Radar Detector hardwire, who has done it?

[zefram47]

have you (or anyone else) had any luck finding a true “ignition” switched 12V supply? I’m having two issues with my accessories that are currently wired to the 12V under dash:

1. My Radar detector powers up anytime I’m in my garage. I do a lot of projects in and out of the garage so it’s not only annoying to hear the beeping boot up sounds constantly, but I would think that it adds unnecessary drain to the 12V battery. Have been living with it for months but would like to find a better solution

2. I just added an aftermarket screen to use for CarPlay, and right now it’s plugged into the 12V plug to test it out. Downside is again, this boots up anytime I’m near the truck, and then it grabs the wireless CarPlay to my phone which then drains my phone when I’m out or near the garage. Again, having the unit on unnecessarily adds more drain to the 12V.

I would prefer to find a 12V source that’s activated when the truck really powers on, like when I press the brake and the truck is ready to “drive.”

If the vehicle is awake, the 12V systems are active. This includes while charging for some reason. The only time the aux 12V systems seem to power down is when the vehicle goes to sleep. This is why in camp mode you can select "Stay On" to keep the 12V systems on without resorting to turning on the 120V inverter/outlets.

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[isakhnov]

have you (or anyone else) had any luck finding a true “ignition” switched 12V supply? I’m having two issues with my accessories that are currently wired to the 12V under dash:

1. My Radar detector powers up anytime I’m in my garage. I do a lot of projects in and out of the garage so it’s not only annoying to hear the beeping boot up sounds constantly, but I would think that it adds unnecessary drain to the 12V battery. Have been living with it for months but would like to find a better solution

2. I just added an aftermarket screen to use for CarPlay, and right now it’s plugged into the 12V plug to test it out. Downside is again, this boots up anytime I’m near the truck, and then it grabs the wireless CarPlay to my phone which then drains my phone when I’m out or near the garage. Again, having the unit on unnecessarily adds more drain to the 12V.

I would prefer to find a 12V source that’s activated when the truck really powers on, like when I press the brake and the truck is ready to “drive.”

I've made my peace with that after trying multiple options. IIRC, rear USBs were the one's that would turn off the earliest, but it was a hassle to have the wire through the cabin and rear console.

 

[tipton]

have you (or anyone else) had any luck finding a true “ignition” switched 12V supply? I’m having two issues with my accessories that are currently wired to the 12V under dash:

1. My Radar detector powers up anytime I’m in my garage. I do a lot of projects in and out of the garage so it’s not only annoying to hear the beeping boot up sounds constantly, but I would think that it adds unnecessary drain to the 12V battery. Have been living with it for months but would like to find a better solution

2. I just added an aftermarket screen to use for CarPlay, and right now it’s plugged into the 12V plug to test it out. Downside is again, this boots up anytime I’m near the truck, and then it grabs the wireless CarPlay to my phone which then drains my phone when I’m out or near the garage. Again, having the unit on unnecessarily adds more drain to the 12V.

I would prefer to find a 12V source that’s activated when the truck really powers on, like when I press the brake and the truck is ready to “drive.”

What zefram47 said is true afaik, I don't think you can link it to power when the car is ready to drive or driving. This hasn't been a huge issue for me as the battery drain from the radar detector and dashcams (3hr timeout on parking mode) hasn't been noticeable from a battery drain perspective for me.

Maybe you could turn off the radar sounds and some setting for carplay? Otherwise maybe could run everything via the OBD port but then all the devices need to be able to read the "parking" status. Even then it's not consistent, my dashcam is via OBD and sometimes doesn't realize the car is driving vs parked (maybe 1% of the time?)

 

[Spaceball1]

What zefram47 said is true afaik, I don't think you can link it to power when the car is ready to drive or driving. This hasn't been a huge issue for me as the battery drain from the radar detector and dashcams (3hr timeout on parking mode) hasn't been noticeable from a battery drain perspective for me.

Maybe you could turn off the radar sounds and some setting for carplay? Otherwise maybe could run everything via the OBD port but then all the devices need to be able to read the "parking" status. Even then it's not consistent, my dashcam is via OBD and sometimes doesn't realize the car is driving vs parked (maybe 1% of the time?)

thanks guys. Glad I’m not the only one that’s looked into this!

My CarPlay screen does have a power button, so for now I’m just getting used to powering it off when I get home.

