EliteCivicX

alright so im gonna hardwire my radar detector.
i need some help here.

THE PLAN: i want to connect the radar detec. to a switch so that i can turn the radar on and off. i want to tap into the cig lighter and i also have a light that connects to the switch that will light up when the radar detector is on or off.

I have a switch, radar detec, and light. I keep hearing a rumor that i need a fuse maybe............If so im quite confused here, what do they mean by that?

Now how do i go about hooking everything to work correctly?
Im assuming the ground wire from radar goes to ne where metal (obviosly) and the power im gonna connect to the power wire of the cig lighter.

any thing else or ne DIYS out there?
i searched and couldnt find anything thanks.

hatch34

hook up the power wire from the radar to the fuse panel. use the cig fuse. just pull the fuse out and lay the wire in there and put the fuse back in, your system now has a fuse.

MonkeyBoy668

I wired mine to the passenger compartment fusebox, I just found a spare +12V lead that was hot when at ignition and wired it up using that. Ground went down to the common ground that's near the fusebox. My wiring kit included an inline fuse so I didn't worry about splitting one of the lines or installing a fuse on that circuit.

Actually my kit also included a wire splice/tap so it was trivial to get going, researching which line to tap took longer than the install itself. If you have a Helms manual there's a complete description of every single circuit off every fusebox.

You should always have a fuse, otherwise if there's a short your wires could (probably would) melt and start a fire.

If you want a switch, I would wire it in-line on one of the wires going up to the radar detector.


<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by hatch34 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">just pull the fuse out and lay the wire in there and put the fuse back in, your system now has a fuse.</TD></TR></TABLE>
Depending on which side of the fuse you lay the wire in, that's either true or not true. With the fuse out you would have to wire it to the side that is NOT hot (dead circuit) for the fuse to blow. If you wire it to the side that's hot, you've effectively bypassed the fuse for your detector. If you laid the positive and negative leads on both sides of the fuse, you've created a bypass - the fuse could be removed and the circuit would still be hot. (that's bad)


Modified by MonkeyBoy668 at 12:44 AM 4/12/2005

Cuong-nutz

V1 positioned above rearview mirror, hardwired to map light.

EliteCivicX

thanks guys. i hope this helps me. i will have more questions guarenteed soon enough haha.