Seems like every time I've ridden in the last month or so with my Valentine 1 radar detector on my dash shelf, it has managed to rain. This has caused me to have to pull over somewhere and yank it off. I finally decided it was time to get a waterproof container for it, but when I looked on the web, no one carried the one I wanted which was this:
The outfit that use to carry these clear plastic, custom shaped boxes was Cyclegadgets.com but they went out of business in 2011. I did manage to find an outfit in New Zealand that had them but with shipping, it was possibly going to be more than I wanted to pay. Soooo, being the tightwad I am, I cobbled one up myself.
To make a container, I needed to find the right plastic box so every time I've been in a hardware store, 2nd hand store, or container store lately, I've looked for a clear plastic box that was close to the size of my V-1. Last week I finally struck pay dirt at Lowe's. Whatever the heck the thing was, it cost me about $10. Didn't want the contents, just the plastic container:
<click to enlarge pics>
... and the V-1 fit almost perfectly inside it:
The first thing to do was to fix the box so it could be mounted to the bike. This means velcro because my dash shelf is covered both top and bottom with hook velcro. I like this temporary system because it allows me to attach farkles anywhere I please, then yank it off if the need arises:
...so whatever is going on it must have the fuzzy velcro loop. So, I put plenty on the bottom of the box:
In order to secure the V-1 inside the box and keep it from flopping around, I put hook velcro in the interior (the V-1 has loop velcro mounted on the bottom of it):
I know from experience that the V-1 gets pretty hot if confined. Since heat is the enemy of electronics, I did what I could to create a small amount of ventilation. This consisted of 4 small holes on each side. These holes are small enough that water shouldn't easily enter the box considering that it will be mounted on the shelf under the windscreen (tooth picks in holes):
In the unlikely event that a little water does get in the box, I made several small drainage holes. These holes also allow a little bit of incoming, cross ventilation to feed into the upper vent holes. Again, I've stuck tooth picks in the holes so their position can be seen:
Next thing was to create an opening for the power wire which on a V-1 is essentially a telephone wire. I initially made a slot just wide enough for the wire to slip in vertically. I wanted it to be that way because it would keep the opening small and lessen the chance of water getting in. As it turned out, the plug stuck out a bit too far to allow this so I had to make the opening wide enough to accommodate the wide dimension of the wire (horizontal). My Exacto knife kind of got carried away so the opening is not a nice pretty rectangle:
Here's what it looks like mounted on my shelf:
Some may wonder about all the holes but I'm not too concerned about it because the windscreen is pretty good at keeping appreciable amounts of rain from coming into the dash area.
I've yet to test it out but if for some reason I'm not satisfied with it and have to start all over, all it will cost me is $10.
The outfit that use to carry these clear plastic, custom shaped boxes was Cyclegadgets.com but they went out of business in 2011. I did manage to find an outfit in New Zealand that had them but with shipping, it was possibly going to be more than I wanted to pay. Soooo, being the tightwad I am, I cobbled one up myself.
To make a container, I needed to find the right plastic box so every time I've been in a hardware store, 2nd hand store, or container store lately, I've looked for a clear plastic box that was close to the size of my V-1. Last week I finally struck pay dirt at Lowe's. Whatever the heck the thing was, it cost me about $10. Didn't want the contents, just the plastic container:
<click to enlarge pics>
... and the V-1 fit almost perfectly inside it:
The first thing to do was to fix the box so it could be mounted to the bike. This means velcro because my dash shelf is covered both top and bottom with hook velcro. I like this temporary system because it allows me to attach farkles anywhere I please, then yank it off if the need arises:
...so whatever is going on it must have the fuzzy velcro loop. So, I put plenty on the bottom of the box:
In order to secure the V-1 inside the box and keep it from flopping around, I put hook velcro in the interior (the V-1 has loop velcro mounted on the bottom of it):
I know from experience that the V-1 gets pretty hot if confined. Since heat is the enemy of electronics, I did what I could to create a small amount of ventilation. This consisted of 4 small holes on each side. These holes are small enough that water shouldn't easily enter the box considering that it will be mounted on the shelf under the windscreen (tooth picks in holes):
In the unlikely event that a little water does get in the box, I made several small drainage holes. These holes also allow a little bit of incoming, cross ventilation to feed into the upper vent holes. Again, I've stuck tooth picks in the holes so their position can be seen:
Next thing was to create an opening for the power wire which on a V-1 is essentially a telephone wire. I initially made a slot just wide enough for the wire to slip in vertically. I wanted it to be that way because it would keep the opening small and lessen the chance of water getting in. As it turned out, the plug stuck out a bit too far to allow this so I had to make the opening wide enough to accommodate the wide dimension of the wire (horizontal). My Exacto knife kind of got carried away so the opening is not a nice pretty rectangle:
Here's what it looks like mounted on my shelf:
Some may wonder about all the holes but I'm not too concerned about it because the windscreen is pretty good at keeping appreciable amounts of rain from coming into the dash area.
I've yet to test it out but if for some reason I'm not satisfied with it and have to start all over, all it will cost me is $10.
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