jgoss

Ok, this was about a 3 month project that I did in my spare time back in the Spring. After getting 2 speeding tickets within a year for no good reason (ok, I was speeding, but like 10kph over and was picked out of a group of cars going the same speed), I decided that I wanted to have radar/laser detector in my Mustang. However, living in Ontario, Canada, I needed the unit to be undetectable and invisible in case I did get stopped. I decided to go with the Beltronics STi unit, which is currently undetectable by all known RDDs, and I would stealth install it.

I decided that I would like to use my cruise control buttons on the steering wheel to control the detector, and that I'd like to have an indicator hidden in the instrument cluster in addition to the remote speaker the detector came with. After much planning and bench testing, I built an interface module and began the actual install.

The first step was to make a slight modification to radar detector itself. The provided "smart plug" harness would give me access to the volume/mute functions, but I also wanted to be able to change the sensitivity setting and toggle the power.



Here's the unit reassembled, now with a micro 2-pin external harness to provide the extra button inputs.



The next step was to modify the instrument cluster to add an RBG LED. There's an unused "shift" light, it looks like an up arrow when lit. This icon is directly above the tach needle, inside the tach field, it serves perfectly for my mod.



The first step is to pull the needles (VERY CAREFULLY), after taking a picture of their rest positions.



Here's a picture of the icon.



LED added, time to do some colour tests.



Red:



Blue:



Green:



White:



Here's a picture of the cluster reinstalled in the car, with the shift light lit up green.



With that done, it was time to install the remote speaker that came with the Beltronics STi kit. I decided to install it inside the driver's side left-most air vent.



The speaker is the PERFECT size, it slides in nice and snug and requires no additional mounting hardware. Because it's square, inside a circular passage, there's still a decent amount of airflow.



The next task was to fabricate a weather-proof housing. It had to be rugged, able to handle heat, cold, rocks... I decided on one of these snap-lid style clear containers for the job. I painted it with plastic paint, leaving a window for the laser detection and installed a vent to equalize air-pressure and prevent moisture accumulation.



Here's the detector installed in the enclosure. The two cables exiting are a CAT5 LAN cable (provides power and button signals, returns power status and alert signals) and the audio output to the speaker.



With the unit mounted, it's not visible.



If you look under the car, you'll be able to see it hanging behind the bumper on the driver's side, about 6" back. It actually does hang about 1" below the bumper in order to have line-of-sight for laser detection.



Inside the vehicle, the interface module I designed is mounted on the floor behind the center console (white box).



The module takes care of monitoring the cruise buttons, controlling the detector, monitoring detector power and alert status, controlling the RBG LED, controlling power to the remote speaker.



Well, that's it for the physical install. Controlling the detector is a breeze. The interface module looks for a "double-click" on the cruise OFF button. Then it maps the SET-, SET+, RES buttons to operate as the 3 buttons on the detector. This works well, because after pressing OFF, these buttons won't affect the vehicle cruise functions. Pressing ON or OFF will exit the interface control and allow the vehicle cruise to function. The LED displays a different colour for each mode (City, Auto, Highway...) and does a very eye-catching red, blue and white strobe effect during an alert. I have a video of a demo I did, but I'm not sure how to attach it (new guy alert). Maybe someone can give me some advice on that...?

I'm thinking of raising the unit 2" or so and losing my laser support. I've never had a real laser alert yet (a couple falses during early morning sun glare though) and I'd like to have the unit 100% out of sight.

Anyways, I just thought I'd share my install with the forum. Feel free to comment, etc.

Mr.Bape

Oh man this is EXACTLY what I was looking for! I've searched the radar forums and haven't found a stealth install on a Mustang anywhere. But uh, some pics would help LOL

Mr.Bape

to put pictures in, just go to photobucket.com that's one example. copy and paste the image link but make IMG lower case letters. for video i suggest uploading it on youtube.com and then posting the link here.

jgoss

Can you really not see the pictures? I made a private photo gallery and then cut and paste links into the post. I can try making the gallery public if that's why the pics aren't being displayed.

As for the video, great idea. I posted it on YouTube. I had just finished getting it working and couldn't wait to make the video, so sorry about it being dark and raining out. LOL

In this video, I pull into a parking lot and head towards a door opener that uses radar detection. Because the detector is in Highway mode, it gets falsed, which worked out really good when I was testing the install. After I pull right up to it (it starts beeping very fast), I mute the alert by pressing a cruise button. While the alert is muted, the LED stays a soft red until the threat is gone. The video quality is poor, the LED colour is faded and most of the strobe flashes get missed due to poor framerate...oh well, you get the idea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kltHSiDeZBg

Mr.Bape

Lol. If you're still having difficulties send me the pictures and I'll post them for ya.

jgoss

Fixed it, made the photo gallery public instead. Sorry for the confusion...

johnnyv8

Thats bad ***, there a guy here in the US W/ A GTO AND A PRETTY BAD *** SET UP.

I remember walking up to him saying "I though your car was NA?"

GTO: "I'm NA"

ME: "Whats the deal w/ the boost gauge?"

GTO: "LOL, thats no boost gauge, that's my RD."

ME: "WHAT!"

GTO: "YA, its a motorcycle rd that I throw on my A/B pillor (forget if there an A pillor or b)."

*its pretty much set up the same way w/ the buttons on his steering wheel controlling the functions of the RD.

Mr.Bape

jgoss that is sweet! i didn't even know we had a shift light icon! what I was hoping is for some radar company to make a radar detector in form of gauges. now that would be stealthy! im afraid to cut into the dash let alone the cluster and mess up a $300-500 RD! lol.

5SPD07GT

very impressive, you must be an electrition or something similiar.

Ato

That's a pretty sweet setup, but just one question. I thought radar detectors needed a clear Line of Sight to the front and back of the car? I really don't know much about them since I only ever really had some cheap Radio Shack one years ago.