Idea I have for being able to load the setup of your choice at the flip of a switch.

I read a lot about people wanting to be able to load a setup without having to plug the USB in. They would like to do it via the ALP Connect app or via the the control set, but I think I've come up with a way to do it simply by flipping a switch.

I picked up one of these from Amazon. Each port has it's own power switch, so you can choose which thumb drive you'd like to use.

As you can see from these images, the switches used are pretty easily desoldered and replaced. I plan on desoldering the switches on ports 1 and 2, then wiring in a 3 position ON/OFF/ON switch like this so I can chose which port I want active. The switch wouldn't be soldered to the board, but wires would and the switch would be run remotely.

In port 1 will be a thumb drive containing the PDC only (or PDC and DLI) setup and in port 2 will be the PDC and LID setup. Port 3 can be left turned on and an extension cable run so you can throw a third thumb drive into the mix whenever you need (to update firmware or something).

This whole thing gets tucked up under the dash and hidden away, so if you were to get pulled over or have another reason to put the car into PDC only mode, all you have to do is flip the switch and it'll read off the correct thumb drive. When you're ready to go back to LID, you simply flip the switch to the other position.

I have some parts that will be here this week and I'll start working on this fully when I get back from a trip I'm going on, but if anyone else wants to take a crack at it in the meantime, please do!

What do you guys think about this setup? Would this solve the problem of switching between setups easily?

I'm not an electrical guy, but I like your thinking :thumb:

Electrical guy here! :)

I DO like the idea, since at the moment I walk down to the garage with a fistful of USB drives to experiment with different settings. Being able to switch between two would be nice.

I was thinking: Once the config file is uploaded, there's no need for the ALP to "see" it connected anymore. Hence, no need to latch the toggle (ON/OFF/ON) to that particular device. You could make that toggle momentary... but then you'd have to keep it held there until the ALP is done loading.

I'm assuming you're thinking of soldering in a toggle for pure simplicity? As in, "toggle THAT way for PDC. Toggle the OTHER way for ___"? Otherwise, the USB hub you linked would work just fine as-is... as long as you can keep track of what switch you've pressed.

Andy, that's exactly what I'm looking at doing. Toggle one way for PDC, the other way for LID. When in the center, there would be no USB port powered up.

Also, this would be mounted in the car so it can be done on the fly. I want it hidden so no one could see it, and I'd like the switch to be innocuous enough that it wouldn't attract attention.

Nice. No reason it wouldn't work. I'm going to keep my eyes open for other USB trickery.

Sounds like a decent idea for sure!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rezin8

Andy, that's exactly what I'm looking at doing. Toggle one way for PDC, the other way for LID. When in the center, there would be no USB port powered up.

Also, this would be mounted in the car so it can be done on the fly. I want it hidden so no one could see it, and I'd like the switch to be innocuous enough that it wouldn't attract attention.

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You can do Parking --> Defense now with no need for any of this.

https://youtu.be/SPHv8h_PNSY

You can do the control set to have PDC/LID with menu button short press

This USB idea would be good to toggle back and forth between unlimited and timed jamming setups for testing or whatever.

BRD, how long does it stay in parking only? Will it do detection while in that mode? Wouldn't the ALP automatically go into detection mode when the car is restarted? This setup will make it to where it truly is in parking only mode until you throw the switch and load a different setup file.

its a toggle between parking and lid...i havent kept it in parking and restarted the alps to see if it stays that way or resets to lid though.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rezin8

BRD, how long does it stay in parking only? Will it do detection while in that mode? Wouldn't the ALP automatically go into detection mode when the car is restarted? This setup will make it to where it truly is in parking only mode until you throw the switch and load a different setup file.

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Indefinitely even if you turn it off and turn it back on with the short press menu button it will stay in parking mode until you short press the menu button again to put yourself back in Blue mode.

Well, I for one am at least glad we have options.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BestRadarDetectors

You can do Parking --> Defense now with no need for any of this.

https://youtu.be/SPHv8h_PNSY

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Yes but what about us that have bluetooth?

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Originally Posted by Barry626

Yes but what about us that have bluetooth?

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Additional features will be added to BT in future releases. The goal for BT is to allow all settings that are available on the ALP update website to be done via ALP Connect as well as automatic firmware updates.

Hello all
I used one of these 4 port push button USB switches
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-4-Port-U...h=item19ef2c09

And there are also ones that look like this for the style conscious
http://www.ebay.com/itm/110998511240...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

The advantage of these is when you push the button to select the USB drive that you want, it turns off the others,
Thus no chance of having the ALP CPU reading two (or more) sets of data

Hook up is very simple
Any 4 USB drives go in the Type A ports and the Type B port connects (via B-A adapter) to the ALP CPU
You can even plug your update USB in when needed.
And no soldering required

The real beauty is that if you drive around with Defense Mode loaded in your CPU and only a Parking Detect USB in the switch, a push of the button males it impossible for a LEO to get you to switch back to Defense mode.
Then you simply reload after the interview.

Hope I have not confused any one
And hope further this has been helpful

PAPACUCU

I've been looking for a switch like that! Thanks!

Yes, I like those, but they don't make a stealthly install easy. You have to have the whole thing out in the open and that's what I'm trying to not do. With the way I'm setting mine up, you can hide the hub and the only thing visible will be a very innocuous switch.

Very good idea , i bought this one few months ago and i did not succeed for some unknown reason ,
i used straight from the box , no mod , but the cpu did not read well the one switched ON , like if all the usb kept
secretly connected even when their switch were at OFF ?

So i forgot the idea , but i keep a ''green'' usb at hand .

http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-or-7-Port-...item58b3d78d72

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PAPACUCU

Hello all
I used one of these 4 port push button USB switches
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-4-Port-U...h=item19ef2c09

And there are also ones that look like this for the style conscious
http://www.ebay.com/itm/110998511240...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

The advantage of these is when you push the button to select the USB drive that you want, it turns off the others,
Thus no chance of having the ALP CPU reading two (or more) sets of data

Hook up is very simple
Any 4 USB drives go in the Type A ports and the Type B port connects (via B-A adapter) to the ALP CPU
You can even plug your update USB in when needed.
And no soldering required

The real beauty is that if you drive around with Defense Mode loaded in your CPU and only a Parking Detect USB in the switch, a push of the button males it impossible for a LEO to get you to switch back to Defense mode.
Then you simply reload after the interview.

Hope I have not confused any one
And hope further this has been helpful

PAPACUCU

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"the only thing visible will be a very innocuous switch."

Good point
I was fortunate
The switch box fits snugly between the right side of the driver's seat and the center console.
And low enough to be out of site.
It's velcroed in place to the console and stays put when adjusting the seat

Hello Tman
If you want to get back to the switch idea I think between the latest upgrade, and rezin8's & my differing methods you have some useful choices at hand
I gotta tell you that reading your ideas in a thread way back awhile ago is what got me started on playing with the idea myself.
Thanks for the inspiration

Proof of concept:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_z9gzdGJWs

AL is never satisfied and another thing we were already thinking about doing is offering different profile settings in the future. Lots of ideas flowing around and AL is like a sponge and they absorb everything and try to implement as many requests that they can. One thing is certain the AL engineers are always working on something.

That would be great; the opportunity to set different setups from the phone. I could just save a bunch of different profiles, or create them on the fly, then upload the setup.alp file via bluetooth.