04-30-2016, 11:01 PM | #1 |
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DIY: Valentine 1 Stealth Install, AC vent Remote Display, and Volume Control
A step-by-step for how to do a
A) Valentine 1 Radar Detector hardwire B) Concealed Remote Display integration into AC vent C) Volume/Mute controller D) Stealth Valentine 1 housing/mount on rear deck I’ll start off by saying, this install is nothing special and takes no prior car/audio/electrical knowledge. Its pretty run of the mill stuff (hardwire, hiding wires) combined with a little attention to detail that comes together to make a nice clean install without any wires visible. My biggest gripes with having a radar detector was a) getting pulled over and having a ticket-magnet on the windshield/sunvisor and b) having someone break in for your goodies. With this stealth install, you have the benefit of a hidden detector, a display for the detector in an ergonomic location, and a mute button/volume control by the iDrive controller— all while retaining that OEM+ look. The radar detector is hidden in an recycled motion detector housing found on eBay (e39 or e46 motion detector housing). The unit is situated on the rear deck, wrapped in alcantara to blend in. Orienting the front and rear slats with the sensors allows the radar detector to preserve its laser detection capability (I’ve tested and confirmed that laser still works, although I can’t speak to whether its less sensitive or not). There is no compromise of radar detection since the sensors still have full front/rear view of the car. Additionally, if you don’t want to do the full monty here, you can pick and choose which parts of the install you want. Before I had all my supplies/time to install, I rode around with just the hardwired V1 on the sun visor with the remote display in the AC vent. Enough chattin, read on for the meat/potatoes and post comments/questions below. Supplies: Valentine 1 (hardwire kit included) Remote Display Remote Audio Controller E39/E46 Motion Detector Housing 20’, 16’, and 8’ RJ-11 telephone cord (8’ included with V1) You’ll want the flat-type, not the coiled, to help facilitate tucking the wires. Alcantara/Leather/Fabric, your choice 3M super 77 spray adhesive Sugru moldable rubber, pitch black 8pack Masking Tape Zip ties Scotch lock wire clips / spade connectors Tools: Dremel Wire cutters Pry tools for interior Difficulty: 2/5 A) Hardwire Essentially same process as other 2014+ bmws.. Link: http://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho....php?t=1026319 Video: After removing the roof module as per the instructions in the links above. Green/brown striped = positive, black/brown striped is ground. Cut the adhesive tape around the wires carefully to expose the wires and create some slack for separating/splicing. Of note, f87 didn’t have any ground screws up there, nor did I want to drill a hole. I changed the ground wire that came with the V1 hardwire kit to a spade connector similar to the positive wire. Search amazon for assorted splice wire (female)/ spade connector (male). Use the Velcro-based adhesive stickers that came with the V1 to mount the hardwire unit to the roof. Once all is connected, test the Remote Display and the V1 to make sure it all switches on with ignition! After you confirm, gently pull down the anterior roof trim near the top of the windshield, only to create enough room to snake the RJ-11 cords through. Route the wire along the edge of the windshield, over the A piller, and down the posterior edge of the A pillar within the rubber molding. On the driver side, we will have our Remote Display wire (8ft RJ-11), on the passenger side we will have the Remote Audio Adaptor wire (16ft RJ-11). Pry tools come in handy once again to help tuck the wire along edges.
