Garmin BC 40 Wireless Backup Camera

My Garmin BC 40 Wireless Backup Camera arrives from Garmin tomorrow. I'll hook it up and let you know how good it works.

I hope it is the answer for not having a backup camera in our 2006 Town and Country Limited which we only use in the winter while we are in Arizona. It's a big boat in parking lots compared to our summer vehicle which, of course, does have a backup camera.

Note, the list of devices that the camera supports is fairly short (basically Drive models and not all of them) so you should check that out before you lay out your cash.

If you’re using that DriveSmart 61 in your profile, make sure you apply the update from March 27th which provides BC 40 support. See https://www8.garmin.com/support/download_details.jsp?id=1028...

Going to order one for my '06 Honda Odyssey. Hopefully the camera is better on the 40 than it is on the 30.

Already done, thanks.

The software update provides the menu options that allow you to install and set specific setting for the camera.

I am looking forward to your review of the BC 40 Rick. The fact that it is WiFi instead of Bluetooth wireless makes it interesting and if it works well, it is a good reason to upgrade to the newer Drive units with WiFi support if you need a backup camera solution.

My 2017 Kia Optima has the built in backup camera and it is a wonderful safety feature. My old 2011 Ford Ranger Pickup has terrible visibility for backing up. You would think a pickup would have good visibility, but with the stupid gigantic unmovable and unnecessary head rests plus poor rear visibility design on the cab, the backup visibility is basically non-existent, even if you have rubberneck flexibility (which I don't at my age). So I badly need a backup visibility solution on my old daily driver.

The BC-40 arrived this morning and so far I'm pretty impressed.

The initial setup is dead easy (at least on my vehicle). You un-box the camera, license plate holder and a couple of other items and your ready to install.

First step is to take the license plate off the rear of your vehicle. Note that everything must be removed - the plate, any holder, or frame that may be present. The camera is designed to be attached directly to the plate itself.

The camera is held on by a bracket attached to a metal holder that fits behind the license plate. Just slip it on and reattach the plate to the vehicle using the original license plate screws in the plates original holes . By default the camera is designed to fit on the top of the license plate but there are instructions for installing it to the bottom of the plate if it has to.

Once the plate and holder are installed you put 2 AA lithium batteries in the camera case and the case into the holder. A definite click will be heard to confirm you have installed the camera into the holder correctly.

Now turn on your supported GPS (in my case a DriveSmart 61 with the latest software (6.00) installed). You will notice a blue light flashing on the camera beside the lens, and in a moment a message asking if you want to pair the camera to your GPS will appear on the device's screen. Tap yes, and you will see what the camera is seeing out the back of your vehicle.

You now have a working backup camera and using the DriveSmarts really nice screen, you get a great view of whats behind you. The install took me about 10 minutes which included reading the instructions supplied in what maybe the best Garmin manual I've ever read. Very detailed!

Now your ready for what I found to be the most time consuming part of the setup - aligning the camera and it's "guidance lines". The instructions call for the camera to be pointing at an angle that allows you to see the rear most part of your vehicle along the bottom of the screen and the horizon taking up the upper quarter to third of the screen. You make any required adjustments by taking the camera out of the holder and moving the holder up or down using screws found in the holder. It took me 3 attempts to get the camera angled right for my van.

The second adjustment is to align the "guidance lines" properly. The camera shows these lines by default and provides a setup screen on the GPS to align the side lines and the Red/Orange/Green distance lines. Full instructions on how to complete this procedure are included in the manual.

Now we are ready for the first drive. Stay tuned.

Does it automatically activate when you put the car in reverse? If so, how does it know? If not, how do you activate it?

I think Garmin says the batteries are only good for two months. Do you have to go through the procedure of dismounting/remounting to the license plate frame every time the batteries get changed/

You can plug your GPS into an "always on" plug in your vehicle or one that supplies power only when the vehicle key is turned to the on position. In either case, when you turn your vehicle on, the rear view camera will be turned on and the rear view displayed on the GPS screen.

Move the vehicle forward and the camera will turn off by itself once the GPS figures out your moving forward. Note you can also turn the camera on at anytime buy pressing an icon on the GPS menu and map screens. Turning it off manually by using the "back arrow" on the camera display screen. The camera also supports voice commands. Speaking "Show Video" turns the camera on and "Hide Video" turns it off.

