Blendmount/Mirrortap install on 200 Series for Valentine V1?
- Thread starter chipsterguy
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- Thread starter
- #22
OK. Sorry for the delay, but here are some pics of the install. Really like this, and very simple to implement.
Note how the Blendmount hardware attaches to the mirror. The wiretap power cord just piggy backs off the electrical connection to the mirror as outlined in a previous post. For the V1, the wire tap splits to accommodate the V1 Connect LE module (those of you familiar with the Valentine V1 will know what I am talking about.) You can just see the V1Connect LE module in the upper right portion of the mirror in this picture (it is attached to the back of the mirror with velcro, driver side). See the last two pictures for a better perspective on the mounting position for the V1 Connect LE module.
Pretty clean install. Nice and tight and out of the way,
You can see the Bluetooth dongle (V1Connect LE) attached to the back of the mirror (driver side) with velcro in these last two pictures.
Note how the Blendmount hardware attaches to the mirror. The wiretap power cord just piggy backs off the electrical connection to the mirror as outlined in a previous post. For the V1, the wire tap splits to accommodate the V1 Connect LE module (those of you familiar with the Valentine V1 will know what I am talking about.) You can just see the V1Connect LE module in the upper right portion of the mirror in this picture (it is attached to the back of the mirror with velcro, driver side). See the last two pictures for a better perspective on the mounting position for the V1 Connect LE module.
Pretty clean install. Nice and tight and out of the way,
You can see the Bluetooth dongle (V1Connect LE) attached to the back of the mirror (driver side) with velcro in these last two pictures.
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Punched in my serial number and my V1 paperweight has been called home. If I am going to throw down $289 for a new unit, I would like to have a clean install. Looking for a bit more detail on where you tapped in for power and what mirrortap cable is needed.
- Thread starter
- #24
"Ok. So I installed my blendmount and wiretap over the weekend to get my V1 mounted and powered. Ended up picking up ground and ignition power at the rear view mirror. Pin 1 on the mirror connector is ground; Pin 4 is ignition 12V. Attached the V1 Bluetooth dongle to the back of the mirror with Velcro. Very happy with this install. Will post pics when I have a moment."
My vehicle is a 2010. I removed the plastic cover for the wires that lead from the headliner to the mirror, and picked up these pins off the connector underneath the cover. when you remove the cover, you will see the connector and can locate the pins. having a voltmeter on hand is also helpful!
My vehicle is a 2010. I removed the plastic cover for the wires that lead from the headliner to the mirror, and picked up these pins off the connector underneath the cover. when you remove the cover, you will see the connector and can locate the pins. having a voltmeter on hand is also helpful!
When you say "wiretap" are you referring to the MirrorTap cable?
Did you go with a 10" 15" or 20" cord?
Thank you very much!
- Thread starter
- #26
You are correct... this is the MirrorTap cable that they sell... sorry for the sloppy nomenclature on my part. I would go with the 10" cable - as you can see from my pics, I had access cable that I wound around the mirror post/stalk to take up the slack. Perhaps not the cleanest install, but I really don't see it from the driver's seat 
TheGrrrrr
GOLD Star
Just did the mirror-tap. For me the white was ground and green was switched 12v. 5 mins tops. Can't find my blend-mount from my M4 so just using the suction mount for now, but its fine. Nice to have the cord out of the way. I'm running the Escort Max360. Didn't really think I needed it in the LC but I had it sitting around and after a trip to Laughlin from Phoenix for the Super Bowl, I'm glad to have it. Cruise Control runs pretty good at 89mph even with plenty of extra weight.
[thread resurrection - yes, I know there are several competing threads on Mud about installing dash cams and radar detectors, about using MirrorTaps (branded, generic or home made) for said radar detectors and dash cams, etc. I’m appending here, rather than starting a new thread. Yes, I know that many run their power wires down the A pillar to piggyback fuses, etc., but some of us just like to wire directly to the mirror area power and be done with it…this is for them.]
I just went through this the other morning and have a few small insights to add, with some photos that others may find helpful.
My LC200 is a 2018 with Toyota Safety Sense (radar adaptive cruise control, pre collision, lane departure warning, etc.). I had a 2009 that didn’t have this stuff, but I never hardwired anything on that truck, so I don’t know if the mirror setup is the same.
The plastic cover over the wires / guts above the mirror is two pieces, with generous cutouts for the mirror stem - a large piece (shaped vaguely like a really fat letter U), and a smaller rectangular insert / cap piece that is on the uppermost part of the cover. The second piece closes the top of the U to fully encircle the mirror stem. I believe this may be the same on some models of the Highlander as well, as I got some access information from a Highlander video on YT.
[photo is upside down vs. reality]
To remove the cover pieces, first place your fingers / thumbs on the tops of the U and push the entire cover assembly down, parallel along the inside surface of the windshield, towards the dash. It will pop off of its prongs after about 1/4”-1/2” of travel and will then flop around. You’ll be able to move it around, but both pieces of plastic cover will still be attached to each other, and they will still encircle the mirror stem.
It’s possible to install the mirror taps and cord around the (now disconnected) cover, even though it’s still encircling the mirror stem, but it’s probably easier to separate and remove the pieces for full access. This is risky (the first time), as you can’t see how the pieces are connected, and you might otherwise risk snapping off the thin plastic tabs…but here’s the trick: to separate the two pieces, pop the small cap piece out of the jaws of the U by pulling towards you on the topmost edge of the cap piece: pull that topmost edge of the cap perpendicular to the surface of the window - down and back, towards the center coolbox / console. Once those two clips (yellow circles) are released, slide the cap up and away from the U - the fingers (orange ovals) will come out of their slots, and the two cover pieces will separate and come away from the mirror stem.
