Allegro Bus Rear View Camera

[Pigman]

Am I unique or do other people also have a problem with the rear view camera Tiffin puts in their rigs. I can't see anything out of it when towing the toad on a dark road. The previous Diesel Bounder we had had an IR illuminator built into the camera, but the Tiffin does not have one. The factory says the problem I have is normal....on a high end coach like the Bus!

I finally broke down and added an IR illuminator along side of the camera. $50 and a few hours work, but I really expected better of Tiffin on this one.

John

[Pigman]

Am I unique or do other people also have a problem with the rear view camera Tiffin puts in their rigs. I can't see anything out of it when towing the toad on a dark road. The previous Diesel Bounder we had had an IR illuminator built into the camera, but the Tiffin does not have one. The factory says the problem I have is normal....on a high end coach like the Bus!

I finally broke down and added an IR illuminator along side of the camera. $50 and a few hours work, but I really expected better of Tiffin on this one.

John

[elgarc]

Okay, Pigman; tell us more!

I'm pretty unhappy with our camera too, but I'm not understanding what it is you've done or where you got your materials.

Thanx

[Pigman]

Gary, You can buy a device called an IR Illuminator, which is primarily used for security camera setups. It lights up the rear and puts out in the IR spectrum. This means it's not visible to the eye. The one I got is about 2" in diameter, and 2" deep and puts out in the 850nm IR spectrum. This means that you see a dull red glow when looking into the light, but the camera sees things like you're showing a bright spotlight on the toad.

We wired it to the center clearance light. The Illuminator also has an eye on it so it doesn't come on until it's getting dark. It uses some power in standby, so that's the reason why we put it on the clearance light. It has 48 IR LED's but when operating it draws less than .25 amp total according to my meter.

We don't do a lot of night driving, but when we do I like to be able to monitor the toad. This works good.

John