I found that the only issue with the system I have so far is that it does take a few seconds for the camera to activate once you put the vehicle in reverse from a going forward position. You get a black screen with a spinning wheel for a bit and then the camera comes on. This also happens when you press the screen "camera" icons. It isn't a long wait but if your used to your built in backup camera instant view on newer vehicles, you'll notice this lag in displaying the view on the GPS screen.

Overall, I'm impressed with the BC-40. The quality of the display along with the ease of set up and the low cost compared to a "wired in" option, more than outweigh the only negative I've found so far and that's the lack of an instant display as outlined above.

No you just pop out the camera from it's holder. Remove the ends of the camera housing (they turn out) and replace the batteries. Put the ends back on and snap the camera back in the holder. Easy!

It comes on automatically when you turn the car on. If your backing up, that's great. If you want to go forward, it will turn off automatically once your GPS realizes your going forward. Note, you can always just say "Hide Video" or tap the back icon to turn it off.

I think it turns on automatically when you place the vehicle in reverse. I'll check and let you know. It maybe that I've used the voice command or pressed the screen icon. I've tried so many things in the last hour I sort of forget. I've old like you, remember.

So when you put the car in reverse the BC 40 automatically come on? I thinking you have to manually press the video icon on the GPS to see the back up camera. There is no way the camera would know if you are in reverse (not including 1st power up). It’s not like it’s connected to the reverse lights/wires.

I double checked and it appears that the only time the camera comes on automatically is when you turn the vehicle on. That seems logical I guess but someone smarter than me could probably explain why the GPS can figure out your going forward but can't do the same thing when your going in reverse.

Anyway, what I'm finding I do is to speak "Show Video" just as I put the vehicle in reverse and the camera comes on as "automatically" as I need it to.

Really? Two months! If you replace with Lithium AA batteries, that will get pretty costly over time. At about $5 per pair, 6 times a year that would be about $30 per year.

Also, if you can just "pop it out" to change batteries, what would prevent theft? I suspect most people wouldn't be looking for this, so that is probably somewhat of a theft deterrent, but still, it seems like it might be a vulnerability.

You don't need to us Lithium batteries but Garmin recommends them for best results (?) and better performance in cold weather. I bought 4 at WalMart in Mesa AZ for $6.44. We'll see how long they last but we are shutting it down here next week so that may have to wait until October.

Also the Garmin website says:

Uses 2 AA batteries; battery life lasts up to 3 months with average use (lithium recommended).

I agree it seems rather easy to "pop" this thing out and walk away with it. On the other hand it makes it rather easy to "pop" it out and take it in the house, put it in your pocket, lock it in your vehicle, whatever it takes to prevent thief.

Yeah, I guess it is all relative. When you can easily spend $4 or $5 a day for a beverage at Starbucks, $4 or $5 every 2 or 3 months for batteries seems pretty trivial. Sometimes my brain is still living in the past when having $5 in your pocket meant something.

Any thoughts on that?

The manual reads:

Do not use AA batteries with a voltage specification higher than 1.5V.

I'm not sure if that disqualifies rechargeable batteries but I did read somewhere that Garmin does not recommend using them. If I can find the exact reference I will post it here.

Owners Manual, page 3

Do not use lithium-ion rechargeable AA battery cells.

The manual is addressing the fact the for many years a standard lithium-ion AA rechargeable battery had a voltage of 3.7 volts, obviously in contradiction with the former statement from the manual to us 1.5 volt batteries.

Back in mid-2018, a company named Kentli, came out with 1.5 volt lithium-ion rechargeable batteries. Last October, another company named Tenavolt also came out with a 1.5 volt version.

What would really be interesting is a hands on feature comparison of the BC 30 vs. the BC 40. The BC 30 can be wired to the back-up light circuit quite easily.

Great reviews! Thanks.

I just ordered one. Will report when it arrives. Should be about two weeks because they are out of stock right now. I have been waiting for a wireless solution for years, and replacing batteries every 4 to 5 months seems reasonable. (I won't use it every day.)

I think the BC 30 uses Bluetooth for the wireless connection where the BC 40 uses WiFi. That is why the BC 30 is compatible with more older Drive and nuvi models. The nuvi 3597 which has been quite popular with POI Factory members does not support either of these two cameras. I was always surprised that Garmin did not include this support on the 3597.

I think the BC 30 uses Bluetooth for the wireless connection where the BC 40 uses WiFi. That is why the BC 30 is compatible with more older Drive and nuvi models. The nuvi 3597 which has been quite popular with POI Factory members does not support either of these two cameras. I was always surprised that Garmin did not include this support on the 3597.

