Super Blue

I got the RX last year after learning that the Mrs. was expecting our first. Needless to say I wanted to get the best for my little one, and the RX450h was the only option for me.

So far it has been a wonderful chariot for transporting the young King,(yup I've already been dethroned in the household). It fits all his gear and the stroller with room to spare. Like most new parents we also got the mirror that goes over the rear seat head rest that let you see the child in the rear view.

As the factory glass in the rear is super dark, my wife or I could never really see our son in the rear view with really concentrating and looking in the rear view. I upgraded the mirror above the seat to jumbo size mirror, and it's still didn't get the job done. It's just too dark in the back to take a quick glance, if you stare too long, you're now not paying attention to the road.

I figured this called for a small project, so I installed a rear view camera and a 4" display that I got off ebay. Here is the end product.









I also had a cheap dashcam laying around, and figured what the heck might as well wire that up to the same display since it has 2 inputs.







Also installed a switch to let me switch between the dashcam and the babycam.





I'm currently on the third camera, the first one stopped working after 15 mins, second one worked fine (is still working fine), but is a rear view so the image in the display is mirrored and it's not very good at night. I finally got the correct camera, the one that's in there now, it's a front camera with IR leds so you can see everything at night as well. Angle wise the camera is wide angle (170 degrees, I think), which is not really necessary for a project like this.

The camera wires are running under the rear cover of the seat, and are hidden for the most part. I tapped into the 12volt in the center console, and am running all 3 things from there. The project did involve taking apart the center console a bit, but it's nothing overly difficult.

vlad_a

First kid, huh?
By the time you get to second, such things won't matter much, LOL.

Have you considered getting an LCD mirror, which used to be OEM solution for backup camera with Non-Nav RXs?
http://mito-auto.com/index.php?optio...category_id=15

I bet you could rewire OEM Nav to display the auxiliary camera picture.

Droid13

What's going on with the dash area where the display is resting? Looks like someone took a pipe and whacked the dash.

Super Blue

I did consider that option, but didn't want to loose the compass on the mirror now. Also I've used a few of those mirror and the barely tend to be visible during the day

Hey Droid, that happened due to doing anything possible for the first born. Given we had a brutal winter in Toronto this year, and the RX parks outside, I had purchased a 120 volt interior heater for the RX. One of the nights the heater got left on in the wrong direction and did some damage. It could have been a lot worse. That is the main visible damage now.

vlad_a

Ouch. Maybe remote start would have been a better option.

Super Blue

That's the sad part, a viper 2 way remote start was the first mod done to the RX. During the winter remote start was acting up, and the replacement sensor/module needed was on back order.

Even worse part is the vehicle is a lease, so don't know how hard I'll get hit when it's time for the RX to go back. May I'll end up buying it out.