The Blog Of Rhian D. Block | Life In My Words

My Thoughts and Life for the World! | Rhian Douglas Block | http://www.rhianblock.com
Email: rhianATvazoom.com -- Server date is ~ September 09, 2010

I’m  just finally getting around to posting stuff again.  Had a fun time last Friday night at Atco raceway.  Below is the best timesheet I could get from the 1/4 mile with my car.  I am car #105 on the sheet.   It was a pretty cold night so it became hard with my summer only tires to get traction on a couple of the runs.  Jeremy’s Mitsubishi Evo is the #104 car on the sheet.  Overall, I came out with a 14.2 second 1/4 mile time which isn’t awful.  I am going to try again sometime in the springtime and see how things go.

So this Friday was even crappier than last Friday! Doh!
Well, it seems as though I will have to wait until the next Friday.

Blah

Update** Looks like the weather isn’t going to cooperate so we are postponing the trip until next Friday.

This Friday I have plans to go with Jeremy to the ATCO Speedway for the Open Friday Night events. I plan to run the 1/4 drag strip mile with my car and see what kind of time I can get. Jeremy will be taking his Mitsubishi EVO.

The installation of the Valentine One radar into my car is done! WhooHoo!
I am very happy with how the project turned out.  I only ended up having to remove the passenger side trim and glove box in order to get the wiring work completed. 

Above is a picture of the interior fuse panel where I ended up tapping into power for the radar system. At first, I only though my car had an engine bay fuse panel.  I was surprised to find a special panel hiding beneath the carpeting which covered the fuse assembly.  I thought I was going to have to somehow wire all the way into the engine bay.  I am so glad I didn’t.  The white cord hangine out from the paneling is my Ipod cable which connects directly into my Pioneer Avic D2 stereo system. 

This is a closer shot of the fuse panel after I had added the fuse tap.  I bought a clever little gizmo from Pep Boys called ‘Add-A-Circuit’ which gave me the ability to get the 12V I needed without much fuss.  I opted not to make use of the  cylindrical blue piece came with the device since the Valentine one shipped with a blue wire tap plug (shown attached to the red cable on the right of the picture).

Both the radar units (Main Unit and the Remote Dash mounted Unit) plug into a special coupling device which allows for both to receive power and communication.  Remember, the reason I wanted the optional remote Valentine One unit was to
1) Keep the main unit in a dark and unlit state ..  bringing all indication to the dash mounted module instead
AND
2) Allow me to mute the main unit conveniently from right below my radio

Shown above is a picture of the completed project.  I ran the cable for  main unit at the top of the windshield along the trim of the roof.  Since the cable is literally a flat phone cable, it didn’t take too much work to hide it as it made its way behind the glove box and into the coupling unit.  I mounted the unit as high as possible without having my black window tint strip block the radar sensor.

Above is a closeup of how the remote module looks in its final location in my dash just below my radio.  It came out very nicely!

Well the panel is officially completed.  I needed to sand down the passenger airbag indicator module with the dremel a bunch in order for the telephone cord to fit in.  Pictured above are the finalized front and rear views of the panel.  I used paperclips in order to secure the Valentine 1 remote interface to the car’s panel.  Somebody on the skyroadster.com forum did this, and it was a very good idea.  The only alternative would have been hot glue which may have been messy.  After I took the picture of the back , I decided to use some electrical tape just to protect the circuit board a little bit more.  I am very happy with the outcome of stage 1 of the radar install.  Now, the next step is to get the main Valentine 1 unit mounted above my rear view mirror, and then connected to the car’s fuse box power in addition to the coupling gizmo.

 

Well I finally completed the dremeling of the plastic panel in my car for the Valentine 1 remote module.  As you can see from the picture it turned out quite nicely.  The connector which attaches to the rear of the panel however leaves another slight problem due to clearance.  I will need to dremel down a bit of the passenger airbag indicator module. Once this is done I should be golden.