Magellan has announced their backup camera, as previously promised for their RoadMate 9055 and 1700 models. It isn’t showing up on Amazon yet, but should be there soon. As you can see above, the camera attaches at the top or bottom of the license plate and transmits wirelessly to the aforementioned 7” models. The camera provides a 120-degree view and is waterproof and dustproof to IPX67 standards, while the transmitter is water resistant to IPX4. MSRP is $149.99.
Here’s the full news release.
That’s interesting. I have a Roadmate 1700 and the video doesn’t work at all on it. I got it over a year ago, and at that time when I looked at various sites, other users said it didn’t work on theirs either, and Magellan was no help.
Maybe they provided a firmware update later to fix this? I never followed through, because the only reason I got the 1700 was to run Oziexplorer CE on that nice big screen. I tried the native Magellan software a couple times, didn’t like it, and have never booted into it since then.
http://stephencreek.com/gpsreview/roadmate/oz01.jpg
I have a Garmin nuvi 5000 I am presently selling because I installed a smaller 3.5 LCD screen on the left side of my dash. I also want to upgrade the GPS. The 5000 had great video (hardwired) but there was no way to get around the time involved in loading the maps before getting the backup view after starting the car.
I don’t know if the Magellan has the same issue. I also don’t know how good their wireless system is, but I do know many tend to be noisy.
Hopefully they maintained a hardwire option for those desiring it.
As a side note, the 5000 take a long time to acquire satellites especially is you are not using a windshield moount. A $10 mini ext antenna from Amazon solves that problem.
Haha, I also have a nuvi 5000. It is a Garmin oddity because it’s based on Linux. Same platform as the Nuvi 800 series but larger screen and no voice recognition.
The slow startup is due to the fact that the unit has no battery and must always do a complete cold boot, which is a real nuisance when you’re stopping for errands, etc. Nevertheless, I think it was one of Garmin’s better designs.