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

[rezin8]

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?

[curmudgeon]

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

[wirelessandy]

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.

[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.

[wirelessandy]

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

[tawwwd]

Sounds like a decent idea for sure!

[BestRadarDetectors]

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.

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

[tawwwd]

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.

[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.

[tawwwd]

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.