_brandon

I had an interesting idea while installing new strikers on my s. Totally has nothing to do with my roof but was an interesting idea. I live in probably one of the most cop-infested areas of my city and I have been needing to purchase a radar. In all honesty though even with the wires tucked a way I think the system is rather bulky in our fun-sized automobiles. In reality it really isnt, but still its extra junk wired up. Anyways I was thinking of a system somewhat sleeker and didnt use up really any space. My idea was to completely gut out a radar and hardwire it into the driver side b pillar. Like drilling holes in the plastics and placing the leds, switches, and such all in a nice organized manner on the pillar. Its destroys the plastic essentially, but those covers are fairly cheap last I checked so its really not that bad. But does this seem like an extremely crazy idea? If anyone is interested in this idea let me know and Ill make a prototype and maybe market this idea.

theprophet36

sounds neat

takeshi

In the B pillar? How do you have a B pillar and if you had one, how would you see it? B pillars are either to the side or behind the driver.

The dash mounts are far from rather bulky when hardwired. Whether or not you use your idea for an RD it's "extra junk wired up" as the S didn't come with an RD stock.

I'd just look into the 9500ci if I was looking to achieve this sort of result. There's not much room under the A pillar plastic. You could use the V1's CD but that would defeat your purpose as the V1 itself would still have to be mounted somewhere. For mounting on the A pillar you'd need a bulky pod and the off-the-shelf-pods wouldn't cut it. If you start with a dash mount the horns are usually located at the ends of the main board. How would you mount the RD on the pillar without killing reception?

Ideally the RD needs to be mounted as high as possible but doing so on the A pillar can interfere with usage of the visor.

By all means give it a shot if you're interested. It's not impossible but you're glossing over a lot of hurdles IMO.

I'd strongly suggesting hitting the RD forum sites and looking at custom installs.

aphex4000

I'm all for custom work. Here are a few previous installs that might be helpful for you to reference. Good luck!

Pillar installs:
V1 Remote Install (Thrawn)
K40 Install (jedraz)

Non-pillar install:
SRX Install (S2K'ing-IN-Spokane)

Btw, I second the sentiment from takeshi. There are many challenges to converting a typical RD to a remote mounted/hardwired one. I have done it before with a Passport 8500 and it definitely was not worth the hassle. I can't remember the exact footage, but there is a limit to how far away you can remote mount the display. I highly receommend considering a hardwired model.

Some pictures from the experiment...

_brandon

Haha looks like someone beat me to it.. I looked around and didnt see any installs so I assume no one touched the idea.

aphex4000

First or not, it's still a good idea. Go for it!

_brandon

I like that^ Im going to look around for a used one that has just the leds and the annoying buzzer. I was trying to make it all a complete unit on the 'a' pillar so it will be somewhat integrated and make it so I can try to market them if anyone was interested. Mostly just a neat project to kill some off time

jsenclosure

Here is how i did mine:

SgtB

Crazy that I randomly read a post about what I'm working on today. The trick with the 9500 display is the reset line and timing. You can get a good boost in length by using shielded cable with the drain grounded, and running all the lines around a ferrite bead. I'm mounting my detector in the front grill area with all the controls on a small remote enclosure. I'm really trying to make them wireless with a couple of 433mhz radio modules, but for now I'm just seeing how this setup works for now. It's all about clock drift with the display though.

aphex4000

Good to know--thanks! I'll definitely keep these tips in mind the next time I'm extending signal wires.