In terms of electrical connections, I couldn’t find my multimeter, so I just randomly tried some “standard” color combinations that would have seemed to make sense, across the three connectors circled below. That’s not a good strategy. I ended up lighting up the dash a few times, throwing a bunch of error messages regarding the safety sense systems, etc. I went back and found a photo where someone (sorry - can’t recall where, so can’t give credit) had found that the black and tan wires on the right hand white connector gave switched power and ground (respectively), so I tried that and it worked like a charm. Black wire on the bottom right was power, tan wire on the top right was ground.
Reassembly of the cover pieces is just the reverse of removal, so that’s (hopefully) easy. There’s plenty of room around the mirror stem to get the power tap cable out from behind the cover, so no problems there.
I did run into a problem with the length of the power tap, however. I had (I think) a 10” MirrorTap left over from my last BMW, which was more than long enough for that vehicle. On the LC200, however, I mount my dash cam to the bare glass, which starts a bit further outboard vs. the BMWs due to the field of black dots on the inside of LC the windshield at the top center. The cam positioning is more in line with the driver’s line of sight, rather than the centerline of the vehicle.
The existing 10” power tap cord I had just wired in wouldn’t reach, and new 15” and 20” MirrorTap branded cables are $44 each, so I ended up purchasing two sets of 10” DC plug extension cords through Amazon before getting the correct one. The correct one for my MirrorTap cable and Blackvue dash cam has a 3.5mm x 1.35mm DC power plug, with a matching female receptacle on the other end. Once I had the correct extension, everything worked as expected. I zip tied the extension to the mirror stem, which will (hopefully) keep the tap from getting pulled out of the connector.
Anyway, hope this is helpful.
I just went through this the other morning and have a few small insights to add, with some photos that others may find helpful.
My LC200 is a 2018 with Toyota Safety Sense (radar adaptive cruise control, pre collision, lane departure warning, etc.). I had a 2009 that didn’t have this stuff, but I never hardwired anything on that truck, so I don’t know if the mirror setup is the same.
The plastic cover over the wires / guts above the mirror is two pieces, with generous cutouts for the mirror stem - a large piece (shaped vaguely like a really fat letter U), and a smaller rectangular insert / cap piece that is on the uppermost part of the cover. The second piece closes the top of the U to fully encircle the mirror stem. I believe this may be the same on some models of the Highlander as well, as I got some access information from a Highlander video on YT.
[photo is upside down vs. reality]
To remove the cover pieces, first place your fingers / thumbs on the tops of the U and push the entire cover assembly down, parallel along the inside surface of the windshield, towards the dash. It will pop off of its prongs after about 1/4”-1/2” of travel and will then flop around. You’ll be able to move it around, but both pieces of plastic cover will still be attached to each other, and they will still encircle the mirror stem.
It’s possible to install the mirror taps and cord around the (now disconnected) cover, even though it’s still encircling the mirror stem, but it’s probably easier to separate and remove the pieces for full access. This is risky (the first time), as you can’t see how the pieces are connected, and you might otherwise risk snapping off the thin plastic tabs…but here’s the trick: to separate the two pieces, pop the small cap piece out of the jaws of the U by pulling towards you on the topmost edge of the cap piece: pull that topmost edge of the cap perpendicular to the surface of the window - down and back, towards the center coolbox / console. Once those two clips (yellow circles) are released, slide the cap up and away from the U - the fingers (orange ovals) will come out of their slots, and the two cover pieces will separate and come away from the mirror stem.
In terms of electrical connections, I couldn’t find my multimeter, so I just randomly tried some “standard” color combinations that would have seemed to make sense, across the three connectors circled below. That’s not a good strategy. I ended up lighting up the dash a few times, throwing a bunch of error messages regarding the safety sense systems, etc. I went back and found a photo where someone (sorry - can’t recall where, so can’t give credit) had found that the black and tan wires on the right hand white connector gave switched power and ground (respectively), so I tried that and it worked like a charm. Black wire on the bottom right was power, tan wire on the top right was ground.
Reassembly of the cover pieces is just the reverse of removal, so that’s (hopefully) easy. There’s plenty of room around the mirror stem to get the power tap cable out from behind the cover, so no problems there.
I did run into a problem with the length of the power tap, however. I had (I think) a 10” MirrorTap left over from my last BMW, which was more than long enough for that vehicle. On the LC200, however, I mount my dash cam to the bare glass, which starts a bit further outboard vs. the BMWs due to the field of black dots on the inside of LC the windshield at the top center. The cam positioning is more in line with the driver’s line of sight, rather than the centerline of the vehicle.
The existing 10” power tap cord I had just wired in wouldn’t reach, and new 15” and 20” MirrorTap branded cables are $44 each, so I ended up purchasing two sets of 10” DC plug extension cords through Amazon before getting the correct one. The correct one for my MirrorTap cable and Blackvue dash cam has a 3.5mm x 1.35mm DC power plug, with a matching female receptacle on the other end. Once I had the correct extension, everything worked as expected. I zip tied the extension to the mirror stem, which will (hopefully) keep the tap from getting pulled out of the connector.
Anyway, hope this is helpful.
I’ll pile in on this resurrection. After breaking (a lot of) previous vehicle trim pieces I couldn’t bring myself to give the plastic trim enough force to remove, so I went another direction. I went through the headrest into the wiring harness for the overhead map lights, etc. For reference I have a 21. I hope this helps as well.
