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Haloview Rear view camera install and review


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Haloview Rear view camera review.

 

The following is the installation and review of Haloview camera.  About 12 months ago I put feelers out there about rearview cameras other than Furrion. I had read about to many people unhappy with the performance of the Furrion.  I had read John Davis’s installation of the Garmin with a remote transmitter and I like the idea.  I took a lot of Ideas from John’s writeup and implemented them to fit my wants.  Thanks John  for your writeup.

I purchased the following directly from Haloview.  Note:  Haloview does not have any support in the USA.  Haloview’s support and products come direct from China.  All support is submitting request via the internet.

RD7 monitor and camera with 33ft of cable.    

The 33ft cable was overkill.  I was uncertain if the Haloview would connect as reliably from the Front bathroom cabinet area like John did (plan A), or if I would have to route it to the front Propane doghouse area (plan B).   The Haloview was intended to be installed across the top of the camper with the camera mount on the back and the transmitter to be on the front outside of the camper. I really didn’t want wiring running across the top of the camper.

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License plate Camera.   CA109

This was for the front license plate.  It was not intended replacement for a Dash cam,  but to aid in hooking up the trailer to the front end so that I could park the Oli reliably in the 3 sided RV port.

Memory

You have to purchase a memory card in order to record audio/video. I decided to max it out at 128GB,  So I could keep more data.

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Rearview mirror Monitor adapter:

This adapter plate allows you to mount the monitor over the front of the mirror.  I like this because it attaches/de attaches easily. and does not sit on the dash.

DC 5.5mm x 2.5mm Male Plug 

The Haloview comes with a long cigarette lighter power cord. I really don’t like a bunch of cords dangling around the cab. I had looked at several different cables on Amazon, I had found another cable that was 9ft long, but messed up and ordered this instead.  I will just add the extra wire I need  to make the run to hardware it to my truck.

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Mounting the Camera

I mounted the rear camera above the Oliver sign on the top of the roof.   I like the U channel idea that John Davis installed.  The depth of the camera was about 2.3inches. I found a piece of scrap aluminum 3” angle.  I cut two 7” lengths and made my own U-channel.

 

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Angle Aluminum is attached with 1/4-20  stainless steel bolts

 

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The camera cable connector is 5/8” diameter and the cable itself is about .220”.  I found a shifter bushing at Orielly’s  that  worked as a grommet.  I cut a slot in the bushing so I could get the bushing on the cable.  I also had to trim the leading edge of the bushing so I could get it started, It was a tight fit.  I also made a 7/8  slot in the aluminum where the bushing resides,  instead of just drill a hole in the alumimun. This will hopefully allow keep water from building up around the bushing.  Sorry I didn’t take pictures of aluminum before assembly,

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Above: Male end of the connector with rubber boot

 

The Wiring

The wiring came into the upper rear cabinet inside the Oli. When pulled the street side panel off from the inside of the cabinet, I was lucky enough to find a 2 wire bundle with one wire marked “cam”, and the other wire was a ground.  The DC power cable that came with the Haloview had 22 gauge wires, and the Oli has 14 gauge wires.  So the soldered a small length of 18 gauge DC wire to the 22 gauge and reinforce the smaller wires and connections with a couple layers of heat shrink to reinforce the 22 gauge wires from breaking as easily.  I then made a mechanical connection with the 18 gauge wires to the Oli’s 14 gauge.

 

I purchased a LED switch from Oliver and added it to the Master switch panel.  I love it that Oliver already had a slot for the camera.  It made it easy to add power and ground to the switch and connect the “cam” wire on the panel side.

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Above: Wires inside the upper cabinet just behind the Oliver sign. Below: Haloview wiring setup.

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The 33 ft Cable going to the transmitter was the only big cable run the I had to do.  I want to step back a week in time just after I received the Haloview products.  I wanted to test the equipment and where I was actually going to place the transmitter.  I kludged together some stuff to place the camera just inside the back window.  Then connected all of the haloview cables together and powered them up with a battery jumper box.  I place the transmitter inside the bathroom cabinet and taped to the front bulkhead. I used painters tape to secure everything in place for a drive.  I mounted the monitor in the truck and went for a 40 mile drive on 2 lane roads and a good freeway stretch.   I found the the Haloview transmitter communicated well with the monitor in the truck.  I will cover my results later in my review.

