Gavinvr4

I have just finished installing VALENTINE ONE 1 V1 Radar with Direct STEALTH MIRROR CORD Kit, this is by far the best hard wire kit out there without having cords hiding in your trim pieces.
I did attempted to make my own cord but the pins just wasn't strong enough. Here is the ebay link if anyone is interested:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/VALENTINE-ON...item518340c166

sweetboy02

Newbie in this radar detector, barely drive more than 80 mph . What the advantages of Valentine one compare to other ~$100-$200 radar detectors?

Gavinvr4

Valentine one is one of the best radar detector out there hands down, is nearly $500 so you get what you paid for verse other competitors.

Putting a radar detector on RX350 almost makes no sense what-so-ever, after all is not a performance vehicle, but I like having the awareness of my surrounding while I drive.
So thats probably the reason why I kept it. I had this radar for years back when I used to own sports car. The Valentine one has saved me many many times and hopefully I can effort another sports car and put into use.

LawyeRRR

Would you please post pictures and a write up of your install? Have been longtime V1 owner and fan, did a stealthy install in my V70R before the mirror tap was available...

I'd really love pictures....

-Ian

tfischer

The advantages of the Valentine One are that it detects radar farther away, that it tells you how many signals it is detecting and, most importantly, tells you if the signal is coming from in front of the car, or from the rear of the car, or to the side of the highway. It remains the best detector available, but is very expensive, as the two often go hand in hand.
You don't need a "performance car" to need a radar detector. Radar is often used on municipal roads, where limits are very low and often exceeded. Any car can exceed 60 or 70 mph, and an RX can cruise comfortably at 80 on almost any uncongested interstate highway.
I've had one for many, many years, and recommend it highly.

sweetboy02

What about this guy? 1/3 of the Valentine V1 price and have all feature (or bands that Valentine has). Really high recommendation from Amazon Users

tfischer

All detectors work to a certain degree; the problem with Amazon reviews is that the owners of these devices do now know if another detector would have been able to provide a better alert. The major auto magazines do comparison tests from time to time, and each time the Valentine One exceeds all others in both features and in range of the signal detected. Often the margin between the V1 and whatever comes in second is quite large. The most important feature, which no other detector has, is the "arrows" which indicates the direction from which the radar signal is emanating. This is one reason why the V1 is more expensive: it has a detector pointing forward and one pointing rearward. Note that the Beltronics sold in the Amazon ad above is about half the price of the V1, and many of the reviews qualify their comments by indicating that they wanted to stay in the sub-200 dollar price range.
It may well be pretty good, but from all I have read on this issue over the years, the best detector available is generally acknowledged to be the V1. If you don't want to spend that much on a radar detector, I do not know what the next best detectors are, but my recollection is that there were several bunched together behind the V1, which would be considered the B list detectors, but I do not recall what those models were.

Gavinvr4

You can find all necessary info under this post:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/rx-...010-rx350.html

Wiring instruction is all depends on what year and model you have, as different year has
different hardness.

RX330inFL

Way back when, the Escort brand radar detector from Cincinnati Microwave was the top of the line. Then, Valentine left to form his own company and since then his company has been top dog. Until possibly of late. Think they have been resting on their laurels a bit and others have passed them if not in performance at least in features. Units such as the Escort Passport 9500ix are much more feature rich with options such as a subscription service for known speed and red light camera databases. And the Valentine is not the only one with a price tag north of $400 -- there are several in that range at current.

http://radar-detectors-review.toptenreviews.com/
http://www.speedzones.com/opening_page_12.html

As for reviews, you can easily find a number of reviews that are all over the place when it comes to saying which one is best. Part of this reason is that Valentine is not always included for whatever reason -- have heard a number of excuses. All you can do is sift through the information to see which one has the features you need and want with the best performance you can afford.

LawyeRRR

Thanks, Gavin - much appreciated - I have a '11RX350 - hoping the harness is under the cap in the same fashion. Did you use a voltmeter to determine which wire to tap?

-Ian

EDIT: Never mind, read the rest of the thread.

tfischer

Using a volt meter to test the various wires available is the easiest, but if you don't have a volt meter and don't want to buy one for this little project, you can make your own tester pretty easily. Take any auto incandescent 12v light bulb, which you can buy anywhere for very little (such as for a standard brake light, or license plate light). Polarity will not matter, as they will light up as long as one goes to a hot 12v lead and one goes to any ground in the car. Affix a wire to each terminal (which can be tricky); then clip the end of one to a ground. Use the end of the other lead to test the various wires to see which are hot and which get hot when the key is switched on (this is the one you want). (If you touch this wire to a ground, nothing will happen.)
You need to test these wires some way before you do any installation, as not all cars even of the same model are the same. They should be, but sometimes they aren't.
A nice meter is a good thing to have, as they will also test your 120 v house current situations, and the continuity mode is invaluable to test whether a connection has been made (soldering), etc. Just buy one - you will be glad you did.

vlad_a

I hardwired mine into the mirror of my IS 10 years ago. Used a phone cord. Cost - FREE. Depending on the end of the phone cord, Red or Green will be positive. V1 will simply not work if you mess up polarity. Don't ask me how I know.