Back up camera!

[OcalaHemi]

Can someone tell me which wire in the overhead console is the correct hot wire? I am trying to hook up a monitor and place it inside my overhead console. There are two sets of wire harness. One connects to the garage door buttons or what ever you would use them for. It has four or five wires. The other is three wires that control the overhead map lights. It has three wires. I tried the center wire (Looks yellow) but when I hook up to it the monitor blinks off and on rapidly. If I push on one of the map lights the monitor stays on like it should. I don't think I have the correct wire. I am not getting anything from the other yellow and white wire. There is also a black and green striped wire. I used the screw in the console to make the ground. Can someone help put me in the right direction? Thanks!!!

[bigkevin20]

If you need ign power use the wire in the radar hard wire how to, in the knowledge base.

[jhuerta63]

Post some pictures of the back up camera and the monitor. I'm thinking of getting one. Its hard to back up at night with dark tint, lol.

[bigkevin20]

IMPORTANT: The black wire with green stripe is your GROUND connection, and the PINK wire is your HOT/POWER accessory wire, which (conveniently enough) is only active while you are driving your car so as soon as you remove the key and open the driver’s door it looses power.

[bigkevin20]

the power wire in these instructions.
http://m3coupe.com/Charger/Valentine/V1_Install_v2.doc

[OcalaHemi]

Thanks for the info! I can not open the link in post #5 I'll try looking in the knowledge base. I'll take a picture of it and post. I am actually going to use it in the front, not as a backup. I ordered the Danko spoiler and wanted to put a camera up front to look out for them concrete parking bumpers. I bought mine at Wal-Mart, didn't think I needed anything too expensive. It is wireless which I liked!

[stitchmonkey]

This sounds like a job for
Dun Dun Da!

[OcalaHemi]

Very Funny

[bigkevin20]

I know your going threw the front but these instructions get you the power that you want. ITs the pink wire in the bigger black harness anyway. Theres two harness up there.
I did not rite this, and I would start at step 5. I know its messy but the info is all hear.

I hope this has been helpful.
William Quiles
February 20th 2006
First off, let me start by thanking the forum for being a great repository of outstanding information, and specifically to RadarmagneT who in here pointed out a link to his roof RD power, which had enough information to get me started. As RadarmagneT politely asked for additional photos/instructions, I decided to return the favor by doing just that

1) First, note that my hardware install is based on the freaking awesome Valentine One, from now on just the V1. If your radar detector is different, please read the whole install once or twice so that you can identify what is different. In most cases, instead of using the RJ-11 based power block, you will just have a red and black wire from your radar detector hardware, and (along with a small fuse), the install should be the same.

2) Start by reading once or twice the link posted above (roof RD power) as it is a great place to start.

3) Make sure you got your:
- Voltmeter (anything will work as long as it can measure DC volts on 0-14 volt range)
- printed copy of RadarmagneT’s instructions (or mine):


- Interior lighting of some sort, preferably something that you can aim to the area you will be working on:


- Radar Detector (duhhh!)
- Wiring for your hardware detector (and the power adapter if using a V1)


- Soldering gun (I could go into a lenthly discussion as to why NOT to use the crimpers, but I will write a short note below)
- Solder - any type will do for this low current
- Pliers, thin nose
- wire striper (make sure it matches the wiring you are going to be using)


- Electrical tape, preferably flame retardant
- A very sharp knife, smaller the better


- Cable ties, small size
- Patience - lots of it. Assume one hour to one and a half hours worst case. By hurrying your install I can guarantee that you will mess up somewhere!

4) OK, this is how things look like before we start:


As noted in RadarmagneT’s post, this piece is simply held together by 3 clips. At first it seems that as you pull on them you will break them, but you will not. Try NOT to use anything too hard (that would damage the edge of the console) in case you need to insert something to start the movement down, which is especially important if you have fat fingers like I do!

5) Start on the side closest to you (away from the glass) and pull down until the clips finally let go. IMPORTANT - Don’t pull down too hard as there is very little cable available to move down. Just pull down and try not to move the console more than a few inches down, like this:



Once the console is free, it will look like this:


6) Now we need to release more wire, so that we have more room to work. If you look carefully, you will see a plastic sort-of-hook or bracket or “thingie” that holds the cable in place. Move the cable out of the hook/bracket, and release the wire which is just inside the headliner area:




Now that we have more cable to work with, it should look like this:


7) Identify the cable that will be used for this project, as shown here. The right one is the larger one of the two, and note the rightmost cable is pink:


Note that it releases through the back:



Here is the cable ready to be modified:


8) Take your cable and very carefully cut the outer protective tape/cover as shown here:


Once cut (and assuming you have not cut your own fingers in the process – please be careful) it should look something like this:



IMPORTANT: The black wire with green stripe is your GROUND connection, and the PINK wire is your HOT/POWER accessory wire, which (conveniently enough) is only active while you are driving your car so as soon as you remove the key and open the driver’s door it looses power.

