Does the plastic of the compartment block radar at all? Just speaking theoretically, but I'm thinking of a case where you've got a separate laser detector/jammer, so the Valentine's laser features aren't needed. Would it work to mount the detector without cutting the top of the compartment at all - mounting it just under the lid? Would the radar reach it just as well, or would the plastic block, say 10-20% of the signal?

JonasM

 

I really don't have enough technical expertise to answer your question about how much of the radar signal is blocked by the plastic. If none of it is blocked, or only marginal amounts, then you wouldn't need to cut an opening at all.

Can any one else answer the question?

 

As with almost any radio waves, they have something called "electrical conductivity" property. Virtually all substances in solid or liquid state possess the property of electrical conductivity. But certain substances are efficient conductors while others are almost totally devoid of this property. In short you'll lose some % of the signal depending on the type of material in question. An easy observation is your cell phone and concrete building. Same thing with a radar in thick plastic box.

Here's some more info on radar guns http://www.radartest.com/ABOUTRADAR.html

 

Rick, I'll be ripping my V1 open sometime soon, but until I do, would you mind posting pics of the internals? Specifically, I'm looking for what type of mouts they use for the IR detectors and if they are easily moved...I may mov the rear one into one of the roll hoops, and the front one to the front of the rearview mirror. After that, who cares if the V1 can't see out the back, as long as the standard radar comes in without a problem.

Oh, and to answer the question about the plastic, I'm currently looking for the rough electrical properties of it, but I doubt it would be any more than the windshield, and most likely significantly less. This offers the possibility of relocating the IR sensors and just leaving the V1 in the secret compartment, no need for holes of any kind.

 

Now THAT I'd be interested in! Keep us posted!

JonasM

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by MacGyver
[B]Rick, I'll be ripping my V1 open sometime soon, but until I do, would you mind posting pics of the internals?

 

As I promised MacGyver, here are some photos of the guts of the V1. This is what you see when you open the case -- the horn assembly, which actually sits on top of a circuit board, which sits on top of a second circuit board. The large horn faces the front of the V1.



Here are the two circuit boards.



Finally, a close up of each board.

 

Very cool Rick, thanks for posting the pictures and install ideas!

I'm curious, how exactly are the two circuit boards connected to each other electrically, and/or what cords plug into which piece?

Regarding MacGyver's question about separating the front and rear "horns" or detectors for relocation to other parts of the car, another poster on this board reported that he learned directly from Valentine that changing the distance between the detectors screws with the directionality circuitry, possibly because of some timing issues. I'm only paraphrasing heresay, but a search for "V1" will bring up the post.

 

LATEOTT,

If you look at the photo of the lower circuit board, you'll see a set of long pins sticking up. The horn board connects to these pins.

 

This is most wonderful Rick, it's exactly what I wanted to see. I am now so sure that the sensors can be seperated from the actual container. Can't wait for mine to get here, hope Canadian Customs won't have any problem with it.

LATEOTT, your comment regarding timing is correct. The longer the wire the longer the electrical signal takes to travel. This propagation delay increases as the wire lengthen. One way to solve this is to get a better wires (with more conductivity), a good candidate for this are gold plated wires used in home audio or something similar.