The 33ft cable run

The 33 ft cable was ran through the street side cabinets.  I ran into one snag, I was unable to get a fishtape through the pantry cabinet area. I tried for about 45 minutes and then gave up.  OK, time to start plan “B”.  I know that getting a wire through the bottom street side waste plumbing areas was doable. So I made sure I could get a fishtape from the bottom storage area to the top rear cabinet, this was no problem at all.  The only part of plan “B” that I really didn’t like was getting the bathroom sink cover off, and drilling a hole through the front hull into the doghouse area, and plugging it; yet another point of possible leaks, plus it wouldn’t get finished this week.   Then the thought came to mind, if I am willing to cut another hole through the hull, why not just cut 2 holes in the pantry and go back to plan “A”.  Time to get the executive committee  (Dawn and I ) and make a decision.  The committee weighed the facts and unanimously decided on plan “A”.  FYI: if you run the wire as I did, Plan “A” Haloview has a 26ft length of wire at will work better, If you do plan “B” and run it below to the Propane doghouse the 33ft length of wire will probably be needed. The Connectors on the rear camera cables are large. They are running power,ground, audio, and video through it.  Kind of clunky, but I really do not know any better way.

I cut two 3/4” holes in each side of the pantry cabinet.  I went a little oversize since 5/8” hole is a very snug fit with the cable connectors and boot.

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upper pantry shelf

It worked great, running the wire and mounting the transmitter only took another hour. I first tested the setup before attaching the transmitter to the bulk head; every worked great. The transmitter was then attached to the front bulkhead with 3mm double faced tape. I had to use 2 pieces thick to get it to stick because of the slight curve in the hull.

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The transmitter fit neatly in the wire trough and takes up very little space.  The area around the transmitter only stores wash cloths and hand towels.

Review and Lag Time Results:

Rearview Camera:

The monitor is 720p resolution,  and the camera has a 130º view.  Furrion is a 480P with 120º. Because of the viewing angle, things appear farther away than they are. The image appears to be clear with good color. A small vehicle can be seen at about 150yards. Semi trucks at about 300yards. This is enough to keep track of vehicles approaching from the rear.  According to Haloview viewing distance is only 32ft at night.  This does not seem to be very far. I have not had a chance to test it at night.  Hopefully this would  be enough to see what is close when backing into a site in the late evening.  As far as being out on the freeway hopefully you will be able to see car lights further back than 32 feet.   I try not to do much traveling in the dark with the camper attached.

Lag time:

Lag time has always been a problem on wireless cameras.  I tested the lag time by measuring road imperfections.  When the road imperfection was at the front tires of the truck I would start a timer, and would stop the timer when I would see it in the camera in the rear.  Rearview lag at 65mph was about 0.7 seconds lag from the front tires of truck until seen in the back of the truck.   This distance is approximately 55ft total distance from the front of the truck to when seen in the back camera.  At 65mph is equates to 95.3ft/sec.  At 0.7 sec @ 65mph  this is 66.7ft,  So 66.7ft minus 55ft is approximately 12 feet delay. 12ft divided by 95.3ft per second is about  0.126 second delay.

I watch vehicles pulling out in the lane behind me using the rear view camera. When I would see them start to cross the dotted line I would look in the side mirror.  During that time the car would be about 2 ft over the line.  I also did the reverse watch cars pulling in behind me from the inside lane watching through the side mirror. As the car cross the dotted line, I would look at the rear view monitor and the car would be about 2 ft over the line.  I think the 2 ft differences is the amount of time it takes me to turn my head and refocus. So I think that the small delay is imperceptible.

Monitor:

What I did notice is that the monitor does not have a fluid smooth motion. It was more like an old black and white silent movie that that flickered in movements jumped just slightly with the refresh of the screen.  At highway speeds this really wasn’t a big deal, because you were just glancing in the rear view monitor then back to the road and then scanning the side mirrors. To many things to watch for at highway speeds than just staring at the monitor.  In town when going 25mph you might have a full second or two you could concentrate and see the jumpiness in the refresh of the image. This really does not both me.

The last time I had experience with a backup monitor was when I Installed a Black & white hardwired 9” tube type monitor in a 35” gray hound bus.  So my experience is limited.

Audio:

The cameras have audio. I have not really tested it.  I had it on for a while when I was driving.  It just made road noise.  Road noise is not enjoyable to listen to.  When I had a chance, I pulled over and muted the sound.  Depending on how well it works, it might be nice when I am backing up that I can hear my wife.  The negative is that you have to go into the menu to change the sound setting. Would be nice if the monitor had buttons that would changing the volume.

Backup lines:

I was disappointed in the lack of adjustability in the lines.  You can in and out and front to back in large steps.  Not really super functional. I have 2 different Pioneer stereos with backup lines that each of the 4 points of the lines can be adjusted in both axes.

