Has anyone tapped into the overhead lighting section for power for a DVR or radar detector? Deets, please...

 

Yes, and it's not too difficult. There is a wiring harness inside the shrouds that make up the rear view mirror / sensors part of the interior windshield. There are two shrouds and they both "pop" off with a bit of effort. I bought the tap off of amazon.com:


This is specific to my Valentine One detector, so yours might be different, but the principle is the same. It comes with detailed directions to help identify the correct wires using a multimeter. Really easy.

I mounted mine under the rear view mirror using a Blendmount mounting bracket - www.blendmount.com, although I think I may need to move it. The detector is not acting like it used to in my old vehicle. It doesn't pick up signals from the front in the same way it used to. Doing some research, I may have Solar Attenuating Glass" on the front. I say "may" since I see it in the manual, however the dealership has never heard of such a thing. I don't have the heated glass so there must be something else going on. I think I need to follow the mounting locations for Toll Road payment cards or RFID devices (up high and very near the rear view mirror).

Anyway, check out the photos and let me know if I can help:

 

Yes, you need to move your detector to the dotted area's (right/left of the mirror). You'll get better reception although still not like you probably had in the past.

 

Many thanks, I'll let you know how I make out. I've been lurking in the rdforum.org to decide on a new detector as my old one is rendered useless due to all the side mirror radar falsing. The Valentine purports to filter that out, at least that's what their ads say, so I am tempted to give them a try.

 

So I had purchased a MAX360 and found it a tad too large for that small area we have, so I ended up putting it in my wife's MDX (sits in her glove box, lol). I just ordered a Uniden R3 and I'll see how that works out.

 

Please do post how you make out.

I can't say enough about my Valentine One, whether it's non-radar filtering, telling me the direction of the radar, the intensity of the radar, or just the general design and engineering of the product. Whatever you decide, let me know how it works out.

 

So, My R3 arrived a few days ago. I have only spent limited time with it so far but took a ride from Boston to New Haven this afternoon and it performed great. It's also much smaller, and lighter than the Escort products. Fits perfectly to the left of the mirror, tucks in nice and high and doesn't shake at all. It is very secure with just the windshield suction cups. The only negative is that I have it so high I can't adjust or play with the top buttons but they are just menu options and volume settings. I can easily access the mute, dim, and mark buttons as they are on the front of the detector. Very happy. Will update again soon as I am traveling up and down 95 tomorrow.

 

Glad to hear it. I managed to squeeze my detector up in the corner and it seems to be functioning properly now. I have a little fine tuning to do with the permanent mounting, but at least there's progress.