bugman

This is a follow-up post to my previous post where my dealer claimed that my Invisicord had burned out my auto-dimming mirror, and that I should therefore not power my radar detector that way.

We got a pretty good turnout on the poll- 75% said this was just silly, that this could NOT have been the cause. Teamspeed, maker of the invisicord, says he's sold about 6000 of the cords and never had this raised as an issue. I finally found the wiring schematic in the shop manual, which makes it absolutely clear that the proper connection (contact #13 shown in my prior post, and also shown on my web page (click on ESCORT) could NOT draw excess current through the mirror. So I put my faith in science and (after the new mirrow was installed), put my Invisicord back in exactly the same way.

Here's a picture of the exact same installation that I've been using now for the past month with NO problems at all.

• GND = leftmost black wire, top row (I'll call this contact "1" as viewed here.
• +12V switched = bottom row, 4th contact from left (call it "#12" in this view, from the REAR of the connector, though it is "#13" if you count the same method from the FRONT of the plastic connector, as shown below:

My final theories:

1. I probably fried tne mirror myself 1.5 yrs ago when I was first installing the radar detector
2. I think I fried it while making various connections to "test" where the hot wire was, using my voltmeter -- that can always be dangerous, because one contact of the meter is on GND, and you're probing unkown wires for +12V, I might have shorted the autodim feature power wire somehow.

So, a very longwinded way of saying -
Have no fear of the Invisicord.
Make sure to use the wire's I've shown and there will be no issue.
I'm using the same cord, wired the same way, on a brand new mirror for a month now, and no problems -- it IS nice to have a mirror that dims at night ! wow

By the way, I've found the Voztech radar mount to be much better than the Great Lakes mound I was using previously. Just my opinion. more on my web site

augydog

Thanks for the good information.

I've got the same setup and love the Invisicord.

augydog

runutzzzzz

If you were testing with a multi-meter, it is very unlikely that you fried the mirror.

bugman

yes, a typical digital multimeter, set on "volts" of course at a setting of "20 Ohms.
shouldn't this have a resistor to prevent excess current flow of the type that might fry the mirror dimming circuit? I think it should.

Thanks for the reassurance - if I didn't fry it by probing, then maybe I just slipped and made a short during my tinkering. Or maybe it was just a defective mirror (like my alternator, and 100 other things in this car, unfortunately).

keyplyr

Bugman, will the Voztech work well as a mirror mount for the V1?

[added]

Ah, looking at their site, I guess this is a 'visor mount' only.

bugman

The Voztech (also called the Vettemods mount) is not a mirror mount. It mounts to one of your visor clips. It DOES work for either the Escort or the V1. Check my post of pictures in this post - also at bugmanweb.com, and of course more info at the manufacturer's web page

SPARKS93

Will the Voztech work with the Bel STi ?

keyplyr

Thanks Bugman. I'm now persuaded towards the driver's visor mount looking at your site's VOZtech mount pics. The 8" invisicord connecting from the visor to the rear view mirror is not as noticeable as I had feared.

However, the V1 LED displays at a left angle. I know you use the Escort, but have you seen the V1 w/ VOZtech visor mount, and can the driver easily view the LED screen?

DiverDown

A normal DVM has around 20Mohm input impedance when set to VOLTS with the leads in the correct sockets. If you have it set to AMPS there is Approx 0 input impedance which would cause a short.

Sven

Love VetteMods' bracket!!

bugman

wow ! great info ! thank you .
Sorry guys I don't have any more info on this bracket - I'm sure Vettemods will check in and answer your questions - if not, go to the web site http://www.vettemods.com .

Kreuzen

What a bunch of BS--I've got the visor mounting bracket and Invisicord, absolutely no rearview mirror "dimming" problems. Extemely easy...and clean istall.

BarelyFit

Bugman, I just spent some time going through the vette section on your website. Man, you have some useful and well documented info there. Thanks for taking the time to put that together.

For those of you that haven't visited, you should.

The link: http://www.bugmanweb.com/c6/c6index.html

SilverBullitt

very nice, helpful website! I just added it to my favorites list! Thanks!

bugman

Hey thanks men -
just my attempt to learn some HTML as a hobbie.

category4

boondoggle

bugman;
I have search with no success. On my 2011 the mirror has a female power socket. Where can I get the male connector to put on my detector?
thanks gn

TJay74

I used the same process and same locations to power my Bel 935 and it is working just fine as well.

Vette5.5

Dealer's nuts, as grabbing power from the mirror wiring feed, has nothing to do with the mirror itself. I've been in electronics for years, and maybe a long shot the detectors feeding some garbage back into the line. I'm running detector power from mirrors in several cars, and never had any problems. If anything, maybe using a cell phone within inches of the mirror, but again unlikely. I've seen testing rooms, where cars are bombarded with just about every radio transmission known to man for engine computer interference problems, so kinda has already been thought of.