Our new RV rearview camera is a Haloview BT7 Touch. We have had it long enough; now it’s time to show it off and tell people how much we love it. Unlike many RVers, we have always had rearview cameras. It may not seem like a big deal, but our new Haloview BT7 Touch camera system is a considerable upgrade that makes our lives easier.
Our old rearview camera system
Our RV was pretty high-end and had a state-of-the-art camera system. We had a full-time rearview camera system that included side-view cameras. Our new Haloview BT7 Touch camera system is better than our older 2008 RV camera system by a wide margin. As a comparison, in 2008, I had a pretty cool flippy cell phone that was pretty state of the art. My cell phone even had a 2008 state-of-the-art camera. I rarely took cell phone pictures because they were too grainy. That is a good description of our 2008 RV camera system. Grainy
Grainy
The 2008 cameras (side and rearview) and display were digital and pretty good for 2008, but neither had good resolution, color, or adequate contrast. They were generations behind my flippy phone, both in the camera and screen resolutions. You could see something, but you couldn’t see anything well. We never drive our RV at night, but the old camera wouldn’t work well and was barely adequate during the daytime.
2024 vs 2008
Digital cameras now available in 2024 are so much better than even the best digital cameras in 2008 that the comparison is unfair. Our display screen alone has more than twice the resolution and much better color saturation than our 2008 version.
Installation challenges
Installing a new camera system created enormous challenges for me. I thought I could merely disconnect the old camera system and use the power from the old camera system to power the new camera. Nothing could be further from the truth. The only part of the old camera system that was eventually used for our new camera is I used the old monitor as a mount for the new monitor. The entire system, including the wires, is separate from the old system.
Investigation
Our 2008 camera system hasn’t worked properly for the last four years. This wasn’t because the cameras failed but because the wires were too thin to survive sixteen years in an RV bouncing down the road. I intended to use the power wires to power the new camera, but I knew that wouldn’t work once I saw the wires. Any attempt to use any part of our 2008 camera system would waste time and money. Of course, I didn’t realize it and had several failed attempts to use something from the old system. At best, my 2008 display fills the hole in my dash. My investigation before getting our Haloview BT7 Touch camera system led me to believe that if my new camera were going to work, it would have to transmit pictures without wires.
Eventually, I sourced the 12-volt electricity from the running lights, so to get the camera to work, I have to turn on the lights when we are driving. This is probably the way newer RVs use their lights. Reaching the wires behind the lights was tricky, and the side cameras involved crawling up under the RV into a seated position with only my legs sticking out.
Wireless
I had a dilemma. I wanted to use the camera as a rearview mirror when we were driving down the road. This means the pictures must be as close to real-time as possible. If the images were delayed, even a tiny amount, it would not work well when driving down the road. Most backup cameras are dedicated to when the transmission is in reverse; I wanted ours to act as a rearview mirror. Our 2008 camera had wires (which I couldn’t use on a new camera) to create a near real-time picture. I also couldn’t run new wires to the backup camera inside the RV without lots of work.
Antennas
One problem with wireless cameras is that the distance between the rear camera and the monitor is 40 feet. The display and the cameras must use antennas, and the rear camera signal might not correctly connect to the dashboard display. This proved not to be a problem, and our Haloview BT7 touch system rarely loses the signal, even from 40 feet away.
Features I wanted on a new camera system
- Low delay design able to transmit the images from the rear camera to the display without wires
- High-resolution color wide-angle cameras with built-in microphones
- Large, bright, color display with good contrast and built-in speakers
- Works well in poor light.
- Easy to install without adapting the wires from the previous camera.
Haloview BT7 Touch
Sometimes, this camera system is described as the Halioview Byte Tango 7 Touchscreen, while it is the Haloview BT7 Touch in other places. They are both the same camera and display system. Some versions (including mine) have three cameras that connect to the display wirelessly. Different versions of the Haloview BT7 Touch will only have the backup camera. Another version of the Haloview BT7 Touch has four cameras connected to a single display. An older version of the Haloview BT7 does not have a touch screen and instead uses buttons along the side of the display to control the camera’s functions.
The Haloview BT7 touch name refers to the seven-inch 1080p touchscreen monitor. Perhaps It might be slightly better if it were a little larger. Bigger, however, would cause different problems when mounting the display.
Side and rearview cameras.
The side view cameras have built-in marker lights, and I mounted them as far forward as possible along the side of the RV to cover my blind spot, especially on the right side while we are driving. The marker lights are a reference for other drivers when they are next to me. The side view cameras are adjustable on a pivot mount to increase the view of the camera down the side of the RV. The side view cameras also have a trigger wire so that the turn signal can control them, and the display is automatically activated when the turn signal is activated. My installation failed at this point. My side-view cameras work well but do not automatically change the display when I activate the turn signal.
