runarinn

So I want to hardwire my radar detector so it switches on/off with the car and also to get rid of the nasty wire hanging in front of the MMI.

I have an Passport 9500i, direct wire power cord and an "add-a-circuit".



I tried to connect it today but I have trouble finding a good ground within the driver side fuse box(also checked the passenger side and it was almost the same).

Has anyone here tried this and can you recommend a good ground and fuse to connect with?

usna93

Thanks to the posters of this thread for the details and pics. I leveraged the info to install my V1 Gen 2 plus the Concealed Display in my 2018 S5 Sportback also using the garage door opener fuse. (I may change to the power window lock fuse b/c that will enable me to "kill" the system by a button press if I need to). I considered doing the mirror-tap as others have done BUT I didn't see how one can do a V1 Concealed Display using that method so I went with the "dead pedal" option. I had a problem with my Add-A-Fuse (exact same one in this thread) b/c it was wider than the fuse slot and the fuse wouldn't seat properly.. I just noticed in the pic above that it looks like the poster may have filed away a bit of the plastic so that the Add-A-Fuse can seat properly. My workaround was something I did previously i.e. stripping some of the V1 adapter wire and inserting it with the 5A fuse in the slot. (It's been that way in my other car for 16 years without issue and so far is working well with my Audi). I connected the ground wire the same way mentioned above. I prefer my V1 on the right side of the rear view mirror up high b/c my sun visor gets more use when driving and will block the V1 laser detection...vs the passenger sun visor. Yeah the power cable is on the right side of the V1 so there is some cord sticking out but I can live with it. The rest of the cord tucked in nicely using a plastic auto mold removal tool. I used 3M double sided tap to mount the V1 adapter and it's fuse assembly under the dash, just forward of the OBD port.
Now I just have to figure out the best spot for the concealed display and do a bit more cord tucking by the dome lights. May add pics of that if there's interest and it will help others.
Next project...ALP or TMG laser "parking sensors".

jeffpuxx

On the passenger side fuse box there is a nut you can easily unscrew and use as a ground.

Ricket

Just did this process yesterday on my 2019 Audi RS5, a few notes from stuff I hit:

• I looked up the fuses in the box on the side, where the ground bolt is. One of them was front USB so I figured it'd be switched. It wasn't until later that I actually learned all of those fuses are always-on, including the empty slots. I tested them. Don't be like me; you must wire to the dead pedal fusebox. I had to do some soldering in the footwell to extend the cable length, lol.
• In the dead-pedal box, at least for the "D" section where the above guides are pulling from, the right side of the fuses is the battery side. So if you follow the guides above and have your fuse tap point to the right, then you must make sure you have a fuse inline with your hardwire cable. Otherwise, you are wiring directly to the battery, not going through the fuse in your fuse tap, which is dangerous. You can confirm this by using a multimeter, turn the car on, remove a fuse and test the left and right sides. You will see the right side has power and the left side does not. Because the left side goes through the fuse to get power. You want your fuse tap pointing to the left, not the right. I don't think anyone in this thread mentioned this fact.
• I used a fuse tap that looks exactly like the ones above, but I didn't want to cut plastic out of my fusebox so instead I carefully cut the heatshrink and plastic where the fuse tap wire enters the fuse tap plastic box, and was able to bend it 90 degrees and secure it in place with hot glue. This allowed the fuse tap to easily fit into the fusebox with no modification. I would recommend it, or just a different style of fuse tap.

Otherwise it was just a big effort of running wires. I took off the knee trim panel below the steering wheel (that was scary) and ran it across inside of there, being very careful about the airbag and the movement of the steering wheel (if you do this, make sure to up/down/push/pull your steering wheel to understand the full range of movement and ensure your wire doesn't get snagged), also noting where the trim panel cover slots back into place (it has some plastic pieces that kinda "reach" deep in there so check it before you ziptie anything).

I took some pictures, I'll try to post them but I suspect it will be denied due to being new here.

Ricket

Am I allowed to link to imgur? I prefer it so I uploaded the images and made an album with complete instructional descriptions of my process here: https://imgur.com/a/jjHTGOX

If not then I will reupload the images into the forum here...

DanTheMan2400

Ricket,

Thanks for uploading these details as well as the associated pictures. This thread, along with your post was super helpful for me to install this successfully in my 2018 SQ5. Thanks everyone for your comments btw.

I do have a quick question. I routed my Valentine 1Gen2 power cable to the dead pedal fuses (D8-Garage Door opener) with the same add-a-circuit hardware as described above. I used two 5 amp fuses in both the main and secondary fuse on the add-a-circuit, routed the wiring, ran the ground, and hooked everything up. Valentine works great and has power, however, the garage door opener switches (I, II, III) in the mirror console no longer work or appear to have power. Should I try a different fuse location to get power, or did I do something wrong with the wiring? Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

beep-beep

I have my Valentine 1Gen2 concealed and wired to an empty fuse on a driver-side fuze box. I use JBV1 android app and Waze. A killer combo - it uses some AI algo to track suspicious aircraft near me. I think it also can connect to TMG a15 and Mobile ADS-B receiver on a rasbery pi.
pretty comprehensive setup barring flairs and chaffing shooting from the sides of your car.

I also have a story about my old car with old V1. A cop stopped me. Since my radar detector was hardwired, I did not think through how to turn it off. The cop had his radar on and it triggered my radar detector to go of while I was talking to the cop. At the end of rather unpleasant conversation he asked: "so does this radar detector helps you?"
I guess the moral is : if you plan to hardwire it, put a switch somewhere to be able to turn it off/