Wiring the radar detector!

[UB2 SLOW]

Ok, I am not big on wiring, so I need some help. I am trying to hard wire my Radar Detector to the car instead of using the lighter and I have two questions.



1) When I pulled the wires out in the center console, under the carpet, I read the tag. It said there are 3, Black, pink and orange. Well my 3 wires are brown, black and what looks like a pale orange. I know that black is the ground. What are the other two?



2) How do I tell which one is positive and which one is negative on the radar detector?

 

[warren s]

Do you have access to a voltmeter?

Black is usually a ground and other colors are usually "Hot" or positive, BUT they many not be a full 12 volts or constant on.

 

[UB2 SLOW]

Yea I have a voltmeter.

 

[JonM]

Yea I have a voltmeter.

Ground one end of the meter. Probe the wire you want to use...turn the key on, see if you get 12 volts. You may also want to run a fresh wire from the fuse panel with the detector having its own inline fuse.

69 also put up a way to mount the detector behind the mirror.

LINK

If the wires on the dector are the same color, I would suspect it wouldn't matter which is pos and which is neg...did you get a manuel? If not which model and brand is it?

 

[UB2 SLOW]

A few problems. I got everything apart and I connected the black wire to the vehicle to ground it. I then hooked up the brown and the pink wire to the Radar Detector. The detector came on. I put everything back together. When I started the car up the detector went off!!!! I turned the car off and the detector came back on. D’OH!!!! So I took everything apart again and started playing around with the wires again. The only way the detector would work is if I used the brown wire as a ground.

 

[tlong]

UB, how about using the power to the mirror light that shines down on the console. I think it's always on with the key and it's there where the detector is. Somebody did that successfully.

 

[fast.asleep]

reminds me of the first time I put a stereo in a VW. It was my second car and I was used to the red wire being positive and black ground.

I took out the factory radio and there was no black wire! There was a red wire and a dark brown one though. I just shrugged my shoulders and used the brown wire to ground it (close enough eh?)

Big mistake. I hooked up the battery and got in the car eager to try my new cassette player and noticed a smell of something burning :gap

live and learn...

 

[KOPBET]

UB, how about using the power to the mirror light that shines down on the console. I think it's always on with the key and it's there where the detector is. Somebody did that successfully.

Meeza did that too. Nice.

http://www.corvetteactioncenter.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46068