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Tell HN: We built a solar-charging wireless backup camera for your car

pearlauto.com

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Re: Tell HN: We built a solar-charging wireless backup camera for your car

#21

Post by sp332 »

jbob2000 wrote: post #6

Very cool! I'm interested in your thoughts about car manufacturers including them on cars now. In Canada, all new car models must have a backup camera, for example. (Kinda funny how you feature brand new Porsches and Audis in your product demos; both these cars have backup cameras!) I still think there's a market for the product for older/used/classic vehicles, but wondering what your perspective is on this.

http://arstechnica.com/cars/2016/06/a-team-of-ex-apple-engin... There's a long design cycle, and it only appears in some makes and models; it can take 10 to 20 years to appear across the production line. The other challenge is the technology in new cars is designed to be stagnant, so it stays the same throughout the lifetime of the car, which is over 17 years now.

Re: Tell HN: We built a solar-charging wireless backup camera for your car

#22

Post by mmanfrin »

JshWright wrote: post #12
tzm wrote: post #8

Great idea. Why use an OBD port? I suspect this will compete with other OBD-dependent solutions in the future.

It needs to know when the car is in reverse.

Consuming the ODB port for autolaunching an app seems like a really pointless addition. It weirds me out that I'm installing an always-on (when driving) computer in my car when it provides no major benefit other than knowing when my car is in reverse -- and since I've got to set up my phone anyways, opening an app is not much more work to save from having an entire separate dongle needed.

Re: Tell HN: We built a solar-charging wireless backup camera for your car

#23

Post by lstodd »

mrshoe wrote: post #17
cybrjoe wrote: post #13

Question: what's the user experience like every time you get in the car? Do you need to launch the app? I imagine that's what the OBD portion is for, but I didn't think you could automatically launch apps from iOS. Does the Android app offer a different experience?

We've really tried to make this experience as smooth as possible. The product comes with a superb magnetic dash mount for your phone. Frequently our app will show up on your lock screen in iOS, so you can just slide up to launch into the video view. We will of course leverage whatever tools both platforms provide to make the launching experience as seamless as it can be! We can also take cues from accelerometers, the…

Aha! The OBD port connection isn't even necessary since it's a trip to the phone UI anyway.

So why OBD?

Re: Tell HN: We built a solar-charging wireless backup camera for your car

#24

Post by fhood »

Khao wrote: post #16

This page has by far the worst scrolling interaction I've ever experienced. First up : no scroll bar so there is literally no visual cue that I need to scroll. Scrolling "activates" the next portion of content. Somewhere around the middle part : I can scroll and see the scrollbar, but WAIT! Another portion of the page starts hiding the scroll and hijacking the scrolling to show something. Uggggh again? Scroll some mo…

Wasn't there an article on HN recently that said something along the lines of "just because Apple does it doesn't mean you should"?

Re: Tell HN: We built a solar-charging wireless backup camera for your car

#26

Post by cybrjoe »

lstodd wrote: post #23
mrshoe wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've really tried to make this experience as smooth as possible. The product comes with a superb magnetic dash mount for your phone. Frequently our app will show up on your lock screen in iOS, so you can just slide up to launch into the video view. We will of course leverage whatever tools both platforms provide to make the launching experience as seamless as it can be! We can also take cues from accelerometers, the…

Aha! The OBD port connection isn't even necessary since it's a trip to the phone UI anyway. So why OBD?

I'm guessing the "cues" mentioned are triggering the app to show up on the lock screen. Without it you'd be forced to sift through your apps every time you back up. I don't think there's any other way to know for sure you're in a car and will be backing up soon. Ideally you'd want your backup camera on before the accelerometer knows you're backing up.

Re: Tell HN: We built a solar-charging wireless backup camera for your car

#27

Post by mrshoe »

tzm wrote: post #8

Great idea. Why use an OBD port? I suspect this will compete with other OBD-dependent solutions in the future.

Aside from power, we do use the OBD port to detect things like reverse and speed (to stop the video automatically when you hit 10mph).

In general we want to integrate our products into the car and the driving experience as much as possible.

Re: Tell HN: We built a solar-charging wireless backup camera for your car

#28

Post by mrshoe »

JshWright wrote: post #10

Looks like a really cool project. Is there a non-solar charging method, just in case? Have you done much testing in less than ideal solar locations?

There is! The solar charging should be enough for most everybody. We have done testing in a variety of locations. As a backup, though, it can be charged over USB.

Re: Tell HN: We built a solar-charging wireless backup camera for your car

#29

Post by JshWright »

mmanfrin wrote: post #22
JshWright wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It needs to know when the car is in reverse.

Consuming the ODB port for autolaunching an app seems like a really pointless addition. It weirds me out that I'm installing an always-on (when driving) computer in my car when it provides no major benefit other than knowing when my car is in reverse -- and since I've got to set up my phone anyways, opening an app is not much more work to save from having an entire separate dongle needed.

I assume it runs in low power mode most of the time, and is woken up by an RF signal from the dongle. It's _possible_ you could accomplish that via BLE from the phone, but maybe not.

Obviously the camera can't be on all the time, as I'm sure they're cutting the power budget pretty close as it is, given the size of the solar panel.

Re: Tell HN: We built a solar-charging wireless backup camera for your car

#30

Post by atonse »

mrshoe wrote: post #17
cybrjoe wrote: post #13

Question: what's the user experience like every time you get in the car? Do you need to launch the app? I imagine that's what the OBD portion is for, but I didn't think you could automatically launch apps from iOS. Does the Android app offer a different experience?

We've really tried to make this experience as smooth as possible. The product comes with a superb magnetic dash mount for your phone. Frequently our app will show up on your lock screen in iOS, so you can just slide up to launch into the video view. We will of course leverage whatever tools both platforms provide to make the launching experience as seamless as it can be! We can also take cues from accelerometers, the…

Have you considered hooking this up to CarPlay so it actually shows up in my built-in car screen?
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