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Rear Facing Camera
Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2021 8:14 am
by BHD
For those R6/8 Surf owners, have you had any issues with your rear facing camera? Mine went dark (no image) and I was able to get it to work with turning the battery off and then restarting. The next day it "whited out" and then went dark. Now will not come back on. No issue with any of the other screens on the Glass Cockpit. So far technician cannot solve the problem. My guess is the camera itself died? Any input/thoughts are greatly appreciated. TIF
Re: Rear Facing Camera
Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2021 8:59 am
by lespaulrob
I'm afraid this is happening to mine too. Sales guy said it was working but when we were having our walkthrough on Saturday, it was completely black. He said he's going to get a tech to look at it and see what's going on before we pick it up tomorrow. I hope this isn't a "thing".
Re: Rear Facing Camera
Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2021 11:04 am
by BobRae99
I hope this gets resolved. Can you tell the rest of us what type of camera is mounted? Does it have a connected power supply at the mounting point? Pictures?
Re: Rear Facing Camera
Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2021 11:32 am
by lespaulrob
It's a fisheye camera mounted on the transom right above the "SURF" logo, dead center.
Re: Rear Facing Camera
Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2021 1:48 pm
by BobRae99
lespaulrob wrote: Wed Apr 21, 2021 11:32 am
It's a fisheye camera mounted on the transom right above the "SURF" logo, dead center.
Does it have a power source?
Re: Rear Facing Camera
Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2021 3:01 pm
by BHD
The service department head and my sales guy were supposed to take a look at it today on my lift. I will ask if it has it's own power source or not. Thanks for the input.
Re: Rear Facing Camera
Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2021 3:08 pm
by BHD
A replacement camera was ordered per Cobalt as the next step. I am waiting to hear back on the ETA
Re: Rear Facing Camera
Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2021 3:18 pm
by BobRae99
BHD wrote: Wed Apr 21, 2021 3:01 pm
The service department head and my sales guy were supposed to take a look at it today on my lift. I will ask if it has it's own power source or not. Thanks for the input.
Thanks. I'm sure my dealer knows but I thought I'd ask. I'm using a Garmin Virb attached with a suction cup on the rear of my R3 sterndrive. I've learned two things:
(1) an action camera works well for surfing, but its not good for capturing skiers at the end of a 75' line and;
(2) without a power source, my Garmin was running out of juice too quickly to be of any real use.
I can control the Garmin from the glass dash but if I had a choice, I'd leave it running more during the skiing sessions to capture stuff and avoid having to mess with it while I'm getting ready to pull someone up. It's a distraction. But ... without a power source, it runs out of juice in about 30 minutes.
Hopefully the new system is integrated with a power source.

Re: Rear Facing Camera
Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2021 5:21 pm
by BHD
It is an integrated system and from what my sales rep said it is powered from the battery same as the Glass cockpit.
Re: Rear Facing Camera
Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2021 6:41 pm
by rabiddawg
Am I on the Malibu crew site?
This sounds just like a Malibu.

Re: Rear Facing Camera
Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2021 9:06 am
by BobRae99
rabiddawg wrote: Wed Apr 21, 2021 6:41 pm
Am I on the Malibu crew site?
This sounds just like a Malibu.
I guess we'll wait for the R6 owner reviews on the camera fitted to the R6. If it is the Malibu unit, I didn't read great reviews - more like a car's backup camera than the "action" camera I was expecting.
Re: Rear Facing Camera
Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2021 12:48 pm
by jhnmdahl
Many places require a rearview mirror, rear camera, or spotter if you're towing somebody, so the rear camera fills this need. Probably not the kind of thing you're likely to shoot videos of your trick jumps and post to youtube, but you should be able to see if you've lost your rider.
Re: Rear Facing Camera
Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2021 1:02 pm
by rabiddawg
BobRea99, my comment wasn’t real clear. I don’t know anything about the Malibu camera. What I do remember from my days on the bu site was all the problems people had with the electronics and touch screen junk.
“My boat won’t start; touch screen locked”.
Re: Rear Facing Camera
Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2021 9:14 pm
by lespaulrob
Well, I too have a new camera on order. It must be a bad batch or something but hey...new boat. lol!
Re: Rear Facing Camera
Posted: Thu Apr 22, 2021 10:06 pm
by BHD
For what it’s worth, the camera was pretty awesome prior to it going out. Hopefully the replacements will work without any issues.