TV Repairs and Dash Cam Modification

On Saturday, the weather did not compliment our Las Vegas visit.  It rained all day!!  It was good in that since it lasted all day and was continuous, it did clean a lot of the Quartzsite dust off the Bus.  It looks pretty good.

During our time in Quartzsite, I noticed that the front overhead TV was moving around in it’s space.   When we got here, I played around with it, and found that the bottom six screws were completely out and it was only being held by two upper screws.

After we sat through a sales presentation that I mentioned in the immediate previous post, it was only 11:00am and raining, so I decided to tackle securing the TV. 

The timing was good.  Before we left on this trip, I purchased a Dash Cam on line to use on the Bus.  This was one of many things that I researched on the internet while I was basically confined to a bed after my foot surgery for the three broken bones.

I wanted to install it high up on the windshield of the Bus, and in front of the electric shade. To do that, I had to run 12v power to that area, and install an accessory plug for the camera.  I did that before we left home.

During this trip, I found that manually plugging in the camera to turn it on and off was inconvenient, and sometimes after stopping for the night or for an extended period, I would drive off and forget to plug it in.  If I did not unplug it (turn it off), then it would continue to record and write over previous files with a continuous picture.

I decided that I wanted to install an on/off switch near the driver’s seat.  To do this, I would have to remove the TV to access the wiring and to install the switch where I wanted it.  During the initial install, I managed to run the wires without removing the TV.

Here are some pictures of our work:

The camera and accessory plug……..

The overhead TV out of it’s location and on a work table…………

Close-up of TV cabinet with wiring……….

The finished product showing the ‘blue’ light indicating that the power is ‘on’ to the camera……………

Close-up of the new switch………

By the way, the videos are of very high quality, and we are saving some of them as reminders of our trip.  The camera works by recording about 10 minute videos, one after another and the Micro SD card will save about 15 hours of travel, before then the camera begins to overwrite the previous videos.

If you want to see samples of the type of video quality, go to the hyperlink listed above for the Dash Cam.  One of my goals is to drive the Bus down the Las Vegas Strip Blvd at night to record the colorful side of Las Vegas.  I will probably do that on the last night here and then we will drive on to our next destination.

Tomorrow, we will make a drive to the strip and see how busy it is on a Sunday.

Later…………..