I’ve dealt with the radar beeps for months so I can live with it for now. Unfortunately the model I have doesn’t allow to silence the boot up beeps that I’m aware of. I can turn down volume, but I don’t want to have to adjust that with every drive.

 

[Polar]

For those interested, I was able to tap a fuse on the drivers side (F48) using the reference here. This is tied with the car powering on and off so isn't persistently on. I wanted a fuse tap so I could use the Uniden hardwire kit with the button box that I mounted below the steering wheel.

Can you link what brand/type of fuse tap you bought? I’m looking to add power to charge my phones on the dash.

Guessing standard mini

 

[tipton]

Can you link what brand/type of fuse tap you bought? I’m looking to add power to charge my phones on the dash.

Guessing standard mini

yea it's a standard mini for the small ones, the larger ones are custom so you would be hard to tap those (no fuse tap)

if you're looking to charge just phones though you might want to look into a OBD to USB connector, imo that would be a lot easier

 

[Polar]

yea it's a standard mini for the small ones, the larger ones are custom so you would be hard to tap those (no fuse tap)

if you're looking to charge just phones though you might want to look into a OBD to USB connector, imo that would be a lot easier

Fair point; but I’m not a start man; and I would rather not leave a device in the OBD port all the time when I don’t have to.

 

[moosehead]

Huge thanks to all posters here who showed us the way. A few quick comments:

1) Used this wiretap as suggested, good kit: Amazon.com: MTX-1015, RJ-11, 15" Long Overall Length, Patented Radar Detector Power Cord with 2 Amp in-Line Fuse, Military Grade Taps, Made in USA : Electronics NOTE: Could not get any of the smallest blade options to fit into the corresponding positive molex location so ended up turning the smallest blade option around and using the small round pin side at the molex connector and got the smallest blade side to insert into round female side of the powered cord.

2) As others note, the plastic cover behind the mirror is a royal PITA to pry loose and causes quite the pucker factor. In my case, prying tools were largely useless and they caused concern about leveraging against the windshield given force required to dislodge clips. I ended up using both hands beneath the slot at the bottom most edge of the cover to wrench it off. It requires force, paranoia, and a loud bang upon disconnect. It was shocking that neither the mirror came loose nor the plastic cover shattered into pieces.

3) Given the PITA cover clips, as others recommend above, get your connectors and cords squared away neatly using a small amount of tape to secure everything, and keeping all away from the square shiny metal unit beneath the cover as it gets hot. A test mount without the metal clips was helpful and gave confidence before reclipping unit back into place.

 

[jebinc]

If you don't care about the arrows, the R3 is a bargain and the R4 is a nice upgrade over that. I currently run both in different cars. R4 is a little more sensitive and slightly better filtering, but the big one is the R4 finally got auto mute memory so it'll automatically block things like doors and speed signs that don't move.

Love the R4 in my Plaid, so I just picked up another for the R1T - $300 during Prime days.

 

[tkclark]

I just wanted to post my experience in trying to mount my Uniden R8 in my R1T. I bought this mount off Amazon and got it to work by turning it sideways which was actually better because it kept it closer to the mirror. But it wasn't a good look for me so I ultimately went a different direction with the R8 sunction cup but I did want to just show that it worked WHEN MOUNTED SIDEWAYS. And my mirror was perfectly aligned the way I wanted too. WARNING: It is metal so it will likely scratch up behind the mirror so just be aware. And this mirror tap worked great!

What I ultimately went with:

 

[GraniteR1T]

Are there instructions for putting the cover back on - in particular getting the little piece to fit in place? Doesn't seem complicated yet I'm having a really tough time getting that one back in.

 

[Polar]

It’s no radar detector but my dash cam is installed thanks to this thread - thanks to all!
Used a step down converter to come from 12V to USB 5V was able to tape it up in the space behind the mirror cover.

 

[Smeek]

I'm late to the party -- so just to recap, there is really no true ignition fuse anyone has found that actually powers up when you put the car into drive?

 

[Progolfer82]

I looked up pricing for a replacement cover before I decided to go this route (In case I messed up), and I'm glad I did. It's super clean, but unfortunately, my RJ11 mirror tap doesn't provide power anymore, and I tested two radar detectors. I ordered a new one, but I'll also check fuse F63 as well. Thank for for providing all this helpful information, especially the fuses!

 

[Ryanortev]

Has anyone tapped the v1 hardwire kit into this so they can also use the heads up display? If not how can I successfully run the radar and heads up display?

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