Very basic hardwire instructions

[VRV1]

* This is for your information, I am not responsible for anything that happens to you or your car or your V1 or anything *

Hope these help someone be able to hardwire their V1 themselves. It's not extremely hard, just a little bit of patience. Please post and add any corrections that need to be made!

Here is a very basic how to hardwire your V1 instructions:

What you need:
1) Your V1
2) Remote display (optional)
3) "Add a circuit" - available from autozone
4) Cables (came with your V1)
5) Electrical tape
6) Scissors, Wire strippers

Realistically except for a few tools and the add a circuit, everything you need came with your V1.

Step 1: Safety First
Pop your hood, disconnect your battery

Step 2: Test your cables
TEST all of your wires. Using a cig lighter, test your cables. You'll probably be using a long cable (8' flat wire) to go from the hardwire kit to the detector and a shorter cable to go from the hardwire kit to the remote display. Testing your wires is especially important if you're not using one's that came from Valentine. This ensures you don't get done and find out it doesn't work.

Step 3: Pick a spot
Pick a mounting spot. You really need to decide where you want your detector permanently. It may be wise to drive around using the cig lighter for a while so you have some chances to test your detector in different spots.

Stick it up there.

Step 4: Run the wire
First, make sure just by generally holding up the wire that it is long enough to go from the detector all the way to the fuse box. In basically every car, the fuse box is near the driver's left knee.

Once you know it will work, get to work. Run the cable. For most this means stuffing the cable up in the headliner using a CD or credit card to push it into the space. You may also use a screw driver to pry the headliner a bit to squeeze it in. MAKE SURE YOU LEAVE ENOUGH SLACK TO actually comfortably plug in your V1

Once you get to the edge of the windshield, you'll need to go down the pillar (usually plastic or felt) that goes from the top of the windshield to the base of the door. Use your best judgment and be creative to get the wire hidden and out the way

Step 5: Do the wiring
Take your hardwire kit. It's a box with the two phone jacks, a black wire, and a red wire.

Red wire: Take the add-a-circuit you got and the wire coming off of it to the red wire of the hardwire kit. You can clip both ends and just twist them together the electrical tape. Insert a 10 amp fuse into the other side of the add a fuse

Now, using the "map" on the back of the fuse panel cover (the one you popped off to show the fuses) find the fuse that's for "cig lighter" or "accessory". Pull that fuse and plug the add a circuit into it (with the hardwire kit hanging off of it). Place a second 10 amp fuse into the add a circuit so your cig lighter will still work.

Add a circuits are MAX rated for 10 amp fuses DO NOT EXCEED that.

Black Wire:
Cut the end, strip it and then find any bare metal screw. Loosed the screw and then jam the wire behind it then screw it down.

Step 6: Test it out
Making sure that all of your connections are clean and electrical tape if required, plug your V1 into the "main" port on the hardwire kit. Plug your battery back in under the hood and turn your key. Your V1 should fire up. When you turn the key off it should shut down.

In some cars, the cig lighter fuse is ALWAYS on regardless of where the key is, if that's the case, just keep testing different fuses until you find one that is "switched" (meaning it turns on and off with the ignition). All you need to do is unplug the add-a-fuse put the original fuse back into the car, and keep searching

Step 7: Clean it up
Hide the rest of your cables, coil up any extra, stuff in with the fuses and then put the cover back on. You can also run your extra cable for the remote display if needed. That's plug and play.

Tighten your battery down, and you're done.

No mention here of adding an on/off switch but it could be added rather easily. It's good to have...


Pictures:
Here is the general path of the 8' straight cord you'll need to run. Stuff it into the headliner


Here is the pillar, you'll need to stuff the cable into it one way or antoerh


Here is what the fuse cover looks like


Here is what the fuse "map" looks like (on the backside of the cover)


Here is what happens with the red wire/add a circuit


Here is another view, and what happens with the black wire





Here is a picture of an add a fuse:


If people want some actual pics I can try and get your some!

[langtubip]

please add some pics, i think i can do it following your directions and pics. don't wanna mess anything up. especially my V1 or my car.

[VRV1]

Added pics, hope it helps someone out

[Jammer84_03]

nice write-up vrv1. thats the exact way i was going to do my hardwire, although i wasnt sure how i was going to do the inline fuse. now i have the clue i needed before i asked. ty!

[Arvetus]

windshield wipers are a good "switched" fuse to use (that's where mine is), unless you can find the aux power wire in the firewall, that's the easiest way to do it. Good write up...

[langtubip]

it's so simple now seeing those pics... thanks

[speed-dreams]

just curious, can you tap it into any fuse?

[John_in_NC]

I must have messed something up. It seems to detect blondes farther then redheads now.

[VRV1]

Glad it's helpful for some folks, feel free to post questions!

It's really not to bad to do and it makes SUCH a huge difference to get rid of ugly wires messing up the look of your nice passenger cabin.

[VRV1]

just curious, can you tap it into any fuse?

You can more or less tap into any fuse, there are really only two things to consider:

1) You probably want it switched so that it shuts off whenever you turn off the car, and turns on whenever you turn the car on. You can always move the add a circuit to different fuses if you're not sure if it's switched and test it out. If it's not switched, you'll have to manually turn on/off your V1

2) You don't want to overload a circuit, the V1 specifications say that the V1 only draws 225mA at idle or 425mA at full blast alarm so you'll want to put it on a circuit such that when everything is on on that circuit you won't exceed the fuses amp rating. It sounds complicated, but anything with a 15 amp fuse should be fine. A 10 amp would be as well and a lightly used 5 amp could work as well. Usually people use the cig. lighter one because it's the circuit the V1 would be using if it were plugged into the cig lighter.

If you pick a fuse and try it and keep blowing it, you'll need to tap into a different fuse with a higher amp rating. DON'T just change the fuse to a higher rated fuse as the circuit has a certain rating not be exceeded (fire hazard, etc)