Hey everyone.
I just purchased a valentine one , and i wanna wire it up to the car so that i dont use the cig lighter. preferably by splicing a wire and running the powercord up through the dash, or up above by the vanity mirrors. well, anyone have a radar detector that they wired into their car with the power? any suggestions? i wanted to make this a DIY job and not have to take it to a car stereo place.

-JT

www.valentineone.com

I have a V1 hard wired into my '99 S70. The unit is suction-cup-mounted to the windshield, just below the rear-view mirror. The wiring runs up, tucked under the headliner -- just pull it down slightly with your fingers and cram the phone wire in there -- and then down the inside of driver's side A pillar cover and through the side of the dash via existing gaps in the dash pad. There is a factory wiring block under the dash, on the far left in US versions, that includes an accessory-on lead and a ground lead, making the installation of the Valentine One power adapter very easy and completely invisible. This wiring is detailed in my vehicle owner's manual under "Chapter Six -- In Case of Emergency" under the subheading "Installation of Accessories."

How this constitutes an emergency, I don't know. But it's darned handy information for these types of installations.

--
Jim Rothe, '99 S70 T5M,
http://www.jimrothe.com/volvo/index.html

can u show me pictures of your installation??

-JT

You know what a Valentine One looks like, and you know what phone cord looks like. Picture the phone cord running from the V1 up to the headliner, tucked in near the rear view mirror, and that's what it looks like.

As for the under-dash wiring, I don't think I'm going to be able to help you any time soon. The ground is covered with snow and ice, and it's ten degrees outside, so I'm darned reluctant to crawl around in the driveway to get a photo of the underside of the dash. Sorry. But the owner's manual should be sufficient for you to figure this out. Give it a shot -- you'll get it.


--
Jim Rothe, '99 S70 T5M,
http://www.jimrothe.com/volvo/index.html

Here in VA it's also 10 degs and everything is snowed in and frozen up. Radar detectors are highly illegal here and the state troopers have the latest technology to "lock on" to the detectors signal and nail you. You'll loose your detector plus get a ticket for the detector, another for speeding and no telling what else he'll find like dirt on your tags to site you for. It generally makes for a bad day. The best way to wire them for use in VA I've seen is through an old fashioned, floor mounted dimmer switch. The key is to click it on and scan the road ahead but not long enough for him to get a "lock" on you. Works pretty well I'm told.

joey

I have TWO V-1s, 4 cars hard-wired and 3 of those cars hard-wired for the Valentine-1 remote display.

On my Volvo (which does NOT have head airbags) I have the remote display plugged into the console socket. This was a "temporary" solution but it's worked so well that I've kept it for 134,000 miles so far. The wire is routed into the shift boot, throuth the console under the glovebox and up the "A" pillar behind the trim. The main unit I have hiddden in the pocket of a Case Logic visor organizer (about $8, Target Stores). The setup makes the detector invisible from outside the car. The lighter "hot" wire is on when the ignition is on, and off when it's off. You could tap into that and keep the lighter socket free for a cellphone. The "A" pillar trim snaps off, and the kneepad below the glovebox has a few screws holding it in place.

On the 2 other cars I use the "hot" wire for the cigarette lighter for power. The tricky part was hard wiring around the head airbags on another car because the head airbags go down 1/3 of the was down the "A" pillar. In that car I duct-taped the wire out of the way. On one car I don't use the remote display but have the V-1 hard wired into the overhead console.

-sami

Well, i dont know if it has head airbags. the car is a 1998 s70 t-5. nevertheless, i am extremely intrigued on your valentine one rigs, and was wondering if u would mind emailing some pictures?