Setup:

The program works, but is clunky.  Sort of old school technology.  This unit can handle up to 4 cameras. There is a lot of ways to set the cameras up for viewing.

No wifi/bluetooth to connect to phone

There is no way to transfer data from the monitor to a computer or phone besides taking the memory card, microSD, out and putting it into my MacBook.  I then have to convert the AVI file to MP4, so it can be read on any (i)phone/computer. ie: Apple does’t do AVI since it was an early 1990s Microsoft technology and uses a lot of space.

Cables:

Power to monitor takes extra connections.  3 cables totally 9 feet to get to a cigarette lighter adapter. Really! No mater what I do I will still have 5 feet of cable hidden behind the monitor.

Front License Plate Camera.

The front license plate Camera is only to aid in attaching the trailer tongue to the front ball.  Due to the Angle of the camera to ball, the camera only works for this purpose.  This use is also limited.  I can only see the tongue when I am within about 8 feet away. This after practicing one time,  I was able to properly get the ball properly positioned under the tongue 3 more times in a row on the first shot.  The camera is only turned on when it is needed for hooking up to the trailer. If I pointed the camera up, I would not be able to use it as an aid in hooking up the trailer.  Also this technology is not quite suited as a fully functioning Dash Cam.

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There is a video delay on front licenses plate camera. The delay was variable from imperceptible to 1.2 seconds.  I test it by driving forward in the driveway and then slamming on the brakes and measure the time delay.  Fortunately as I got close to the ball the delay seemed to be imperceptible most likely because I was creeping forward, slower than a idle. The camera is mounted on the front of a custom 1/4in thick bumper. The metal may have caused the problems with the reception.

 

Overview:

Positives:

Haloview had already paired the cameras.  I just powered everything up and they worked.

Quality appears to be pretty good.

Everything was packaged nicely and it took 10 days to get here from China. (not bad from China)

I like the rearview mirror mounting adapter. When in use it attaches to my rear view mirror.  I do not the rear view mirror when towing, I get tired of just seeing the emblem on the front of the Oli,

This unit can handle up to 4 cameras. There is a lot of ways to set the cameras up for viewing.

Price was reasonable.  I spent over $700 for my 1998 wired rear view camera setup.  Technology has came a long way since then.  Furrion is $200 more for a similar camera.

Records video and audio. Many other setups do not.

 

 

Negatives:

Getting the data off of the Monitor. There is no bluetooth/wifi connection.  Kind of a PITA.

Since this a totally based Chinese company, I do not know how good there service will be.  The Haloview products took about 10 days to arrive from China. Amazon does sell Haloview.  I do not know if the support will be any better/different.  I did use the online web tool to ask information. In both cases I had a reply in less than 24hours. Finding the communication tool is difficult to find on their website. No phone #  to call.

Viewing angle of front bumper camera is poor.  This could be as much my problem with the angle of setup.

Lag time on front bumper is as much as 1.2 seconds.

Night time viewing probably poor have not tested. limited to 32ft maximum.

Power to monitor takes extra connections.  3 cables totaling 9 feet.

Monitor function/setup clunky. Looks like 1990s software technology. Looking online other manufactures are just as bad.

This is not a replacement for a real dash cam

Adjusting sound is not as easy as just pushing a button.

 

Overall I am satisfied with the investment. For a wireless camera it is good. It is usable and does the job I bought it for. I think the only way of getting better video quality at this time is to hardwire from the camera to the monitor.  I really did not want something else to connect when hooking up the trailer.

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Early 1999 Ford F250 SD 7.3L Diesel 

2020 Elite II Twin -  Hull # 648

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That was a great post, thanks! I do suggest that you add some white cable covers (hiders) in the areas where they might get pinched or cut, for example in the pantry and this will also disguise the black color. I have not used this brand before. There are lots of variations.

Yecaye Medium Cord Hider on Wall Cable Management

John Davies 

Spokane WA

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SOLD 07/23 "Mouse":  2017 Legacy Elite II Two Beds, Hull Number 218, See my HOW TO threads: https://olivertraveltrailers.com/topic/john-e-davies-how-to-threads-and-tech-articles-links/

Tow Vehicle: 2013 Land Cruiser 200, 32” LT tires, airbags, Safari snorkel, Maggiolina Grand Tour 360 Carbon RTT.

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Very thorough explanation with good photos!  Thanks for taking the time as it will help others.  We’ll be interested in your impressions after using it out on the road a few times.  Thanks.  Mike

Texas Hill Country | 2016 Elite II #135 | 2020 Ram 2500 6.7L

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