Another Valentine 1 hardwire installation

[acao]

Project:

Hardwire a Valentine 1 radar detector into my 997 coupe.

Why another method?

In principal, it's the same as many fine others on this and other boards. In fact, I drew from those heavily, and adapted to my needs.

One of my goals was to minimize soldering. I'm adequate at it, but it's not something I wanted to do while crammed in my car, in a hot garage.

I wanted to minimize connections. Every connection is a potential point of failure, so I wanted to KISS, Occam's razor, avoid Murphy's law, etc.

I wanted to do minimize tapping into wires. I'd rather solder than tap, and I'd rather avoid altering existing harnesses at all.

I wanted to hide as much cable as possible. That's the whole point, right?

Supplies:

12'+ of telephone cord (Radio Shack)

RJ-11 ends (Radio Shack)

Add-a-Fuse ($8 at Pep Boys, I could not find them at O'Reilly's, and Autozone was out of stock)

Wire stripper/crimper, suitable for 24 gauge (Radio Shack)

In lieu of a wire stripper/crimper, use a hobby knife (everywhere) and pliers

RJ-11 crimper

Velcro strapping

Valentine 1 kit

Optional:

Valentine 1 hardwire adapter

Valentine 1 remote concealed unite

Time: 1 hr

The mount

Remove the metal bracket from the Valentine 1 visor mount. Use the velcro strapping to affix the remaining visor mount to the passenger's visor, feeding the strap through the visor's clip hole.

Why the visor mount? Because I hate suction cup mounts, everything about them. I hate the way the unit bounces around, I hate suction cup marks, and I hate being able to see the mount from the outside. If its your personal preference, the use it. The wiring instructions are the same.

Why not use the unadulterated visor mount? That metal bracket is too big. It's more bracket than necessary, and it pushes the visor down a little.

The velcro strap is secure, low profile, and low visibility. With the radar mounted to the visor, it can't be seen from a person standing outside the car. The outsider has to crouch to window height.

Once you've got the mount done, remove the detector to give yourself more room to work.

Why the passenger side? Because 100% of the time, there's a driver in the car. That means 100% of the time, my head is in the way. There's less occasion for a passenger, so it's less obstructed there. My personal driving cocoon is less obstructed too. I can still use my visor, and in an accident, my head is not headed toward that angular Valentine. It's also harder for a gendarme to see when he's peering in the driver's side window.

Running wire

Snip one end off the telephone cord. Feed the cord between the rain sensor post and the windscreen glass from driver's side to passenger's side. There's a gap, but not enough for the wire with an end on it. Only the uncrimped wire will fit. Run the wire through the clip hole in the passenger visor from top to bottom. This is a good anchor for the wire. Feed enough wire to plug into the detector, plus a little extra for slack and because sometimes, the RJ-11 wire doesn't crimp well the first time.

Now that you've got your endpoint laid out, tuck the wire into the roofliner until you get to the driver's a-pillar.

Grab the a-pillar and pull toward you. Hard. Harder. It's held in with metal friction brackets, it'll be fine. Once the a-pillar is pulled out enough, tuck the wire under the a-pillar, and feed it out to the weatherstripping. This takes some dexterity, and I had to work at it for about 10 minutes to get it to feed. Some installations routed the wire from underneath the roofliner, outside the a-pillar, and back under the weatherstripping. That's ugly. Doing it underneath the a-pillar hides that wire.

Using a wooden or plastic spatula, and your fingers, run the wire down the weatherstripping down to the fuse box. It's pretty easy except by the air vent, where it takes a little more persuasion to fit in, but it'll go.

Remove the fuse panel cover.

Unscrew the three screws holding the fuse panel carpeting. Remove the carpeting.

Feed the end of the wire into the exposed fuse area.

Connections

Now that you've got enough wire routed, crimp an RJ-11 end onto the detector side. Note the two middle wires. One's positive and one's ground.

Back down to the fuse box end, strip the telephone wire so that the corresponding hot and ground ends are exposed.

Crimp the hot end onto the Add-a-Circuit where provided. Telephone wire is very thin, so strip alot off and twist the wire onto itself to get some thickness.

Tie the ground end to the 10mm nut in the fuse area. It's the only one there.

Put a fuse in the Add-a-Circuit, and plug it into a spare slot. I used C1.

You are substantially done. Turn the car on (engine on), and see if the radar works. Engine off = radar off.

If something's amiss, check your crimps, and check that the detector is actually dialed to the on position.

Optional remote concealed unit

Route another segment of telephone cord from the fuse box area to wherever you want the remote concealed unit. Instead of wiring directly into the Add-a-fuse and chassis nut, wire the Valentine hardwire adapter into the Add-a-fuse and chassis nut. Put an RJ-11 end onto the fuse box side of the wire, and plug in. Crimp the remote concealed unit wires and plug in.

I opted against the remote concealed unit because I wasn't happy with any locations. Down in the storage tray is too low. If I'm speeding, I don't need to be looking down by the shifter. I wasn't too plussed with it by the driver's a-pillar either. I don't want it near the gauge cluster or atop the steering column because I don't want any indicator lights obstructed. Basically, I didn't have a good place for it, and I don't need it. I can see it fine with a glance to my 1 o'clock position.

In the end, I have a total of 6" of wire showing at the radar end, no solders, no taps, and only one wire-to-wire connection. I've made zero alterations to any trim part or panel, and zero alterations to wiring harnesses.

Many thanks to those who posted before me.

[donlycan]

Perfect timing, as I am just getting ready to hard-wire my V1 into my '06 C2. This sounds like exactly what I want to do! Have you taken any pictures? Great job!

donlycan

[acao]

Perfect timing, as I am just getting ready to hard-wire my V1 into my '06 C2. This sounds like exactly what I want to do! Have you taken any pictures? Great job!

donlycan

I did not take any pictures. The steps that are unique to mine don't really lend themselves to pictures (i.e. crimping RJ-11 ends). There's no "fork in the road" moment for a picture to resolve. There are lots of pictures of the fuse box area in other threads.

[donlycan]

Thanks. I guess I was thinking more of the mounting rather than the wiring. I was really struck by your comments about sight lines and suction cups.

donlycan

[acao]

Thanks. I guess I was thinking more of the mounting rather than the wiring. I was really struck by your comments about sight lines and suction cups.

donlycan

[donlycan]

Thanks so much for the pictures! They answered all my questions. Happy Holiday!

donlycan