Rearview mirror screen

[miloh]

Have mercy on my soul. I'm wanting to severely DIY my rearview mirror to mount my Uniden R7 inside the mirror and allow the display to shine through the mirror.

I ordered a replacement mirror for testing, but before I do this I wanted to know if anyone has DIY'd the mirror to put a display in it, or screwed with the mirror at all in some fashion. I really want to know if the dimmable mirrors have a black backing that can be removed or how it works so that I can (potentially) have a friend cut some two-way glass to match and replace it.

The second part of this project is to cut into the plastic housing and make a mount for detector. Thank you for entertaining my curiosity


EDIT:

I've done more research. I learned how the autodim function works on the mirror: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI3cR9KhrdY
So what I need to do is see if I can either:
A) remove any film on the back of the mirror, if it actually exists. seems unlikely that will work.
B) cut the mirror to reveal the film and replace a chunk of the mirror with a two-way mirror. Or if it looks doable, completely replace the mirror with a two-way mirror.

I watched how you cut glass and more specifically, how to cut curves into glass, so I'm interested in how this will turn out.


EDIT 2:

And I've found a deconstruction of the Uniden R7.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erAd2QZ_GYo
Also here: https://www.rdforum.org/threads/87181/


The forum post is great because it shows the buttons are only attached via a connector with exposed wires. This makes me think I'll be able to lengthen the cables for relocation.

[andrewwynn]

The existing mirror is almost certainly opaque silver film on the back. You should be able to remove the film with razor blade. I would pick up a kick yard mirror for the learning curve.

The best way to cut the mirror if you need to is with diamond wet saw for tile. I've used my right angle grinder with diamond wheel under running water just use masking tape and razor blade for marking exactly where to cut.

(This will not work if the glass is tempered)

You can use mirroring film like what I've used to keep sun from overheating a room to have a 1-way window .

I've used cars that have a hidden display in the mirror for the backup camera and it's brilliant.

[miloh]

OK.

I got my replacement mirror in and thought I'd share progress. My replacement mirror was a homelink, security, autodim mirror with NO compass. If you look at the first picture you can see the mirror dismantled. Let me say, don't use a screwdriver like I did. I really scratched this one up trying to pry it apart. But, it was only $20 and I learned so meh.

The mirror tabs that hold the black bracket in need to be separated outwards, so there's one hole provided by BMW to start the separating at the bottom. You insert (hopefully) a plastic pry tool into the hole and push it towards the glass side, flexing the larger mirror assembly outward. You need to be careful, I didn't have the mirror break on me and I was reckless with a screwdriver, but if you're not aware of where your force is being applied it might break the mirror and apparently the autodim mirror has some nasty corrosive liquid in it.

So it pries apart progressively around the edge and is definitely not separable by hand. Continue going around the edge, where it progressively opens and pry outward. Tbh sometimes I heard a click and sometimes I didn't so who knows if the clips actually click, but it'll separate more. This picture shows the clips for this mirror: four on top, three on bottom, one on each corner. So try to pry close to them (it's probably impossible to get the stick into the groove on top of the clip.


After you get the faceplate off, disconnect the mirror pcb from the wiring harness. The next pic shows my mirror's pcb board. It's attached with two JST connectors, I think 1.25mm to 1.5mm for the the autodim plug and the homelink plug. The main board connector looks like JST 2 or 1.5 for sure, it's bigger than the others. This board has no screws. Pop the tabs on the left, top, and bottom right side to make it slide out.

What you're left with, in this mirror, is a white plastic bracket with adhesives. This adhesive was easy to pull apart on the outer white plastic but the bigger piece I need to get a kitchen knife to get underneath and turn the blade.

I thought hard about where I wanted to mount it. My car already has the homelink buttons on the top console, so I decided on the left side (when sitting as the driver). Also I had no choice because the right side was the only spot free from any board (minus the homelink in this mirror). So here are my attempts, without adhesive remover or alcohol or anything, to remove that adhesive. Pretty meh. I'm buying some goobegone tomorrow to finish cleaning it up.

I have a Uniden R7. I've taken it apart twice. Super easy with four screws on the back and another couple jst connectors inside. Shoutout to WiHa tools also, they were perfect fit for electronics like this. If you look at pic 0311, the R7 barely fits inside here. The tilted display and the positioning of the display seem to be the worst culprits here. I think you could mod any other radar detector into a mirror like this, except the R7... for now. I'm going to try and move that mirror PCB board over an inch or so - rip autodim accuracy. There's more than likely plenty of room inside for a dismantled valentine V1 and definitely enough for a remote display.

I'll be updating as I go along. At some point I will need to cut and make a bracket for the R7 in the back of the mirror housing, so when that happens it'll be a lot of fun.

Also, this mirror had no film on it, unless acetone or goobegone reveals something different. It looks like the actual mirror is on the inside of the glass (between the sandwich of autodim electrochromic material). But, the last picture is the cherry on top. The light from my desk lamp shines through no problem. I think as long as enough light output is generated there should be no worry about whether or not you can see your display. I'll confirm this tomorrow when it's light ouside and I can hook my R7 up to my car to turn it on, but I'm pretty confident.

I think it'd be easier for someone to put remote display V1 into the mirror, use some adhesive to hold it in place, and if they really wanted to permamount it, maybe mount in the headliner. I think I can permamount mine into my mirror with a small movement of the mirror PCB and a chunk out the back. Or when I cut the back part of the mirror, I can cut around the corner too and use a rubber grommet to hold the cut piece if I don't run the detector up there.

I'm doing this to make my radar detector as discreet as possible and this entertained my fancy. If anyone has input on 99% hiding this detector, lmk because I might change my mind about this.