Valentine 1 & RS-232?

[jteef]

If anybody here has a V1 & the knowhow / equipment, could you check to see if the interface that connects to the remote display has a basic RS-232 signal?

I think it connects to the main receiver with 4 wires...one is used for power I believe, one is used for sound. I think the other two would almost have to be some sort of serial TX and a ground.

I am trying to get the output of the V1 into something I can eventually connect to a computer via USB.

 

[AbsolutDealage]

There is no reason to re-invent the wheel, so I would assume that the communication is a one-way RS232 signal. To verify this, you could crack open the case and take a look at the controlling hardware for the signal. You should be able to pick out a serial communications chip (Although, I must admit, I would probably not be poking around in my $500 radar detector).

If I had to guess, I would say that the 4 wires are 2 for power and 2 for signal. The ground from the power lines would most likely still be too dirty to use as a signal ground. The audio signal does not need its own wire, that would be handled via the serial link as well.

Anyways, I took a quick look around google and it does not appear that anyone has tackled this yet. I would probably lend a hand, but I'm not about to go drop that much money on a radar detector. Good luck!

 

[Geniere]

If the display is not difficult to take apart, I?d try to look at the mfg info on the display and see if you can Google the display chip?s input requirements. Even if it turned out to be a serial data via RS232 levels, it need not be in asci format. If it were a numerical display, it would only need 4 bits per character.

 

[SuperTool]

RS232 may be embedded inside the microcontroller, so it may not help to crack it open and see what chips are there.

 

[f95toli]

Most microcontrollers need an exterinal driver chip in order to drive a RS232 line (since RS232 uses 15V, not 5V), look for a MAX232 or something similar.

 

[SuperTool]

wow, I didn't know that. That's pretty high voltage.