Chairman

I have had my C6 for a few days now so I thought it was time to install the V1. I called the folks that made the mounting kit for the C5 and they said it would not work on the C6 and that they were working on one. Don’t call us, we’ll call you. Time for plan B.
If you look closely at the top contour of the V1 and the bottom contour of the C6 mirror, they sort of match. I decided to see if I could use Velcro to hold it in place on the mirror. I used the industrial strength Velcro as it has better adhesive (available at Home Depot). It looked as if it was a little back heavy so I fabricated a back brace/plug from wood (I used oak but any material should work). I sanded it to a rounded plastic like contour, covered it with auto body glazing compound to fill the grain, sanded and applied two coats of Eastman Rust Encapsulating Paint, sanding between coats. Any flat paint should work. It ended up looking just like the black case of the V1.
The mounting seemed strong and secure so it was time to connect it up. This was a bit more difficult. I used the wiring supplied by Valentine which included a 1Amp fuse. I ran the power wire from the V1, across the top of the passenger side and down the post. This was fairly easy to do without having to remove any panels. I popped the top cover under the dash on the passenger side off. This is held in place with plastic push nuts (I am not sure of their official name) but it is important to pull on each independently to keep from tearing the panel. Once off, the back panel on the passenger foot well folds forward reveling a fuse block and wiring. I looked around for a yellow wire as I have found on old cars that Red is connected directly to the battery and yellow is normally switched on and off by the key (yes I know there is no key, but you get the idea). I found two fairly large yellow wires that I could get to. One was hot all the time but the other did switch on and off as it should. I tapped on to it for power to the V1 and a quick test showed it worked. It was time for a test drive. The V1 worked great but the Nav system couldn’t figure out where we were. I unplugged the V1 and then removed it and it still didn’t work. Only after I removed the wire tap did it begin to work again. I guess my theory about the yellow wire wasn’t always right. I began looking for another place to get power but the wiring on the C6 is pretty well covered and sealed and they did not provide a switched power pigtail like the C5. Then I started testing the fuse block and discovered that power to the fuse for the heated seat relay switched on and off as I wanted. I removed the fuse, stripped the end of the V1 power line and placed it in the fuse receptacle. Then I replaced the fuse, securing the power lead. It probably doesn’t matter which side the line is attached to since it has its own 1 Amp fuse. I am not sure how correct this is but it worked great and it is pretty easy. Fuse locations are shown when the panel is flipped down. Here are some pictures of the installation. Two are from the inside and one is through the windshield. It looks fairly professional and does a reasonable job of integrating and hiding the detector. I have put a hundred miles or so on the installation and it seems solid and stable. I may make a plastic bezel that slides between the detector and mirror to partially hide edge of the Velcro. I hope this helps others and if anyone can find a better way to get power I would sure like to hear.

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nascosta

Nice install!!!

Boozman

Nice work

slowtrak

Beautiful Job !

Dsob15

Can somebody explain what each of the bands on the detector actually means? I've had radar detectors for a long time. I just naturally slow down when I hear it, but what does K, Ka, X, etc mean? Thanks.

SEA6

The bands refer to the radio frequency range each band uses, all are in the microwave regon of the radio spectrium. X band was the first band
used but is now mostly for door openers and alarm systems. K and Ka band are the most used today BUT X is still used in some areas, mostly small towns in sparsely populated areas. Hope this answers your question.....

Chairman

This area gets a little tricky. X band is to oldest and least sophisticated but is still used by both police and some automatic door openers. Most X band radar is on all the time and they are relatively easy to detect and avoid. K band is used by both police and some door openers and, many K band radars are instant on, so you can only detect them as they are used on cars in front of you. With instant on radar, if you are the only car on the road and you get within range they got you. Ka band is almost always a cop and it is almost always instant on. X band can be detected several miles away. K and Ka bands are much shorter and you must react a bit faster if you need to. Finally laser generally can't be detected until they point it at you and then it is too late. Unlike radar, however, laser must be used from a stand still and generally outside the car. If you are watching ahead, you can usually see them in time. Also, the laser must be hand pointed and most times it takes them a few seconds to target and get a good reading. Those few seconds are all you have.
All that being said, the radar detector, especially the V1 with direction display, provides some fun entertainment on trips even if you are obeying the speed limit. It's like the electronic warefare in an F14, tracking up to eight targets simultaneously. Some police are very clever, hiding among door openers or two or three working together to confuse.

C6MagRed

Chairman,

There is a really slick way to get power to to your V1 from the rear view mirror over on the Tech section (by Skillernk)....sounds almost too easy to be true...I have mine set up temporarily using lighter power and suction cup mount...I also had problems when running my NAV ( it would set off the unit as if there was a threat behind me, but only when turning )...resolved when I relocated the V1 unit...does this sound anything like your NAV problem?...good luck...let us know how it turns out

BriJac

Wow, great mod and C6MagRed - nice tie-in with the other information. Together this looks like the right approach - another "must have" goes in the "wish" file -- just need the car........soon........

Chairman

I will check out the tech section. Thanks. My problem was that the actual positional location was off by about 8 - 10 MILES. It just sort of wandered around showing me in the middle of a lake at one time. The wire must have been an antenna feed or something to be that sensitive.

