Read The Manual

[catinou]

I always tell people , when training, to read the manuals BUT we very nearly had a second rear view camera fitted to our van so we could use it as a rear view mirror (especially when towing). Instead we had extra wiring added to the monitor but could not switch the screen of when that one was plugged in.

When the van was in for its first habitation service last week we asked the dealer (not the supplying one!!) to put an on / off switch in to finish the job.

 

When we went to pick the van up we were told we didn't need a switch as the original would work fine - all we had to do was use the remote to change the screen from AV1 (reverse gear view only) to AV2 - hey presto! a rear view camera!

 

What I would like to know is - apart from not following my own advice - why was this not pointed out in the handover or in subsequent questioning at the original dealers (who nearly sold us another camera!!)

[Derek Uzzell]

If a motorhome dealer told every buyer everything he/she would ever need to know about his/her new purchase, the hand-over would be never-ending. Besides which, as you've been involved in training, you must surely be aware that adults' attention-span and their ability to assimilate factual information is strictly limited and decreases significantly with age. When I used to train adults in IT, many years ago, we used to joke about the 'age level' of our training courses, saying that any course aimed at 12-year olds would need to be heavily dumbed down to make it understandable for our mature trainees.

 

The logical answer to your question is that the dealer who originally supplied your motorhome was (and, apparently, continues to be) unaware that its camera system had the AV1/AV2 facility you describe. Camera systems differ and, if there's a requirement to employ a system for rear-viewing while driving forward as well as when reversing, the way this can be achieved will also differ.

 

The Waeco system on my Hobby has AV1 and AV2 monitor-inputs to permit two cameras to be used (which I would have thought is what one might reasonably anticipate with an AV1/AV2 arrangement), but this has no effect on the rear-view/reversing functionality. The system requires a 12V power supply (normally ignition controlled) and On/Off operation is via the monitor's own On/Off button. There is a separate option for the system to switch itself on automatically when the vehicle's reverse-gear is engaged, but I've chosen not to implement this.

 

The reason I'm familiar with my system's capabilities is because I fitted it myself and needed to read the installation/operating instructions to do so. However, when a reversing-camera system is factory-fitted to a motorcaravan, there is no pressing requirement for a motorhome dealer or purchaser to immerse themselves in the system's instructional literature. As long as the system works as one might expect, why waste time investigating its full scope?

 

At the recent Malvern show I visited the exhibitor from whom I had obtained my Waeco system. I'd noticed that silver-coloured cars appeared slightly yellowish on the monitor screen and asked if this was normal. "You can alter the colour", I was surprised to be told, not having seen anything in the Waeco instructions on how to adjust subtle colour-shading. The exhibitor then pressed the Menu button on one of his demo monitors and stepped through the Brightness, Colour and Contrast options. My immediate mental reaction was "But that's obvious - you'd be a real dope if you didn't know how to do that." But I then realised that, for him to be demonstrating a simple selection-menu that (in my view) worked in a self-evident manner, he must have had customers in the past for which the system was a mystery.

 

At the motorhome hand-over stage, dealers are going to be faced with customers with widely differing amounts of motorcaravanning experience and aptitude. I sometimes read letters in motorhome magazines praising dealers for providing multi-hour hand-overs, but I always wonder how much of the information imparted actually stuck. Certainly, if I were a 'newbie' (Wherever did that strange word come from?) and had made no preliminary attempt to become familiar with motorhomes generally, and with the make/model of vehicle I was purchasing specifically, an extended hand-over would be largely a waste of my and the dealer's time.

 

I'm not defending your original supplying-dealer's ignorance, just saying that none of us (except me, of course!) are omniscient and infallible.

[Brian Kirby]

Jenny

I'll admit I'm a bit confused as to what you have.  It seems it is a single camera giving a single look down view, intended as a reversing camera.  I'm therefore surprised that it gives sufficient view to the rear of your van to be of use as a rear view camera.  However, if that is what it does and it is adequate, that's fine.

My confusion starts with your references to the AV1 and AV2 inputs only being accessible via the remote.  Are there not switch buttons on the monitor so labelled?  All those I have so far seen have these, which allows the driver to select whichever view at will without fumbling with a remote control.

