Carpc Radar Detector Adapter Ideas

Scoop · 12-12-2007, 12:02 PM

I've been in the market for a radar detector for a while, but the lack of integration with car pc's has really held me back. I found this

http://www.speedcheetah.com/scshop/p...mirror_RDI_DIY

and it seems the standalone adapter for the mirror could be adapted without too much trouble to interface with a car pc.

Getting into the FAQ further I found this:

"What do I need to do to my detector to link it up with the mirror?
When you purchase our RDI, all you have to do is plug our interface into the power socket and headphone socket of your detector, then plug your detector's original power cord into our RDI."

So all this interface does is take the headphone output from your detector and send it to their $300 mirror. A search of the Valentine 1 adapter thread

(http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/hard...tml#post981954

turned up this gem by tz1:

"I managed to pull the information from my V1 using my sound input on my laptop. The signal goes rail-to-rail, and at 48Khz the sample rate is more than sufficient to capture the data.

I wrote a NMEA decoder a while ago based on the same idea 48khz = 10x 4800 baud - the original apple IIs used a bit-bang UART - and it was simple to adapt.

I'm also working on decoding J1850 data on the other channel."

Has anyone else tried this? I don't have the skills to create an adapter myself, but I'm considering running the headphone output from the detector to an aux in jack on my soundcard, so I can hide the detector. (I live in a state that frowns upon radar detectors.) Ideally, someone could create a hardware solution and an app to integrate with your favorite front end.

Thoughts?

Wiredwrx · 12-13-2007, 12:44 AM

Did you see this thread?

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/soft...-software.html

Scoop · 12-13-2007, 08:22 AM

I read that entire thread, and in fact emailed zPilot months ago about getting an adapter. He hasn't made a batch in a long time, and hasn't posted in that thread since September.

Also, that only works with the Valentine 1, which few people have or want to spend $400 on. Using the headphone output would allow you to use most of the detectors on the market.

DodgeCummins · 12-20-2007, 08:59 PM

Or you could tap into the LEDs directly off the radar detector directly and cobble together something.

nsgrossman · 12-29-2007, 11:52 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by DodgeCummins

Or you could tap into the LEDs directly off the radar detector directly and cobble together something.

If it were me that's what I'd do....

Basically all you'd need to do is wire the power going to the LEDs through a relay and wire it to a particular button on a keyboard. So basically when the LED light for "laser" turns on, it is the same as pressing the letter "B." Then make a simple program, anything would work really, that would constantly be checking for "user inputs," and make it so that when "B" is pressed a message popups that says "You are currently being tracked by laser radar" (or w/e)

good luck, tell me how it goes I've been considering something like this...

-Nate