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Just my two bits.
FWIW, my last post on this topic said that comparisons were being made on top end detectors. Minor differences seemed of little importance as these higher end detectors were ALL equally impressive - that includes the V1. Since that was my read, the next step in shopping goes to things like price, customer service, etc. So IN MY OPINION, weighing all these other options - my OPINION is that the Escort is a better buy all around and just as good in performance as your coveted V1.
Now if other people want the benefit of that experience, I am going to say so. No one on this board has the right to censor my opinion when it conforms with all the guidelines of this discussion board. I disagree with your assessment of the V1 as "the best." That's a subjective opinion so I'm going to challenge that. But don't go stooping to trying to insult me or shut me up because you can't hack the direction of the discussion. What's the matter, can't take criticsm of your purchase? Feeling guilty having spent so much when you didn't have to? Don't take that out on me. I have every right to express my views, just as you have your right to rave about the V1. Got something to say - then defend the V1 all you want, but don't try censoring other opinions.
If you are going to make an effort to dazzle me with your legal footwork, at least make an attempt to be accurate. Where do you see any place that I have said that the Valentine is "the best"? I must have written that in my sleep. All I said is that I am satisfied with my V1, AND that I have been satisfied with my escort too. My only position is that you have stated NOTHING new. You keep posting your same tired opinion that they didn't treat you fairly. BOO HOO HOO. Maybe your condescending, superior attitude might have something to do with it. Now, I am not an attorney with a big powerful firm but I don't think that is important at all. It has been my experience that when you have to blow your own horn, it is because you know you are on thin ice. When you have the facts, pound on the facts. When you have the law, pound on the law. When you have neither, pound on the podium. Thanks for the loud opinion, but we have already heard it and someone just tuning in might not have read your first post where you said your gripe was "more their customer service than the actual unit", and then went on to whine that when you "complained to a manager on the phone...(h)e was rude, short, and abusive". The nerve!! To be rude, short and abusive to a person of your stature! Give it a rest, your opinion has been duly noted and MOST of the people on this board disagree with you. Of course you are entitled to your opinion. We all know what it is already. Keep talking if you want, but it is obvious that the insults were started by you and no one else. If it ever becomes material I would be happy to compare resumes with you, but frankly, who gives a darn what you or I do for a living. I have said my piece. And I still have not said that the Valentine was "the best". I like mine. I have never had a service problem. Most people don't seem to have had one either.
Just a reminder that the News & Views chat is on tonight (5-6pm Pacific/8-9 pm Eastern). Hope to see you there!
Tonight's topic is Automotive Products: Aftermarket and car-care winners and losers
http://www.edmunds.com/townhall/chat/newsviews.html
PF Flyer
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Pickups & News & Views Message Boards
Its obvious you don't read much either. I never tried to stop you from voicing your opinion. I welcomed it. I encouraged it - yet you seem bent on personally attacking me rather than my position. Seems to me that you are the one with no basis for opinion. My opinion is based on personal experience - FACTS!! Can't handle it, huh? Why else are you trying to shut me up? If people are tired of my opinion - they can stop reading. You obviously aren't since you feel the need to keep responding. Obviously you also feel you need to keep defending Valentine - maybe you work for them? I'm just giving the other side - a minority view, but nonetheless still valid based on experience. I don't deride folks who support V1. They have a right to their views, I have a right to mine - you would obviously try to stop others from posting. Thank goodness you're not a moderator on this board. As for your allegation that I constantly respond to any positive comments about the V1 - hardly. The posting speak for themselves. I would say support for V1 outweighs the little support I've provided for other top brands.
Steve
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Vans, SUVs and Aftermarket & Accessories Message Boards
My question: At night it's hard to tell which band is being sensed, X or K, because the LEDs are the same color and close together. Can I expect this to become easier as I gain experience, knowing by the vertical location of the LED? I'm thinking about putting a small ink spot on one or two of the LEDs so as to be able to distinguish them. Any advice from long-term V1 users is appreciated.
Joe, I mounted mine just below the mirror, for fear the tint at the top of the windshield would interfere with laser detection, although it sounds like you're toast if a laser hits you anyway. I have the same car as you, sounds like we ran the wiring the same as well. I don't have the remote module. I had never noticed the gap at the front of the headliner before, but it sure comes in handy, doesn't it? The unit is visible from outside, but pretty unobtrusive with the moisture sensor right there. My car is secure at work and in the garage at home, so I rarely have to take the V1 out for fear of theft. When I do, the few inches of power cable get looped around the mirror post.
Off topic, Joe, are you an LLSOC member? If not, you might think about it. Great bunch of people. We just toured the Wixom assembly plant and Ford's engineering facilities in Dearborn. Tremendous experience.
Also, I notice everyone talks about the Valentine and the Escort radar detectors. Are those two that much more superior than my Bel or Uniden that I currently have? Both of my radar detectors seem to work fine picking up all the above bands with the lone exception I mention.
Thanks for any feedback!
LIDAR stands for LIght Detection And Ranging. It sends out pulses of light (not necessarily visible) at a constant rate and by timing the "echo" of these pulses, is able to determine the distance to an object and its speed.
tidester
My understanding is that LIDAR operates so quickly that once you've been detected, it's too late.
