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I recently finished up installing some add-ons / accessories to my car and wanted to share some of the tricks and methods I used to accomplish my installs. In this post ill go over my dash camera and radar detector. You can view my Laser Jammer install here: https://www.focusrs.org/forum/27-focus-rs-guides/59769-how-laser-jammer-install.html
* To not clutter this post I refrained from including a handful of pictures. Here is the full album: https://imgur.com/a/FKoSU *
- Dashcam: Blackvue DR650S-2CH w/ PMP -
I went with this dashcam for many reasons. Like the 2 channel recording front and back, parking mode with crash detection, Alerting me if someone bumped my car, etc. Here is some test footage of different weather, times of day, front and rear recording:
(The tint on my rear hatch is pretty dark and effects the rear cameras recording ability )
The Blackvue has two wires: Power and rear video+power. I run them both in the same path for the first part. My windshield suffers from this useless piece in front of my rear view mirror. So as you can see I mounted the Backvue in front of it. I wanted the better middle view forward and don't mind the way it looks.
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Ran the wire under the plastic cover up to the head liner
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Here is the path I took through the headliner. With the radar detector wire (install steps below) I push all three wires in up above the headliner. To get them to stay I fold some small Velcro on itself about 3 times in small pieces and stuff in there holding the wires in. Once I get to the end I continue behind the plastic cover on the B-Pillar. The wires hide in the weather stripping for a portion of it until a crack becomes available between the dash and the frame, then I hide the wires in there till I get under the passenger side dash.
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Under the glove compartment I have a few things going on. The Blackvue is plugged into the Power Magic Pro. This device switches the dash camera between constant power and switched power. It monitors the voltage of my battery and the way I have it set currently is to keep my dash camera on when the car is turned off for 24 hours or till my car batteries voltage drops to 12v, witch ever comes first. This way I can keep recording when the car is off. The dash camera goes into a parking mode where is only records when it detects motions or it detects the car move (like if someone bumps my car with their car).
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I have two add-a-fuses. One for switched power in fuse87 and one for constant power in fuse65. The constant power circuit is only going to the Power Magic Pro and the switched circuit going the Power Magic Pro, Radar Detector and Laser Jammers.
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Next we have the rear cam. I have it middle in the rear window. Wire tucked under the plastic cover and kept there with one of the wire holders that came with the Blackvue. Kept a wire loop for when I open and close the hatch.
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Through the interior I pull off all a lot plastic pieces. There are three screws circled in yellow.
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The screw with the little cover up high on the pillar has to be popped out from the back side. You can get to it by removing the weather stripping.
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I found another wire bundle running behind and under the interior and used some electrical tape to attach the wires to it again. Going all the way to the front
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With this rear wire run the dash camera is good to go.
- Radar Detector: Valentine One w/ concealed display, bluetooth, brownout booster -
I chose this radar detector for a number of reasons. IMO if you do 5 or more over the speed limit they are a must have if you want to avoid speeding tickets. If you are considering buying one I recommended checking out some of Vortex's articles on his site Buy a Radar Detector » Vortex Radar or youtube channel to decide whats right for you. There are a lot of great options for many different use cases. Also, without the proper knowledge and buying the right one for you, you may find that they are annoying. So do your research!
I have my valentine one mounted from my visor using the included visor clip running in dark mode (Because of the concealed display below). I get great detection up there and its not visible from outside like windshield mounted radar detectors are sometimes. I ran the cable for it in the headliner and down the b-pillar with the dash cam cable. (See above description with pictures)
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Of the three addons I have for my V1 is the bluetooth adapter allowing me to connect my phone and the Brownout Booster ( Its a must have if you use the engine stop while idling feature otherwise the V1 will restart every time the idling feature kicks in.) The BOB sits in-line to the cable that goes up to the V1. To use both the bluetooth dongle and the concealed display at the same time I picked up one of these RJ11 splitters, the V1 supports this.
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This is the Concealed Display for my Valentine One that sits on my dash in view while I'm driving. I also have an alert LED for my Laser Jammers and am currently testing out this little hood I made out of black construction paper. This is to keep anyone from the outside seeing the display from the top or sides and keeping the LED only visible to me (when it goes off its very bright at night).
![]()
This is the wire run I used over to the passenger side. Pulling up weather stripping on the driver door, finding a spot to cut across under the driver dash where it would not interfere with the petals, through the middle dash, I found a small cavity I was able to fish my wires through to the other side.
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With all of that plugged in the radar detector is good to go.