It is often the case that the AV2 image is not reversed.  I assume yours must be, though you don't mention this.  However, if it isn't, do not use this as your rear view mirror substitute.  The failure to give a mirror image view is extremely misleading and potentially dangerous.

However, my real confusion is over whether you actually have a twin lens camera fitted?  Your description seems to suggest that this may be the case.  Waeco make one such, with one lens that looks down for reversing, and another set to give a clear view of the road behind.  There is an in-built link to reverse gear, so that the "look down" view is automatically selected when in reverse, switching back to "look behind" as soon as reverse is de-selected.  The monitor has AV1 and AV2 inputs, both images are left-right reversed, and it can also be controllable via a remote.  We have this version in our van.  The power supply, as Derek describes, is switched via the ignition, but the monitor also has its own on/off button, and can be manually switched between AV1 and AV2 via button switches.  If this is what you have, I think someone has messed up the installation, or has obtained the wrong version of the system for your van (there are 4 variants).  Like Derek, I installed ours so, from my experience, if this is what you have, I can categorically say yours ain't working right!

[Derek Uzzell]

Brian:

 

Being a multi-billionaire, you have naturally chosen a state-of-the-art posh reversing/rear-view system that includes Waeco's CAM33C twin-camera unit.

 

Based on photos in their advertising brochure and in MMM's Miami test-report, the system factory-fitted to Auto-Trails uses a single fixed camera that peeps coyly through a small gun-port in a rounded moulding attached to the motorhome's rear wall. As you rightly point out, this arrangement - as opposed to swivel-lens, twin-lens or multi-camera systems - can only be a compromise if rear-view and look-down functions are both required.

 

With my Hobby I've adjusted the camera's aim so that it can 'see' sufficiently far behind to be useful while driving (which is the view I'm most interested in) and sufficiently close (about 1.5m) to be useful when reversing. I accept that my Waeco system's overall capability is inherently inferior to yours, but so was the price. If the system on Jenny's motorhome is as effective as mine, then I'd expect it to meet her requirements adequately, particularly when towing.

 

I don't know exactly what system Auto-Trail chooses to fit. MMM's Miami test-report refers to a "flip-down flat screen colour TV/rear vision monitor" and "colour reversing camera" being part of the SE Pack. If this description is accurate, then the extra complexity might explain why the system is normally 'driven' via a remote-control. (And it might also explain why Jenny's original dealer apparently didn't appreciate the system's full potential!) It would seem from Jenny's comments that her Dakota's camera-system, as installed by Auto-Trail, only operated when reverse gear was selected, and modifications were made to the original wiring to allow it to operate when the motorhome was being driven forward.

 

I admit to remaining hazy (little grey cells not firing on all 12 cylinders, probably) as to what Jenny's motorhome's camera-system could, or couldn't, do originally, what it could do after the modification and what it can do now. But, if it combines TV and rear-view camera functions that are controlled remotely, predictably it's going to be more complicated to operate than a stand-alone camera system.

 

There's an increasingly insidious tendency for manufacturers to ignore user-friendliness when providing even basic functionality (setting the digital dash-board clock on my Ford Transit is a classic example), so it's hardly surprising, when something is genuinely complex, that your average human has trouble understanding how it is supposed to work and what it is able to do.

[catinou]

Thanks for the input guys - I don't know most of the answers to your questions - but I know a man who will ;-) I will ask OH when I get home.

 

I do know that the screen showed the area behind the van only when reverse gear was selected (we now know that was in AV1 mode) and now when we chose AV2 we can see the same view as a "rear view mirror".

 

Our requirements are to keep the occasional eye on the 2 bikes on the back and the towed car as we travel along. We don't really need to see much further back along the road as the mirrors are more than adequate for that - we used to have a Courier van for years so got used to driving with no windows at the back, but it is good now to check that "blind spot" every so often.

 

I totally agree about the overload process when training - after 1 hour I always look for the "glazed look" ( I train in accounts and payroll software) and try and tailor info to needs. I always ask now (after a somewhat bitter experience on my first time out :$ ) what my client needs from the system before I start and feel that dealers could ask this question before giving a "standard" handover. :-S