Dsob15

Thanks a lot. I have a Bel 995 and I see X and K most often.

C6SMKDU

Is there a product that deflect or jams the laser radar beam?

scofolo

awesome install

shopdog

Yes! It is the Escort ZR-3 Shifter. Install is a bit complicated, but it really does work well. There are 16 laser diodes(2 sets of 8) pointing forward (mounted in your grille) and 8 laser diodes pointing to the rear (mounted on your license plate frame). When the unit detects an incoming laser pulse, it starts pulsing all 24 lasers at a rate which thoroughly confuses all current generation police lidar units. In tests I've done with a cooperative local cop, no valid reading can be obtained until the car is less than 50 feet from the lidar operator.

The unit will squall a warning the instant a single lidar pulse hits it, and lights LEDs which tell you if the beam came from the front or the rear. This could be from up to about 1,000 feet away. So you get up to 950 feet to get down to the speed limit before the cop can get a reading.

Note that lidar guns have to get 50 valid pulses before they'll lock a reading. With the jamming lasers running from detected pulse one, the lidar never gets the 50 valid pulses it needs.

If you have an Escort 8500X50 radar detector, there is an interface cable which allows the two units to work together, with the 8500 display providing all warnings, and its buttons allowing you to control the ZR-3. If you use a different brand radar detector, the ZR-3 comes with a small control unit of its own that you have to mount separately in the car. (If that isn't perfectly clear, you don't need the ZR-3 control head if you have an 8500 and the interface cable, otherwise you do. In any case, it comes in the kit.)

shopdog

X-Band police radar is 10.525 GHz. X-Band radars use a CW carrier and measure speed based on the doppler principle, measuring the frequency difference between the outgoing signal and the echo return. These systems are generally old. Most car mounted moving radars are of this type. The fact that they can be used in a moving police car has kept them around. These systems are always on.

K-Band police radar is 24.15 Ghz. K-Band radars are also doppler based. Some moving radars, and most handheld radar guns, use this band now. All of the handheld units are "instant on", and many of the car mounted units are too, though the cop may elect to leave them on (he has to if he uses it as a moving radar). Instant on means you may not get a warning until the cop triggers the gun at you. Generally, though, if there is other traffic, the cop will be triggering the gun repeatedly, and a detector can give you warning of his presence before he targets your car.

Ka-Band is anywhere in the range 34.2 to 35.2 Ghz. It operates using pulses, timing how long it takes for a series of echos to return and then calculating how fast you must be moving based on the changing time to return of the pulses. They need a series of pulses (normally 50) to calculate a speed reading. These units are always instant on, and have proved challenging for radar detectors to reliably detect. Escort and Valentine have developed reliable detectors, but many of the other units on the market which claim to detect these units, don't really work very well.

Note that door openers, burglar alarms, etc also use the X and K bands. So you are likely to get many false alarms in a built up area. But if you get a Ka warning, it'll almost always be a cop.

Chairman

A couple of other things I've noticed when using the V1. Some semi's have a low power X band radar that may be used to help them back up ( my theory). This will set off the detector as you pass them. You can tell this because the signal changes from front to side to back as you pass. Also, some cars will have radar jammers that emit a constant X or K band signal that are a PITA. It is difficult to tell if they are just crude law breakers or a real threat. If they are comming up from the rear ( not too common in a Vette) you may need to let them pass to know for sure. If they are in front, you may need to pass them at a reasonable speed to check it out.

LS WON

How about just plugging it into the cigarette lighter or the accessory plug socket? There is a concealment display that Valentine One sells but it doesn't fit the C-6? Is that what you are referring to that they are working on?
Also which suspension do you have base, F-55 or Z-51 and all I mean by this is if your car maybe soft riding so it works fine...but some people here will probably have a more hard riding car for whatever reasons modifications, Z-51 so do you have the base suspension or F-55?

SEA6

Not sure about the trucks since commercial vehicles are not supposed to have radar detectors, but what you are seeing is the local oscillator (part of the receiver circuit) of other radar detectors, cheap ones with no shielding. In states were detectors are illegal the LEO's have detector detectors that pickup this signal to find people that are using radar detectors..

Chairman

You can just plug it into the lighter but then you have the coiled cord hanging down, which is both annoying and a dead giveaway that you are running a radar detector. A permanent installation is more difficult to tell for sure. The remote display leaves the detector in place but moves the flashing red lights down, out of sight of other cars (AKA the police). I could not find a place where this remote display would work on the C6.
What I referred to is that on the C5, there is a commercially available mounting bracket for the Valentine 1 made by a company I believe is called Great Lakes Trophy. It does not work on the C6, however. I had one on my C5 and felt it was a bit shakey although it did work.
I have the Z51 suspension but it is actually pretty comfortable. The Velcro mounting is very solid and it requires quite a bit of effort to remove the detector if you want to. I seriously doubt it will come off by itself. I did run a 1 1/2 inch strip of Velcro from the front of the mirror across to the back and up about an inch. This offers quite a bit of grip area and the back bracket adds a shear load to the tension load further stiffening it. All in all I feel it is a superior mount to what I had on the C5.

LS WON

That is great...good set up...I don't have a Valentine One yet that is next after I get the Car tinted but Valentine One doesn't have a straight cord?