LVDell

**THIS THREAD IS MEANT TO BE A DIY THREAD. IF YOU HAVE ANY COMMENTS ABOUT RADAR LOCATION, METHODS EMPLOYED, ETC., PLEASE START A NEW THREAD TO DISCUSS FURTHER**

I decided I wanted to hardwire all my cars and since V1 sells their kit for almost $20 I decided to investigate if I could do it on my own. Turns out all you need is a standard phone cord (the kind that goes from the wall the phone). Each cord will do 2 cars. You don't need to buy any longer than a 3' cord since you will need less that 12" per kit.

First thing I did was using a multimeter I determined which of the 4 contacts on a phone cord that V1 provides is the power and which is the ground. The 2 inner of the 4 are what you are working with. The outside 2 are for other uses (I think a remote display and a memory) but you don't need them. If you are looking at the plastic connector on the phone cord with the 4 contacts on the top and the release tab on the bottom and then number them 1-4 going L to right, contact 2 is the ground and 3 is the power.

1. Remove the two infrared cover (look like tinted plastic ovals). They just pop out. Use a jewelry size screwdriver to get under and pry out.

2. Remove the 2 screws holding the overhead assembly to the roof.

3. Pry down the entire covering from the side closest to the rear of the car. It has a couple snaps that hold it up when the screws are removed.

4. Cut the phone cord you bought in half and trim to about 12" or so. (the picture posted (it's a local friend form his install last week) is not mine in case you are wondering why it doesn't look quite like mine)

5. Identify the color of the wires in spot 2 and 3 and trim strip the insulation to expose the wiring.

6. Using a multimeter verify the correct wire in the 4-wire plug that is the accessory power wire (it will read ~12V DC). In mine, the color (and it should be the same in most models since they use the same wire harnesses) is green with a red stripe. If looking down at the 4-wire plug, it is the front left one.

7. Tap into that wire with the 3 wire from the phone cord. Now you have power.

8. Loosen (DO NOT REMOVE) the screw in the motor assembly up above to use as a grounding point. Wrap the 2 wire from the phone cord around the screw and tighten back down. AGAIN, DO NOT LOOSEN TO MUCH SINCE THERE IS A NUT BEHIND IT AND IT IS A B!TCH TO GET IT BACK TOGETHER!!!

9. Zip-tie the phone cord to the wiring harness as a precaution in case your V1 falls off the windshield so it can't rip out the wiring.

Voila! You're done.

Feel free to post any question if you need help.

BealeAss

Awesome, exactly what I needed to re-engineer the way someone did it in my car...stupid dealer hardwired a black interior with a grey wire

Nice writeup!

theporscheguy

Dell,

Great writeup. I used your garage door opener mod when I installed my painted center console. I have a Valentine on my list of winter projects, along with exhaust (2nd set), ECU flash, 6 pistons up front, wheels (only have two sets, must get more), 997 sport seats, etc. etc, etc. Wow, I need to sell a little more just to cover my mods............

LVDell

Thanks!

Your list sounds very impressive. Can I add some of those to my list?

Marshy

LVDell,

Thanks for the thorough writeup. Very helpful.

Now that's what I call throwing down !

Geoff

ltc

I am far too mechanically challenged.
I just installed a V1 in my wife's Excursion in about one minute:
www.invicord.com

For extra credit, I also used a www.blendmount.com

She was happy. Came out very nice.

LVDell

Lewis, very nice. Decided I was fine with the high end suction cup mounts

....with that said, I might go with the blendmount for the Range Rover.

Geoff, very welcome (for the info AND the entertainment).

doubleurx

With all due respect,Valentine knows what he is talking about. Keeping the detector as high as possible will always have better results. I've experimented with detector positions with the Valentine since I got it back in 2001. Lower was never better. Since Valentine designed this detector, arguably the best on the market, I'll stick to his suggestions for mounting rather than the suggestions by his competitors for mounting their devices.

Come to think of it, the escort site logic really didn't make much sense. Since Laser is actually infrared, with a beam diameter upto 6'-0", lowering it potentially reduces the detection area considering the laser device is typically hand held. By mounting it close to the hood, you are cutting off the area below the hood more so than you would mounting it higher on the windshield.

Dock

I'm not arguing.

As a DIY thread I would hope people would want to decide if that mounting location is what they want before tackling the DIY. Discussing the pros/cons of detector placement is, well....discussing, not arguing.

LVDell

Thread has been cleaned up as best as possible so as not to get cluttered "discussing" anything other than the install. Let's keep a DIY thread just that, a DIY. If you have any questions about how to do the install please post away and I'll answer as best as possible.

IF YOU HAVE ANY COMMENTS ABOUT RADAR LOCATION, ETC., PLEASE START A NEW THREAD TO DISCUSS FURTHER

Dock

This is not true for laser.

This is overall a fundamental misunderstanding. While it is true that laser energy is transmitted in a narrow beam, it's where the officer aims that is the issue. Officers are taught to aim at either the license plate or one of the headlights. This is because these targets provide the best total reflection of the transmitted laser energy. Officers can not be perfect in their aim; the laser beam naturally "wanders" based on this, and it is compounded by the range to the target. The longer the shot, the larger the CEP of the energy relative to the intended target. The closer the laser detector is to the officer's target, the better the chance it has to receive enough energy to alarm.

Consider this: An officer who is going to shoot a 30-30 rifle at the car instead of a laser. You have been given two choices with regard to where you can sit on the car...you can either sit on the front hood, or you can sit on the roof. You have been told that the officer is not a perfect shot, and that he will be targeting the front license plate. Where are you going to sit to reduce your chances of getting tagged? The hood or the roof? I'm going to be on the roof, as far away from the front license plate as possible.

If you want to decrease your chances of receiving laser energy from the wandering aim of a law enforcement officer, place your laser detector as far away from the front plate or headlights as you can. If you want to maximize your chances of detecting the laser energy, place a detector in both headlights, and right next to the front plate. If you don't want to do that, pick any location that is as close to that as possible...like low on your windshield.

JG 996T

Nice write-up Dell.

^ Looks like a great product (can't stand the suction cups, especially in winter), but its doesn't look like the Blendmount will attach to 996 mirror.

Bob Rouleau

FYI, I have copied this thread (without this post) to the DIY forum as it is sure to be of interest to people with radar detectors. Note that I have deleted a number of "off topic" posts in this thread includiing this one.

While the opinions presented may be valid, they are not relevant to the topic of this thread. As a reminder, the topic is a simple and elegant way to hardwire a V1 and not a discussion on the optimum location to the device which might involve a lot more work to achieve a clean install.

Regards,


Best,

LVDell

Perfect, thanks Bob!

xcusemi

Dell, thank you for the write up. This is somthing I plan to do over the winter.

Thank you