SIDE NOTE regarding SOLDERING vs. CRIMPING: I want to take a small moment to note that a few folks have reported that their radar unit was intermittent when using these wires, and that they picked up some other place to get power which worked best. The V1 only uses about 200mA on steady state (no signals detected) and about 450mA on full alert (everything ON), so the load is INSIGNIFICANT to this accessory wire. To the car, it is simply as if the radar detector is not there. If somebody gets intermittent function, is more likely due to not using a soldered connection by using those crimper things. If you want this install to be flawless for years and years, please solder everything!. Okay, moving on …

9) This is the most dangerous part to you and the car’s wiring. In order to solder the wires, very carefully remove the outer plastic casing of each of the wires. The idea is not to go overboard, but to have enough exposed metal so that the solder can do its job and fuse the radar wiring to these.

When done properly (please take your time), it should look something like this:




SAFETY NOTE: Make absolutely sure that you DO NOT LET THESE TWO WIRES TOUCH, as I am showing above.

At this point, if you are careful, you can use your voltmeter and verify that with the key in the ACC (accessory position), you indeed have 12 volts (or whatever the charged battery voltage is, which should be close to 12 volts) and that when the key is removed and you open your door that the voltage goes back to ZERO.

10) Take your radar detector wires and strip about ½ inch from the ends so that you can do your soldering:



11) Carefully wrap the radar wires around the exposed metal on the appropriate wire in your car. Most typically, the black wire in your radar’s kit is GROUND, which as we talked above goes to the car’s black/green wire. The red wire in your install kit should be POWER and goes with the pink wire in your car. Please double check everything before connecting.



IMPORTANT SAFETY NOTE: Although I did not, if you are scared about shorting something (which will simply blow a fuse), you can go ahead and disconnect the car’s battery as described earlier by RadarmagneT. This is truly the safest way of doing things, but I have enough experience being an Electrical Engineer so I went the “easier” way as I know what I am doing. Do that “you” feel is best and safest – I am not liable if “you” do something improper.

12) Test it BEFORE SOLDERING. Yes, this is the fun part. Assuming that you did everything well, carefully wrap a short run of electrical tape around each connection (making sure it does not come undone – remember these are not soldered yet), and connect the appropriate end to your radar detector.


Once you triple-verified that everything looks perfect, (reconnect the battery if you had disconnected before) put your key in the ignition to the ACC position, and turn on your radar detector (assuming it has an ON/OFF button – yours might be ON all of the time as soon as you apply power).



Your radar detector should work now, and as soon as you remove your key and open your driver’s door, it should go off. If everything works, you are almost there and can go to the next step. If something does not work, please remove your key, disconnect your battery (if you are doing this), and re-check everything again. Re-read and verify your radar manual instructions, re-check that the radar power wires are indeed touching the car’s wires, etc.. This should work properly the very first time – this is why I wanted you to take your time.

12) Assuming things worked above as planned, please remove your key, disconnect your battery (if you are doing this), and solder your two connections, and tape them completely with electrical tape:







14) In the case of the V1, secure the power adapter as shown here. Use electrical take and/or cable ties to secure everything and prevent rattling:







15) Use more electrical tape and/or cable ties to neatly tie everything together to make sure everything is stable and will not rattle down the road:







16) Route the power cable for your radar detector based on where you will install it on the windshield. If you remove this one screw, you will have a little bit more room to move things a little:



The good thing is that the headliner closest to the windshield is fairly flexible to allow for wired to be fed through it:


I then use this existing hole to route the cable:




I then use again more cable ties to make sure this cable would not rattle later:





This is how things look at this point – we are almost done now!





17) Time to close up and put the console back where it belongs!. If you removed the small screw in step 16 above, please put it back.

Carefully push back the excess wiring back into the headliner area and try to clamp it again to the original bracket thingie (is this even a word?).



Carefully align the clips (starting with the back one), and push everything up. It should look like this (again):



18) Once everything is covered, install your radar detector in your windshield.






Note that I picked a place that still allowed me to lower the visor, but that would not block the rear detector in my V1:






This is how the fairly hidden cable looks now, which blends extremely well with the rest of the factory wires going to my rearview mirror:


19) We are done. Tap yourself in the back for a job well done!
IMPORTANT: If you disconnected the battery, this is the time to connect it back again. Your car “might” not work properly without it !!!


I hope this has been helpful.
William Quiles
February 20th 2006

[OcalaHemi]

Great Instructions! Thanks!

[jhuerta63]

Any pictures yet?