According to the items shown on the BC-40's box, it supports both WiFi and Bluetooth.

That's why I couldn't easily locate the reference. I was looking at the printed version of the Manual which doesn't contain the following statement that does appear in the PDF and Web version:

"Do not use lithium-ion rechargeable AA battery cells. Lithium-ion batteries use a different technology than non-rechargeable lithium batteries and may permanently damage the camera."

Can you tell from the DriveSmart's connection menu whether the camera is pairing via Bluetooth or wifi (or both maybe?) If it can pair via Bluetooth, I am surprised that Garmin limited its device compatibility list so much.

I'll check but my wife has the car right now.

The one thing I did notice when I first went to pair the camera to the DriveSmart was that the small light on the camera housing that blinks to indicate that the camera is looking for a compatible GPS, was blinking blue, which I thought normally would indicate that it was searching for a bluetooth device to pair with.

The other thing was that I was connecting in my driveway which because of where it is compared to our home and the sunscreen film we have on our house windows, normally means I get almost zero WiFi signal from that location. I was really surprised at how fast the camera found the DriveSmart.

Two things I didn't mention in my initial review posts:

- in the configuration menu for the camera you can turn off the "automatic on" feature if you don't want the camera to come on by default when you turn your vehicle on.

- also in the configuration menu you can "fiip" the camera so the display becomes a mirror image of what you would normally see. I have no idea why you'd want to do that.

I assume if it is pairing by WiFi, it would be a peer to peer connection between the Drive unit and Camera. I wouldn't think the camera unit would even try to pair with or connect to your home WiFi. The Backup Camera doesn't do any video storage or playback (like a dash cam) does it?

it doesn't.

I have the BC 30. It is bluetooth. You have to use the BC 30 supplied power cord to receive the signal. Downside I found was I lost traffic. I have never been able to get traffic through the Smart Link app. It does connect but I can be sitting still in traffic on the highway and garmin doesn't show me sitting in a red zone. BC 30 does connect to the reverse light so it is pretty quick to switch on. That's my review of the 30 for your comparison to the BC 40.

Some folks find it easier to reverse with a flipped image.

I guess one way to think about it is the reverse image is what you would see if you turned around and looked directly out of the back window. The normal image is what you would see in the rearview mirror.

The installation was sufficiently simple that it was curse-free.

My only frustration is that there is no manual. It was suggested (in the quick install guide, I think) that battery life is partly a function of the screen resolution but I didn't see screen resolution in the settings.

It also will be interesting to see how gracefully it handles geriatric batteries. All my Garmin handhelds have had a parameter identifying the type of batteries being used in order to better provide low battery warnings. The BC-40 has a recommendation but no settings. Will it provide a weeks warning or fail in the street?

My truck has adequate back-up lights so I anticipate nighttime performance to be OK.

Edit:
Correction: the Quick Start Manual says to find the Owners Manual at garmin.com/manuals/bc40na . That is incorrect. If you go to the BC-40 page online you can find a "manual" but all it is is a colorized Quick Start Manual.

There is a manual that is 14 pages at http://static.garmin.com/pumac/BC_40_OM_EN-US.pdf

Thank you John, but that is what I snarkily called a colorized Quick Start Manual.

I've a warning for pickup truck owners. On my stock height F-350 the license plate is so far forward from the trailing edge of the bumper that I can only see the ground 27 inches behind the bumper. Since I can see the towing hitch ball I remain satisfied.

Question for those, who are using those cameras for longer period of time. How well is camera casing and battery compartment weather proofed? Especially from dirt and water that come from road? How often you have to clean lens, as it's catching as much dirt as license plate?

The camera catches a LOT of dirt and raindrops as it is not recessed like many built-in cameras. But once it dries, it seems fine. It is worse at night because the gain is cranked up in dark conditions, which is helpful, but any raindrops on the lens cause blooming from any bright lights behind the vehicle.

As far as weatherproofing, the case seems solid and it uses good gaskets for the two battery compartments. Garmin is pretty confident one could attach it to the back of your boat trailer to help on the launch ramp, and it should handle shallow submersions.

Anyone else experienced dropped connections? Mine works when I power it on about 1 in 4 times. The rest of the time, I have to turn the GPS off and then on again. It also drops the connection while driving on a regular basis.

