Areaview Retrofit Progress

[Reaper1]

The Image on my front camera is a bit blurry and warped, can the reason be that my front camera is an Aliexpress camera?

 

[xabhax]

Doubt it, mine is an AliExpress camera. They will look bad until they are calibrated

 

[Reaper1]

Doubt it, mine is an AliExpress camera. They will look bad until they are calibrated

Would you mind sharing how the image looks in your car? Couldn't really find it here.

 

[xabhax]

Ill take a picture tomorrow, Tuesday for ya

 

[xabhax]

 

[Reaper1]

Weird, That looks pretty similar to mine, I just thought It would have more of a bird's eye view from the top and not a straight ahead image.

Maybe Just temporarily attaching the mirror cameras using double sided tape and trying to calibrate would help.

 

[xabhax]

The Birds Eye view comes when all the cameras are working.

There is one view that is kinda a top down, guessing to see curbs or other cars in front.

 

[xabhax]

Looking at the golf 8 mirrors. The lower shells won’t work, but the mirrors themselves look like they might bolt up, with minor modifications. Trying to dissuade myself from getting a set to see

 

[fvolanti]

Hello to all, I'm new here. A performed quite a lot of retrofits on my car and was looking at this page for the last 5 months with interest since all your discoveries are precious for this retrofit. Last year I bought a full set with front, rear emblem, mirrors and control unit from a Passat from Poland and wiring from aliexpress but I left the project on the side since I couldn't figure out the mirrors and front camera mounting.
I see you have made a lot of progress here and will replicate it on my build, were passat's mirror lower shells ever tried as a replacement for golf's ones?

I will try to add photos and keep you all updated when I end up trying to fit everything on the car

 

[Reaper1]

I'm pretty sure they are a bit different.

The only way i see currently to install the camera in the mirror cleanly is to drill a small hole where the camera will be, insert a bolt and lock it with a nut from the other side, then you will need to heat the plastic and move the bolt to create a "pocket" for the camera as there is no room to mount it vertically. .(Mr fix sent a video showing the process of doing it but sadly the link is not working anymore)

That should be the cleanest way until some manufacturer comes out with an aftermarket option.

 

[fvolanti]

I might've found a different solution, it needs a bit of further studying. I decided to disassemble my spare golf mirror and my passat mirror (and they're one for left side and one for R side because I'm an idiot). It's a pain to disassemble the motor part but once it's apart I could see a way to fit the golf stem with passat mirror, maybe with an inner metal/plastic sleeve or something like that. I need to figure out how to block it in place tho, since it's held with a metal clip to the stem and the clips are of different size (the spring too, but that is mounted on the "mirror side" and the stems are the same lenght). Best solution that I'm figuring out at the moment is to make a large clip that slots in the small stem but holds down the big spring. In the last photo there's the clips to see what I mean

 

[Reaper1]

Is there a reason you disassembled the motor?, when I practiced taking apart my spare mirror i could get everything off and i was left with just the metal piece.

 

[fvolanti]

I took apart the swivel mechanism because I wanted to see if I could mix the parts. this passat mirror doesn't have the motor, i will buy another pair with the option. I must've bought the only mirror with every optional (blind spot, photocromic, courtesy light, area view, heating) except for electric folding

 

[xabhax]

I took apart the swivel mechanism because I wanted to see if I could mix the parts. this passat mirror doesn't have the motor, i will buy another pair with the option. I must've bought the only mirror with every optional (blind spot, photocromic, courtesy light, area view, heating) except for electric folding

Only problem I see with this is the plastic on the stem of the golf mirror. The golf ones have a curve to them that no other mirror I’ve found has. I though about getting a golf 8 mirror and trying to mount it with no modifications. But then that leaves that little window with no lower trim.

 

[Cuzoe]

How far out away from the vehicle do we think the camera needs to be? I've seen some (many) where camera is way out on the end. But looking at that some of the retrofit kits on Ali there are a couple vehicles that have the camera almost in the middle of the mirror housing.

Teramont...


Skoda Superb


I've got a couple sets of shells that I can destroy. This hole may not be far enough out, and I'll have to do a little bit of shell shaping to get it flush but that's not too difficult. I can also grind away a little bit of the metal frame that's making contact with the connector. I'm almost positive than on the folding mirrors in my car now that frame is plastic. But it was not plastic in my first set of folding mirrors (or these the original non-folding mirrors from my car).


Obviously I have more questions than input here, haha. @xabhax Do you know the proper orientation for the camera? Hypothetically, if the camera was pointing straight down, and you were looking at the back of the camera (from above) would the connector be "facing" forward or out to the sides of the car?

After I get the kiddo in bed I'll post a picture that will make more sense about the question I'm asking.