Here is a video going over everything above:
- Links -
Album of all the photos I took: https://imgur.com/a/FKoSU
Links to the products used:
Blackvue DR650S-2CH: http://a.co/dnBw4VW
Power Magic Pro: http://a.co/iIMxvMx
Valentine Research: Radar and Laser Detectors | Valentine One | Radar Detectors
- Update 9/6/18 -
Since installing and running this setup, I have changed form the Valentine 1 to the Uniden R3. In short it has better range and filtering. To learn more about radar detectors and which is right for you checkout https://www.rdforum.org/
* To not clutter this post I refrained from including a handful of pictures. Here is the full album: https://imgur.com/a/FKoSU *
- Dashcam: Blackvue DR650S-2CH w/ PMP -
I went with this dashcam for many reasons. Like the 2 channel recording front and back, parking mode with crash detection, Alerting me if someone bumped my car, etc. Here is some test footage of different weather, times of day, front and rear recording:
The Blackvue has two wires: Power and rear video+power. I run them both in the same path for the first part. My windshield suffers from this useless piece in front of my rear view mirror. So as you can see I mounted the Backvue in front of it. I wanted the better middle view forward and don't mind the way it looks.
Ran the wire under the plastic cover up to the head liner
Here is the path I took through the headliner. With the radar detector wire (install steps below) I push all three wires in up above the headliner. To get them to stay I fold some small Velcro on itself about 3 times in small pieces and stuff in there holding the wires in. Once I get to the end I continue behind the plastic cover on the B-Pillar. The wires hide in the weather stripping for a portion of it until a crack becomes available between the dash and the frame, then I hide the wires in there till I get under the passenger side dash.
Under the glove compartment I have a few things going on. The Blackvue is plugged into the Power Magic Pro. This device switches the dash camera between constant power and switched power. It monitors the voltage of my battery and the way I have it set currently is to keep my dash camera on when the car is turned off for 24 hours or till my car batteries voltage drops to 12v, witch ever comes first. This way I can keep recording when the car is off. The dash camera goes into a parking mode where is only records when it detects motions or it detects the car move (like if someone bumps my car with their car).
I have two add-a-fuses. One for switched power in fuse87 and one for constant power in fuse65. The constant power circuit is only going to the Power Magic Pro and the switched circuit going the Power Magic Pro, Radar Detector and Laser Jammers.
Next we have the rear cam. I have it middle in the rear window. Wire tucked under the plastic cover and kept there with one of the wire holders that came with the Blackvue. Kept a wire loop for when I open and close the hatch.
Through the interior I pull off all a lot plastic pieces. There are three screws circled in yellow.
The screw with the little cover up high on the pillar has to be popped out from the back side. You can get to it by removing the weather stripping.
I found another wire bundle running behind and under the interior and used some electrical tape to attach the wires to it again. Going all the way to the front
With this rear wire run the dash camera is good to go.
- Radar Detector: Valentine One w/ concealed display, bluetooth, brownout booster -
I chose this radar detector for a number of reasons. IMO if you do 5 or more over the speed limit they are a must have if you want to avoid speeding tickets. If you are considering buying one I recommended checking out some of Vortex's articles on his site Buy a Radar Detector » Vortex Radar or youtube channel to decide whats right for you. There are a lot of great options for many different use cases. Also, without the proper knowledge and buying the right one for you, you may find that they are annoying. So do your research!
I have my valentine one mounted from my visor using the included visor clip running in dark mode (Because of the concealed display below). I get great detection up there and its not visible from outside like windshield mounted radar detectors are sometimes. I ran the cable for it in the headliner and down the b-pillar with the dash cam cable. (See above description with pictures)
Of the three addons I have for my V1 is the bluetooth adapter allowing me to connect my phone and the Brownout Booster ( Its a must have if you use the engine stop while idling feature otherwise the V1 will restart every time the idling feature kicks in.) The BOB sits in-line to the cable that goes up to the V1. To use both the bluetooth dongle and the concealed display at the same time I picked up one of these RJ11 splitters, the V1 supports this.
This is the Concealed Display for my Valentine One that sits on my dash in view while I'm driving. I also have an alert LED for my Laser Jammers and am currently testing out this little hood I made out of black construction paper. This is to keep anyone from the outside seeing the display from the top or sides and keeping the LED only visible to me (when it goes off its very bright at night).
This is the wire run I used over to the passenger side. Pulling up weather stripping on the driver door, finding a spot to cut across under the driver dash where it would not interfere with the petals, through the middle dash, I found a small cavity I was able to fish my wires through to the other side.
With all of that plugged in the radar detector is good to go.
Here is a video going over everything above:
- Links -
Album of all the photos I took: https://imgur.com/a/FKoSU
Links to the products used:
Blackvue DR650S-2CH: http://a.co/dnBw4VW
Power Magic Pro: http://a.co/iIMxvMx
Valentine Research: Radar and Laser Detectors | Valentine One | Radar Detectors
- Update 9/6/18 -
Since installing and running this setup, I have changed form the Valentine 1 to the Uniden R3. In short it has better range and filtering. To learn more about radar detectors and which is right for you checkout https://www.rdforum.org/