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04-30-2016, 11:04 PM | #2 |
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B) AC vent Remote Display
Lets not rehash work thats already out there. For removal/disassembly of the driver side AC vent, refer to the P3 vent gauge diys for the F30/20. This theme emphasizes that this install isn’t anything special or difficult, just making use of great resources already out there for the bmw community. Link: http://www.p3cars.com/content/pdf/f20-vent.pdf Video: Once disassembled, you will need to make room for the remote display (remove vertical slats and the rotating flap that controls air flow. Of the horizontal slats, you will need to remove the 2nd from the top to improve visibility of the detector display. Once you’ve gutted the interior of the AC vent, slide the Remote Display through the back and go back to the car. Figure out what location works best for you given your height/seating preferences. I wanted mine towards the top since the vent opening is already tapered with a smaller width at the top. This way, air flow below would be preserved and maximized. During test fits in the car, I also decided I’d remove one of the horizontal slats (2nd from the top) to improve visibility of the arrows and signal strength. Mark where you need to cut the AC vent on the side to fit the RJ-11 input. In order to secure the Remote Display in this spot, I used Sugru moldable rubber. This stuff is the best and has near-unlimited uses. It is stable to high heat, electrically neutral, an extremely strong bond, that is still reversible. During the curing stage, you can also put some soapy-water on your finger to smooth out the edges and make it look like cleanly applied silicone. https://sugru.com/about
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04-30-2016, 11:08 PM | #3 |
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C) Volume Control (Remote Audio Adaptor RAA)
A good set of pry tools are your friend! Refer to this link for pictures on removing the center console trim. Link: http://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho....php?t=1070897 http://f80.bimmerpost.com/forums/sho....php?t=1023437 1) Remove CF trim, starting from rear passenger side corner with a pry-tool. Get leverage, and incrementally pull upwards towards the front of the vehicle. You will feel each clip pop out of place. 2) Unplug the iDrive controller plug on the underside. 3) *6MT owners* Remove the shift boot by pulling on the edges of the shift boot where it is attached to a bezel. The second link has a video for 6mt. 4) Remove the plastic trim surround by starting at the rear driver side part and pulling up. Detach the plug connecting to the DSC/Sport/Comfort buttons. Note: Removing shift boot/plastic trim may not be necessary, but I found it helpful in snaking up the wires later for the Remote Audio display. 5) On to the actual Valentine Remote Audio Adaptor. Pull directly out on the volume knob to remove it. Then remove the mute knob behind it. Remove the screws at the bottom. Use a xacto knife or razor to gently lift the controller’s front-face sticker off, save for later since we will reuse this. Pull the plastic surround off the RAA and take the time to label one of the RJ-11 ports with “IN” to denote that as the receiving end of the main power. 6) Test fit the disassembled Remote Audio Adaptor behind the center console trim. Mark your center lines. 7) With the Remote Audio Adaptor sticker, remove the adhesive and use masking tape to make a stencil. Drill the hole for the volume-knob first. I put masking tape on both the top and bottom of the trim because I didn’t want the CF side to have any frayed edges later. 8) To make the Remote Audio Adaptor sit flush enough with the trim to have the button go through, you need to trim some of the underside of the center console trim. This way if you want to reverse this mod, its just one OEM trim piece you need to replace. The area denoted in the picture above, between the red brackets, was what I needed to trim down using a dremel. Again, it helped to drill the volume-knob hole first since this gave me an appreciation of the full thickness of the unit. There are multiple layers of plastic on this side, so in reality, I never even reached the upper CF trim during this stage. 9) Last, drill the other holes (speaker hole, and 3.5mm headphone jack hole) for the Remote Audio Adaptor. Make another template and affix it to the front, confirming that you are parallel to the CF weave and iDrive controller. 10) Sugru to the rescue again to affix the Remote Audio Adaptor in place. I love this stuff. I put the plastic surround back on to confirm I didn’t need to trim anything else for fitment. Sugru is moldable for half an hour, and cures over 24 hrs. 11) While the surgu was curing, I superglued the Remote Audio Adaptor front-sticker to the trim and reinstalled the volume/mute knob. 12) As far as the wiring goes, I used a penlight to open the space between the center plastic trim and the carpet. I then used a coat hanger to fish the RJ11 through to the center area near where the iDrive controller is. The last step is tucking all the wires beneath the trim. See Step 9 of Part D.
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04-30-2016, 11:17 PM | #4 |
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D) Concealed Radar Detector Housing
Time for some arts and crafts kiddos. I found the e39 motion detector housing off eBay for ~ $20. If you’re trying to remember where it was in the stock cars, it was on the interior roof towards the center of the headliner. I believe the e46 one was the same. 1) Remove the front and rear plastic slats. Disassemble the interior (if one came with your unit). Peel off the fabric gently since you will use this later as a template. 2) Test fit the V1. It will be at a slight angle in the anterior-posterior axis to allow the front and rear sensors to have maximum exposure through the two openings. 3) mark the outline of the unit, dremel away anything in the way of the V1 sitting flush against the housing. I found it best to remove the top cover of the radar detector and I fabricated a thinner cover using a thin plastic sheet. Shave away any edges to improve fitment. I marked what I needed to trim on the images below. 4) Get a couple sheets of high density foam from your local crafts store. Mark the outlines of the e39 housing and the RD in the appropriate orientations. Repeat with just a stencil for the e39 housing, this will be the 2nd layer (base layer). I then cut out sections on the top layer to improve line-of-sight detection on the valentine’s front and rear sensors. 5) trim all the extra foam, and tack the layers together. I used some pins I had saved from dress shirts, as well as masking tape. test fit the unit on the rear deck of the car and figure out the optimum angle. I found that to sit flush at the edge, without the possibility of passengers bumping into it, I made it have a slight rake. I added a 3rd layer of just a lip to make it sit flush in the grove between seats and rear deck. 6) I added the lip, glued all the pieces together with gorilla glue, then sanded/shaved everything until it was smooth and flush with the rear deck mounting location. 7) Time to it all look pretty. Primed and spray painted the plastic slats. I used leftover alcantara from a previous project to cover the e39 housing and the foam base. 3M super77 spray adhesive is the adhesive of choice for stretching fabric over these kinds of parts. Held the edges down with clamps thereafter and let it dry overnight. 8) Back to the vehicle, radar detector inside. I used black stitches to affix the e39 housing to the base, but you could theoretically use whatever you want for this step. I wanted something reversible in case I need to go back and muck around with something. I also used the same stitches to tack the base onto the rear deck since it was also reversible and wouldn’t show any damgae/wear on the rear deck. I used masking tape and a level to make sure the unit was centered. The window defroster grid markings denoting the center. 9) I tucked the 20ft RJ-11 cord in the following fashion. Straight down into the rubber molding behind the rear seats. Towards the passenger side, under the C piller, along the anterior edge of the C pillar, then along the roof and down the passenger side posterior A pillar rubber molding. Final Wiring tucking, from passenger A pillar to center console: Both the wires from the Remote Audio Adaptor and the Valentine 1 will be tucked under the passenger footwell. There are two 10mm bolts that need to be undone, and the footwell roof comes straight down with some tugging. Affix the wires with some zip ties, don’t let them cross directly over the knee airbags.