I am using a mid-size SUV, but it is a straight view from the GPS on the vent mount to the licence plate. I followed the troubleshooting procedures, but it is not much better. I am using fresh lithium batteries; I mounted it on the bottom of the licence plate instead of the top and I flipped it upside down to realign the antenna. I still lose the connection a lot of the time.

Because the connection is so flaky, it is almost useless for backing it out of my parking spot. I need to turn it on, start the truck, wait to see if it connects, and if it doesn't connect, turn the GPS off and then on again.

I was really hoping this thing would work more reliably.

I suspect an RV puts the camera too far away with too much signal blockage to get a reliable wireless connection to the GPS unit. Probably a hard wired camera is the best choice for an RV? I don't own a RV or a camera, so I really don't know … just guessing.

In my limited experience I have had one dropped connection. I restarted the BC-40 by opening and closing the battery lid. I did not need to re-pair. I won't be surprised if next time I go to the grocery (where this occurred) that it repeats.

During the failure I did too many things without keeping track and the image ended up upside-down. Did I re-install it upside down? I didn't think so but I'm not positive. At any rate I performed a Flip-Video and the image came back right-side-up. Backing into my driveway the video was flipped left to right so I undid the flip video. The documentation does say:

"When mounted with the Garmin logo upside-down, the
camera automatically flips the video the next time it connects
to your navigation device to provide a correctly oriented
image."

My camera is installed on a Ford F-350 short bed so the straight line distance between the camera and GPS is about 12 feet. The shielding of the tailgate, the front of the bed box, and the rear of the cabin don't seem to be an issue. I'm guessing (so far!) that my one failure is from interference.

I use my BC-40 on a 2006 T&C passenger van which is probably as long, if not longer, than your SUV. My GPS is also vent mounted.

I lost connection once on my first drive with the camera and have not lost it since. It has worked 100% of the time when I turn the van on. The only difference in your setup and mine is that my camera is on the top of the plate and not the bottom.

I've used the BC 30 on two different vehicles and was quite happy with it. The only issue I had was the installation - one of the cars (SC430) was a convertible hard-top, and finding the right place to mount the camera was a bit of a problem, since the trunk opens Backwards when the top goes up & down. It was just a matter of following the wires for the rear license plate lights and it worked fine.

Garmin support helped with some advice, but it still didn't work. It is not distance, temperature or battery related. It works once then doesn't connect the next three times, then connects the next four times, then fails to connect the next two. Garmin sent me a return authorization and a waybill to return it direct to Garmin Canada, which means I don't even have to go through my dealer. Plus, Garmin International support phoned me to ask a few questions and try out a few more suggestions. Garmin seems to be aware there may be a problem.

Somehow I read "RV" instead of "SUV" on chickenhawks post, so my replay makes no sense! Sometimes I wonder if it my eyes or mind that is failing … probably both!, but in any case … sorry for the distraction and ridiculous post.

Replying to myself: I parked in the same spot facing the same way and had the exact same failure. I presume it is either active interference in the 2.4 GHz range or simply an interfering reflection of my own signals off a nearby wall.

I have been having ongoing discussions with Garmin support and had the beta tester call me directly. Very impressive service. They identified there is a problem with my unit and they were able to duplicate it on their test models. The engineers created a software update to improve the connection and released it last night.

That's pretty impressive - from first complaint to updated software in two days.

The software updates the DriveSmart65 from 5.70 to 5.90. In my tests, it is still not perfect but MUCH better. It is now rare to get a fail to connect, and when it does connect, it connects a bit faster. It appears they have engineered out some of the latency and improved the connection.

There is still no pattern to when it doesn't connect; cold start, warm start, voice command, button command, etc. Sometimes it pops up in 2 seconds. Sometimes it takes 10 seconds. But it is certainly much more reliable. I think I am going to hang on to the camera instead of sending it back, and see if it improves in the longer term.

From what I'm reading in this thread, I really don't see a reason to give up my BC30 for the new BC40.

The lack of wiring for the BC40 is a plus for new installations but IMO, it's offset by the required battery replacement. if you know which end of a screwdriver to use, the BC30 wiring is quite easy.

Of course this is just my opinion but unless you have a compatibility issue with your GPSr, I'd stay with the BC30

I ordered one from gpscity since it is not available on Garmin Canada site. I received yesterday and I installed it in less than 10 minutes. I configured guidance lines but not sure about the camera angle . Not sure if I need lower it make it higher. I think it is very basic camera and does NOT give you any warnings if you are too close to an object.
Secondly, it is not secure at all. Anyone can unplug it and take it away. This is my first impression of this camera..