Then wired everything up and took a drive. The first thing I noticed is how it sees cars and other warm objects from really far away, showing what might be ahead of me, before even my headlights see it.
Here's a pic of a couple walking towards me... the first one taken from the windshield and you can't even tell they are there. But on the Thermal Cam, they came off as moving white objects and immediately caught my attention.
Also a pic, in pitch black, of someone taking a scooter towards me... I saw him on the screen before he even saw my truck parked. However, with my lights off, you couldn't even see a silhouette of him, it was so dark.
And finally how it looks mounted, behind the grill. I've still got to clean up a few things to finalize the mod (like alignment, contrast/brightness adjustments, but glad I managed to get the "proof of concept" going!
Here's a commercial for the system from the 2000s:
YouTube
CONS:
-It doesn't have a wide field of view, but after driving around it a while, it actually makes sense that way. My headlights take care of all the objects near my car, this is really meant to see past, way past, what the headlight can't reach.
-Finding a mint camera isn't that cheap, but avoiding pedestrians or deer, might pay for itself down the road?
PROS:
-Not that difficult to install and fully reversible.
-Had to drill into the Grill, but with my LED Toyota Light Mod, it sort of replaces the Toyota Emblem anyway. However, if I wanted to reverse the mod, the emblem would screw back on easily.
-"Coolness factor" and really truly great if you're in a rural area or maybe even off-roading at night, etc.