How to Wire A Bel Radar Detector

[RCMoonUnit]

OK - I finally bought a radar detector and I'm trying to wire it into my FJR. It's a Beltronics and uses a phone-type connection for a power source. There are only two wires necessary to power the unit, a ground and a +12 volt. The problem I'm having is that those wires are TINY! I can take the outer-most covering off them without too much problem but even with a wire stripper on the 0.005 setting, it's practically impossible to strip the inner covering off the two wires. To make things worse, the actual wires are multi-stranded and braided within them is more fibrous material. The upshot is that there's not enough meat to actually make a good connection to anything.

So, they sell a $10 pre-made adapter that must have an OEM type connection made but I was hoping there was a better way to strip/connect using normal phone wire. Just call me cheap. Any advice??

 

[Fred W]

The Escort Passports use the same type of power cord. I just cut up a piece of phone cord that I had laying around. The wires were still pretty small but manageable with a delicate touch. Compare to the supplied power cord to figure out wire polarity.

 

[dcarver]

Dean O'Dell cheater glasses? :lol:

 

[Fred W]

One thing I forgot to mention is that all phone cords are not the same. The first one I chopped open was like you mentioned, some sort of a funky braided wire. But some others have more sustantial wires. So maybe just try a different phone cord

 

[Beamer Reamer]

I have a radar detector by the same company and I made my own cable. I had what is called "bell" wire laying around from a garage door installation and I used it. This way you make it any length you want. In my case, this is the wire that goes from the sensors at the floor of the garage door to the main motor and controller. Still small, but much more stout than phone cord. It only carries two wires, but that is all you need. My wire had a solid core to it which made it easy to use.

I took the power end to a Fuzeblock and shared a fuse with a Garmin. Both have very small current draws and 2A fuze covers both just fine. At the radar detector end, I covered the white wires with black shrink wrap for appearances.

 

[RCMoonUnit]

Thanks guys! I'll try some other wires and see if I can find one with a more substantial internal wiring. That's probably all I need - the ones in my current cable (no pun intended) are just so stinking small and braided with no internal strength. When I tried to burn off the fibrous stuff with a lighter, the whole exposed section of copper/material burned up! I got it barely to work but there's no reliability there.

If that doesn't work, I do have some garage door wire but I was thinking it will be hard to bind it to the telephone jack endpoint. But if there's a will .....

 

[Fred W]

One thing to be aware of if you think you want to use bell wire, or any solid conductor type of cable, is the the conductor has a limited number of times that it can be flexed or bent before it will break internally. In home wiring this is no problem because once it is run, it stays put.

Depending on your installation that could be significant. In my case the power cord, along with the audio cable, runs from my tank bag up to the right side handlebar mount of the RD, so that wire is constantly being flexed when turning the bars, not to mention hooking and unhooking the RD when removing it from the bike. Typically in vehicular electronic applications where motion and vibration are almost always present, a stranded wire conductor is preferred.

 

[lnewlf]

Escort and probably Bel sell a fused hard wire cord for a few bucks that has the phone connector on one end and a line tap and ground on the other.

 

[Gary]

https://www.beltronics.com/store/direct-wire-cord.html

 

[Fred W]

Yep. You can definitely go that route.

In my company car ( a flaming red '08 Chebby Impaler, and no... I'm not kidding), I spliced in an old piece of phone cord into the power supply for the rear view mirror map lights. Why, you may ask? Well, I noticed that them there lights were powered up just as long as the GM boat was in moshun and turned on, and then when you stopped the beast the power eventually removed from the lights in case you zoned out and left the map light on and walked away from the car, so the dad nabbed battery wouldn't be flattenated.

I used a piece of high falluten phone cord I had sitting around (just like what I used for the FJR's RD power) which I had somehow collected as having bought a bazillion tele - phones over the years (before the onslaught of cell only people) that all come with them phone cord, so that was free. And just spliced her into the cable bundle in the mirror.

I did the same for the RD cable on the Feej, 'cept I used an already available 12V power connection.