It is easy to tell which side-view camera is which because the antenna on the side-view camera is at the top. When mounting the camera to the side of my RV, I had to be careful to mount the camera level to the ground. The camera pivots up to 70 degrees after the mount is installed so that you can point the camera into your blind spot.
Reach out and touch it.
Unlike our old camera, which was connected to our turn signals this camera, I wasn’t able to get it attached to the turn signal. Instead, I use the Quad View function, meaning that I can see the rear and side view cameras simultaneously. When I make a turn, all I have to do is reach out and touch the screen to switch to one of the side view cameras.
The rearview camera is mounted on the back of the RV. The camera on the side and rear view cameras appear to be the same. The difference is the lens hood and mounting bracket. All the cameras have LEDs to help when using them after dark. The Haloview BT7 Touch display controls the lights on the rear camera. I assume they work and work well, but since we never park our RV after dark, we have never used them.
Pairing the cameras to the display
Even though the Haloview BT7 touch manual mainly covers pairing the cameras to the display, we never had to do that. Our cameras were already paired to our display. As I understand it, all you have to do is press a button on the camera and select the correct option on the display, and the two will pair seamlessly.
Display mounting options
Our Haloview BT7 Touch package included two different display mounting options. Both are similar, and I used one of the options when mounting our display to the left of the driver’s seat, as shown in the following picture. After a few trips, I moved it to the central location.
The suction mounts wouldn’t work in our RV, so I ended up drilling through the suction mount into the plastic strip next to my engine monitor. The photo at the top of this article uses the same mounting option.
After trying several options to mount the display, I eventually built a plastic bridge to directly mount the display over the top of our previous monitor. A few small parts from the supplied mounts went into my bridge design. The bridge design solved an additional problem. The 2008 camera display was recessed into the dashboard, and the Haloview BT7 touch display needed room for the antennas to point in front of the dash.
How do we like the Haloview BT7 touch camera system and display?
My only negative comment is that the manual was generic and focused more on mounting the camera using the provided mounting hardware than anything else. Other than that, our new Haloview BT7 touch camera system is excellent. Once installed (each part was installed more than once), it works every time. I wouldn’t hesitate to get another Haloview BT7 Touch camera system.
Overall, our Haloview BT7 touch display is better than our mirrors. The picture is so clean and bright. I wish we had three full-time displays. One for each camera; this way, we would be able to use all three with big pictures simultaneously while driving. You can do this by displaying multiple cameras on one BT7 display, but the view gets busy with each camera using a small part of the screen. This might be ok if we were sitting closer to the display, but for us, the display is about four feet away from the driver’s seat.
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About our links
As you know, our blog income is zero, which allows us to be independent and tell the truth. We do not get income or commissions. No, we don’t make paid endorsements. We don’t make recommendations; instead, we will tell you what we like (or dislike). The links are only provided as a quick reference to help our readers.
Links
Haloview BT7 Touch display with rearview and side cameras (the one we have)
Haloview BT7 Touch display and rearview camera
Haloview BT7 Touch display with four cameras
Haloview BT7 Solar would be an excellent camera for the back of a trailer without easy access to a power source.
Haloview SENS 3 Pro (radar) Wireless ADAS System for Blind Spot Detection
Not a paid endorsement
Haloview didn’t pay for this article, but I hope they like it. They did give me a discount. I talked to Haloview about extending a discount to my readers. They said yes. Please mention that you read my Haloview article and know what you are getting into, and that will probably save them hours of explanation.
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I almost can’t believe the photo at the top from your old camera and your new camera is of the same view. It shows how much better the cameras and displays are sixteen years later.
It is like looking at a color TV versus an old black-and-white TV.
Using your old monitor as a mounting point for your new display is pretty clever.
Our RV has a rear-view and 2 side-views, but they can only be viewed on a small screen built into a very complex sound-system/radio. It never gets used because of the difficulty figuring out how to activate it, and the small screen, and I’m not going to take my eyes off the road and lean over and down low to operate it. Good article! Thanks.
Excellent !!! Our RV needs one like this.
As someone who just recently acquired a 3D printer, I’m always looking for solutions to problems. For anyone else looking to do something similar in the future – if you have access to someone with a 3D printer, they could create a blank panel to replace your old monitor, which at the same time could serve as a mount point.
I thought about removing the old monitor and plugging the hole, but then I decided it was made for a pretty good hole cover, giving me the mounting points I needed.
I think RV manufacturers should embrace wireless technology for things like this. There are way too many wires running everywhere in our RV.
I used to have a wireless system and changed it out for wire because it would get interference from things as I was driving, mainly in the city. But wired systems are difficult to install. Does your screen ever get lines through it or does the screen blink off for a second? Nice install. Thanks for sharing.
So far, our wireless system is 100%: no screen lines or hesitations.