating

I left it short till I secure the rest of my stuff but it will be finalized after it it all done

Camera mount and wiring day. I completed 3 camera installs and ran about 80% of the wire/cables Location, location, location, was the theme of the day.
The picture below shows 2 of the 3 cameras installed today.
Camera 1
Drivers side on the roof Narrow view camera that shows lots of distance but not as much on the sides
Camera 2
Passenger side a wide angle but not much distance
My logic behind where there are mounted is..
I wanted to be able to easily clean them without having to make some kind of boom to reach the center ( remember I am short) I decided to follow the line of the washer nozzles. With that I also needed to establish an axis for where center would be in front of the truck. 8Ball and I worked it out with much effort

Side view Note: the covers have not been placed untill they are sealed with silicone into place.

A longer view

Camera 3
Rear roof . I decided a narrow view camera would be best for most conditions since I will also have a wide angle camera on the bumper

Cable and wire runs were also done today pictures to follow
Progress on the overhead console

I used headliner material to cover the monitor pods and made a center section which will house both of the keypads, cb radio and a few other goodies I have planned for it.

Here is a sample Keypad that will control the cameras. The center was cut and formed from 18 gauge steel. Angles were important along with forming a rigid back edge

One more view from the back of the truck.
The top edge should be the approx height of the headliner

I am working with Rod from Total Vision of Tucson, AZ. Total Vision Products: The new standard in mobile vision products I gave him the thoughts I had and he developed the system. We are working together with the install. So far my end of the install is almost done. Rod is designing another system that could be a great addition to the FJ crowd along with others who may want something like it. The system being designed is not this involved for the install. Mine is just over the top. I will post more details about that soon
Besides all of the wiring I accomplished the oh center console is painted and fitted.

I am pleased with the way it came out. There are still some things to add to it but it is on the way to being complete.

I will start with a view from the drivers seat while driving home from Tucson. The left picture is facing forward from one of the 2 front facing roof cams. The right picture is the long view rear roof cam picture. I was hoping to catch this guy pickin his nose

We have most of the system in and 2 of the cameras viewing.

There is lots of wiring and configuring to do. This is the semi complete oh console after today's progress

Even though it doesn't look like it, we are fairly close to trimming everything out and doing final adjustments, before the headliner goes back up. Its a slow process because this is totally custom and there are many things that come up while we progress

 

[puulboy]

Wiring in the 2 ecu's that are controlled from the keypads on the console

I can't wait till I can start putting stuff back together. It seems like the more we do the more we take apart, but that's the fun of making something from nothing.

The part you don't see is the DVR. I forgot pictures of it, but pictures will follow
I decided to make a harness for all the switches in the OH console. I ran one 12 gauge wire for power and a ground. Then soldered and wired each switch. I used (2) 5 wire cables to use as trigger wires to run to all of the accessories that will need to be switched. I should never have to pull anything apart in the roof area to add anything from now on .

This is just a pic of all the switches being tested

Of the 9 switches in the console 5 are already dedicated off-road light and The Baja Camera System.

Today is camera install day part 2
Here is a rock spotting camera located on the front drivers side. The passenger side has the same

I drilled a 1" hole angled down and painted the exposed edge. The camera's have brackets that are epoxied in place

Approach angle camera

Here is the departure camera or backup cam

Rear axle cam protected buy my skids and with clear view of the dif and inner tires

Quad channel DVR with GPS tracking and alarm mode

Here is the wiring finalized. It will not move or show after the headliner is installed. We still have to test the whole system before the headliner goes up just in case..

Here are the 2 ecu's wired and ready for testing. I am going to make a wire keeper for the top of this where all the wires that come out of the ecu's will so have support above them so they won't wiggle out. Testing mode doesn't require neat appearance til I know its right

As part of my Camera mod I have had to relocate a few things
This is a picture of the way my GPS was mounted before the Camera Mod

Since this is close to the configuration I am dealing with now the GPS needed a new home

 

[puulboy]

Here is what I fabbed up today to make that new home for my Lowrance

Pardon the sloppy look I tack welded it in many places not to distort the metal. I will clean it up and paint it.

This has a swivel mount from a fishfinder like it was in it's previous location

Here it is where it will be mounted. I still have access to the transfer case shifter and all the controls on the dash along with still being able to see the radio controls

I made the angles specific so I could still shift with no interference. Its 16 gauge steel with formed edges and 1 inch bar stock to re enforce the lower plate then 1/4 inch dowl rod bend and joined in the middle with a baseplate welded on top to attach the mount

I can now reattach my rear view mirror.

I may mount it with industrial strength velcro but am still pondering it as of now. I am open for suggestions on the mounting though.

 

[lgrt]

Very cool... Much better than the one bullet cam and Velcro I came up with. nice job... I'll be saving this one off for future reference.

 

[ZroBug]

WOW! - This is looking really boss... love the four heads-up video feeds.
Keep the photos coming as you progress on final assembly!

 

[puulboy]

Ok After testing my system in a local rough wash area, I cannot get the video system to mess up so I think it's ready to finalize. The picture reflects wires secured with the sound deadening. I used strips of it to stop possible wires coming loose and rattling in the headliner. The sound deadening is extremely sticky, so I doubt it will come loose. Everything else was wire tied into position

Everything in the rear is secure and the next step will be to secure the OH console and tie wires out of the way.

