How hard is it to direct wire a BEL unit in? Where do most of you fine your 12V power source for the detector? I think i'm going to permanent mount my BEL in my Volvo up high for good Ka range which is really needed on the NY thruways,
How hard is it to direct wire a BEL unit in? Where do most of you fine your 12V power source for the detector? I think i'm going to permanent mount my BEL in my Volvo up high for good Ka range which is really needed on the NY thruways,
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it should be fairly easy. i know a lot of people split into their overhead counsul and if you don't have one a lot of the time there are wires in the same general area on any car. if you can't find any there u just need to wire into a reliable 12v source
I'm assuming i should use a volt meter to be able to tell a 12volt source
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yes it should be pretty easy to tell if it's 12v.
Maybe if brick come in here he can tell me where his V1 draws power since he is hard wired in
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ya i know in my truck i'm going to get my power from where my overhead counsel is but you should have enough wire that if you had to you could run it to somewhere in the dash.
My V1 is hard wired, all I did was run a wire directly from the battery through the firewall and walla, I have a 12v line coming to the interior of my car that I can split and add things to.
The most important thing to remember when finding power is that you need a clean source. I think that using the dome light should be good. Just using any convenient 12V+ wire could be problematic if it's powering something like your radio which might produce interference.
I'm getting power from the fuse box via a tap to one of the interior lighting circuits. It's kind of a pain on an S70 because you have take the cover off of the use block housing and then fish the wire down and around the firewall. It works but the fishing takes some time because you really can't see what you're doing. Finding a good grounding point under the dash also took a while. If you opt for the dome light option I'd be interested to hear how it goes.
I purchased a black 12 foot long 4-wire telephone cord and a black 4-wire telephone line coupler. I ran this wire from underneath my steering column around my instrument panel then up my driver's side pilar and through the roof liner. The end of the cord snakes down a few inches above my rearview mirror where I have my detector mounted. I still use the smartcord for power, but I avoided having a dangling cord. I used to worry about laser detection with my detector mounted high, but not since I got a Blinder. This should work if your detector uses a telephone jack for power like my RX65 does. I did this to avoid wire splicing and make taking the detector to another vehicle just as fast as usual. If you splice wires make sure you have a voltmeter (make sure your connection is 12V and the right polarity is established) and know whether you are on a constant or switched power supply.
A power supply I have used frequently in this application is the power antenna output on the back of the radio. Slip out the radio and probe with a multimeter for a connector that gives you 12V with the radio on and zero with it off.
This power option has two advantages.
1. The power is turned off with the ignition key, and
2. The RD can be shut down simply by turning off the radio, something you would want to do if the officer is approaching the drivers door whilst he left his radar on =] Looks perfectly normal to turn off the radio so you can hear what the officer has to say =]
Caution, develop a habit of turning the radio down rather than off when that ****ty song you hate comes on.
Another caution, some radios retract the antenna when a CD or tape is played, and this may shut down your RD.
If this is the case, or if your car does not have a power antenna output, simply wire the RD to the power supply for the radio (Usually the wire with an inline fuse in it)
Lee
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