Re: Valentine power pinouts?

[Bill Charette <char0011@maroon.tc.umn.edu>]

On Thu, 12 Sep 1996, Dan Masi wrote:

> By the way, Igor mentioned something about needing both
> switched and unswitched power for some reason.  Not sure
> why... if you're wiring an RJ-11 plug for the V-1, you need
> only two wires (+12 and ground, you decide whether you want
> it to be switched or not).

the reason for this is because of the 'concealed display unit'.  It 
re-routes power to itself and disables the display on the main unit.
I don't know the electronics behind it, but that's why they use the 
data/phone cable instead of cheaper 2 wire cable

> 
> Also, in my aforementioned diatribe, I mentioned that the
> V-1 has polarity protection built in.  I certainly don't
> guarantee it, but I know that I connected mine backwards
> and powered it on by mistake, and after a whole bunch of
> swearing, reconnecting and praying, it worked fine.

Now THIS is nice to know.  I'm not too knowledgeable when it comes to 
playing with car wiring, and I wouldn't put it past myself to screw 
something up if I took on a major project.

I also used the direct wire adapter so my V1 is now switched with the 
ignition.  We wired it so it feeds power from one of the power wires to 
the radio. Unfortunately, neither I nor my friend who did the actual 
wiring remembered that my radio dims the display when the headlights are 
turned on or off, and this change is enough to interrupt curent to the 
detector, essentially shutting it off momentarily...enough to reset it 
to the 'A' (All Bogeys) mode.  So just remember to tap into a current 
that is only affected by the ignition switch if you use the adapter.

-Bill