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05-01-2016, 05:29 PM | #10 |
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No problem y'all. Hope it helps someone down the line! Its nice that its almost universally applicable to any car. I had a similar setup in my other car except the detector was hidden in the rear middle headrest and lost laser functionality.
Ahh I got it off eBay about 2 years ago when I wrapped the interior A/B/C pillars and headliner in alcantara on my other car. I bought 5x10 ft or something ridiculous back then and kept my scrap pieces as well for small projects like this.
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05-01-2016, 06:13 PM | #11 |
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I totally understand that so I tried to minimize pieces that require trimming. Just the side of 1 AC vent and 3 holes in the center console CF trim piece. The latter of which would be the only one not fully reversible (without buying a replacement piece).
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05-12-2016, 11:15 PM | #12 |
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Nice write up. For anyone that wants to keep the cutting down a bit more they have a phone app now for directions of boogy and blue tooth module.
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02-08-2017, 11:25 AM | #14 |
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Here's a question - do the various safety systems in the car set off the V1? I don't know what features are radar-based and what use the camera behind the mirror, I suspect at the very least the blind-spot systems are radar based...
Assuming I eventually wind up with an M2 I will probably be putting a 9500ci into it along with a V1, but I'm trying to figure out how much radar the car spews by itself. |
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02-12-2017, 03:02 PM | #15 | |
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Quote:
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02-13-2017, 03:55 PM | #16 | |
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Quote:
I run 3 different ECMs on my car: V1 - solely for the arrows and better Ka performance than Escort on some bands, I disable X on the V1. I use the bluetooth piece with it to connect to my iphone for a remote display. I normally use a Blendmount to hang the V1. Escort 9500ci - I have an older one that had the original ZR4 garbage lidar jammers on it; I don't install those, I just install the radar horn, controller, GPS, and display so I have another radar system. I leave all bands enabled here (highway patrol in southern Ohio still use X band at times) AL Priority - currently the #1 lidar defense system in the market I swear I thought this car had blind spot detection but I guess not. :P What band & frequency is the front collision system? (Guessing something in the middle of K band...)
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03-28-2019, 08:39 PM | #18 |
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how is the overall coverage? would you make improvments or is it good?
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03-29-2019, 12:09 AM | #19 |
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I would make no changes. Just make sure the Rj11 cord is as short as possible to decrease resistance in length. Still working like a charm. I use in conjunction with carplay apple waze and its very on point
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03-29-2019, 11:45 AM | #20 |
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Nice write up. I've considered doing something similar for my V1, but the thing is like 15 years old. I know they have the update option, but it's soooo out of date that the dif in price between an update on mine and a new one is like $10.....price of the case, I guess.
I'm not sure what year your car is, but did you look into seeing if the remote volume would fit in the little covered "sunglass" tray in front of the cup holders (if you're in a OG\Pre-LCI?). That way you'd be able to shut the lid when not in use and avoid cutting the CF trim. You'd have to source a low profile knob, but I bet that would be easy to do. Just a thought. Maybe not enough depth under the tray, but who knows. And I've got to get me some of that rubber shit. Great job.
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04-03-2019, 11:12 PM | #22 |
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Ergonomics of eye-tracking from road, to speedo, to ac vent are less cumbersome than looking down and right into a dark space with a significantly different focal length. Ashtray is another option, but takes more dremeling, needs to be opened manually to view, and doesn't overcome the aforementioned eye strain
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