The DVR is now mounted in a different location so it will be easier to control it with the remote. Top of my rear Battery box is where I chose. If you look at my gear box, on my build, it fits against the battery box so you only see the carpeted boxes instead of wiring

View from the passenger front. If you look closely you will see that the DVR is actually recording

It felt good to install trim panels. It makes me feel like progress is made

Next stop, drop my truck off to I-10 upholstery, to make the headliner transition to the new monitors.
This will be more of a temporary solution, I plan on having the headliner remade after Overland Expo.2009 . Wikid's Camera system will be displayed at Total Vision Products: The new standard in mobile vision products booth

 

[TrAiLbUs1]

Absolutely ridiculous brotha!!! Man I hope you are going to summit...I need to see this in person..or we should go wheeling soon! Great write up and pics of your mods! Wheres the don box?

 

[puulboy]

Jake
The Don Box was taken out for this mod, but will return when I get the rest of it back together. I am going to your neck of the woods tomorrow to finish up the last details and my truck will stay in Tucson for a few days at the upholstery shop, for the headliner.
Thanks for the nice words Jake yu da man, man
Don

 

[illFZJ80]

Incredible ... that is awesome!

 

[Archy Chris]

Don
Thats an incredible job you've done!

 

[puulboy]

Thanks buddy
Maybe I can plan a trip back to your neck of the woods for some trails, I had a good time there.
It was a very important day today. My truck is off to the upholsterer tomorrow morning. Rod from Total vision is dropping it off for me

Thanks
Don

 

[bernd122465]

Don
It looks good. That's one heck of a cockpit you have now.

 

[puulboy]

Don
It looks good. That's one heck of a cockpit you have now.

Bernd Thanks
Next time I come up to the wild northwest to wheel with you guys, don't pick you noses around my truck, I will have it on film

 

[Hendrik]

That's an amazing set-up. Are the cameras for watching as it happens, or looking at the recordings later
? Or both ??

I have a couple of independant chase cams mounted on my 60...I find that multiple cameras = many hours of video.

If you are using video editing software, can you say which one ??

Cheers,
Henry.

 

[puulboy]

Quote from my previous post
Next stop, drop my truck off to I-10 upholstery, to make the headliner transition to the new monitors.

I thought I knew my limitation until after 6 days of my truck being at I-10 upholstery in Tucson ABSOLUTELY NOTHING was done with my truck. I was suppose to get an update today at 11 am but the guy decided that not calling me or answering the many phone calls, was the way to handle not being able to do anything until Monday. Luckily Rod from Total Vision made a trip there for me and discovered the no progress and took my truck back to his shop. I went to Tucson to pick it up after a trip to get headliner material. I guess I will do a write up on the headliner modification tomorrow. THAT IS POOR BUSINESS PRACTICE AT IT'S FINEST.

 

[Hendrik]

I think the camera positions you have will bring you great footage.

For the roof-mounted cameras, I found that mid-mounted cameras generally gave a more watchable video. It is nice (for the wider angle camera at least) to have the bonnet central and straight in the video.

Love to see some vids !

 

[puulboy]

Thanks for the nice comments and also for so advice. I am almost ready to conquer some trails after it's shown at the Overland Expo next week, I was hoping to have trail video to show at the event but delays have not made that possible. I will have a link to my webpage where I will display video as I get it done
Stay tuned for more
thanks
Don

 

[puulboy]

Taking matters into my own hands I will post up the headliner install
First picture is what needed to happen to get this project underway. My wife and I peeled the old skin off the headliner. It took some time and patience, but came off nicely

Presto its magic. Off with the old

The headliner color I chose was a graphite. I wanted to rich it up some, since I was changing it anyway.

The method we chose was to lay it out then fold it half over and begin spraying the headliner glue in a section at a time

The last part was where the modification was needed for my monitor pods

Since I changed my mind on colors I had to redo the monitor pods in the correct color. That took the most time since I had to pull everything down and pull all the monitor cases out to make a clean install over my custom console. It was worth the extra effort for sure.

Installed and making small adjustments on it

After taking a ride it is more quiet than it was before all the insulation.

I bought too much headliner material because I wanted to be ready for problems. 8 yards of headliner, 3 cans of headliner adhesive and 6 hours is what it took to do it from start to finish. $99.89 is what the project cost me.
My wife was a really big help on this end of the project. I am fortunate she allows me to play with my toys and humors me when I ask her opinion of my latest brainfarts

I am so glad I didn't leave it up to an incompetent shop to do this. It came out the way I wanted it to.
The jury is out on the gray accents, visors etc they actually look pretty good when you see it in person. I may or may not recover them to match the headliner
This project is pretty close to being complete. I have to put my Don box back in, the frig, the dvr and I am ready for some awesome trail video.

 

[Grolar]

Damn, now there's drool all over my desk.
Talk about setting the bar.
Out of curiosity, how much did this arms race episode cost you total?

 

[puulboy]

Damn, now there's drool all over my desk.
Talk about setting the bar.
Out of curiosity, how much did this arms race episode cost you total?

The jury is out on that one. I haven't figured out what I have into it yet, because we developed the system from thought, then proceeded to build it with additions along the way. I did the majority of the physical install, so most of what I spent was parts and programming. Rod from Total Vision is excellent to work with. I would say if you wanted the system stem to stern with install it would be in the 4 to 5000 range. Rod will offer systems that you can install without the complexity this one has. part of this venture was to see what we could accomplish and show the level of Rods ability to create a unique product. That being said the less complex systems would go together seamlessly since we set the mark high on this one. I am not through with this. As I test it I will find more locations for specific cameras and audio recording devices. I can actually run up to 16 camera's, which sounds like a lot, but if you really want to capture almost everything possible, you need lots of eyes to do so. Mind you, I will have 4 screens to select which views will be the best for each specific situation.
Thanks
Don