Some specs I came across:
LIDAR operates at about 904 nanometers (near IR) in 5 nanosecond pulses with a 1 kHz repetition rate. Power-on is instantaneous (at about 25 W) and delivered within a 4 milliRadian cone.
tidester
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Aftermarket & accessories
Cops usually use LIDAR by targeting one car and then "shooting" that car. A laser detector will only go off if the laser gun is aimed at your car, and then even if it goes off it is likely too late and is notifying you that you have been nabbed.
LIDAR is conventionally referred to as "laser." As indicated by a previous poster, Laser/LIDAR detectors work by aiming a narrow, concentrated beam of light to one vehicle at a time. The target point must be a reflective piece of metal that is not angled too much or the beam gets sent off at an angle that can not be recorded by the police officer. Most officers use the front license plate of a target vehicle for its large size and good reflectivity. They can also use headlamps (i.e., directing the light through the lens into the reflector and back).
Your Bel or Cobra or Uniden will likely only pick up the Laser/Lidar if you are the target. Escort and V1 radar detectors have the same limitation.
In direct response to your question, Laser/LIDAR guns look almost identical to radar guns when viewed from a vehicle running along the highway. However, there are important distinctions and limitations with respect to LIDAR that can help you regardless of the diminished warning from your top-of-the-line detector (regardless of brand).
1. Laser/Lidar can only be used from a stationary point. For now, Laser/Lidar technology will not allow such devices to accurately measure speed while they are in motion. The police officer must be standing still. So watch out for police vehicles that are parked on shoulders or in spots popular for speed traps. Keep an eye on cars in front of you. If they brake for no apparent reason - could be speed detection in the area up ahead.
2. Laser/Lidar only work via line of sight. Because of the nature of the beam, laser/lidar can only shot in a straight line via line of sight. If the cop can't see you, he can't get a laser/lidar reading off you. So be careful when entering an area where line of sight opens up considerably (i.e., coming to the crest of a hill, rounding a curve, etc.).
3. Laser/Lidar only works on clear days. Since laser/lidar uses light waves, atmospheric conditions can mess up readings. As a result, police officers need clear days to use these devices. No need to worry about laser/lidar traps in fog, rain, snow, etc. - of course, you probably shouldn't be speeding much under these conditions anyway. (-:
4. Laser/Lidar units are expensive. This means that not all jurisdictions have them. If you frequently drive in a specific area of the country, might be worth checking out if your local jurisdiction has purchased Laser/Lidar units. Oftentimes, such purchases will be noted in major newspapers. For example, when Maryland acquired a number of laser/lidar units for speed enforcement, it was noted in a story in the Washington Post. Washington, D.C. and Virginia, two nearby states, however, do not have laser/lidar guns as of yet - relying instead on radar and VASCAR. In another example, Pennsylvania laws are such that only state troopers can have laser or radar guns. Local police officers can not - as a result, unless you're on an interstate or other area monitored by PA state troopers, you have to watch for VASCAR rather than laser/radar.
Good luck.
A police officer finds two points along a stretch of road, like a certain telephone pole and a mailbox, or perhaps two paint stripes on the pavement. He measures the distance between the two points and enters it into his vascar device. He then pushes a button when a car passes the first measurement point and pushes it again when the car passes the second measurement point.
The vascar machine calculates what speed the car was travelling to go between point A and point B in x.x seconds.
An alternative vascar machine uses two rubber sensors (kind of like the old rubber lines that used to let service station employees know someone drove up to the pumps) laid across the road. They are spaced at a known distance and the machine calculates how fast a car was going based on how long it took to trip the two sensors.
Vascar is a very simple device compared to radar and laser, and requires a fairly involved setup and at least 2 or 3 officers - a stationary officer to watch cars and use the machine and another one or two to chase down speeders. Radar and laser are easily set up and can be used by one cop.
The way to combat vascar is to be especially observant of cops pulled off along the road (usually hiding behind bushes, signs, buildings), as well as paint stripes on the road or sensors laid across the road. Many similar sensors laid across the road are used to get traffic counts, however, and are not set up by the police.
Leo
Thanks to everyone to the great feedback we are getting here!
Question to all.....if you were going to buy a new radar detector, which one would you buy excluding the V1 and the Escort? Bel? Cobra? Uniden?
Mike
If I'm the only one on the road, I usually set the cruise at 5-6 over and stay there. If I'm in a big hurry (not often), I wait for someone to blow my doors off and just let them stay about a 1/4 mile ahead and let his brake lights and my radar detector do my work for me.
Hope this helps!
Shhh....don't tell anybody.
As for detectors, there are some great reviews by Car & Driver and other magazines. Check those out. I like the Escort series of detectors. Work well and priced right. The latest - the 8500 has saved me numerous times from radar. I've never had warning with laser with this detector or others that I've owned in the past (including V1). May be I'm just too tempting a target to cops - although I have not had a ticket in years (knock wood...)
Second, any detector that detects laser will detect them all, since there is only one wavelength.
Lastly, If you will reread my post, what I described is not at all like a laser gun. It was relatively huge, resembling a photographers large format camera. It was inside a van and was so large as to be non hand holdable. The size of the lense (2-3 inches in diameter) was proportionally huge compared to a laser gun, as well. I have no idea what it was. My detector does detect laser. It did not go off on whatever this was. I was doing the speed limit at that milepost as I had been told of this speed trap. I would have certainly been ticketed otherwise.
No idea what you saw. Couldn't have been VASCAR. I've seen these units in cop cars. As noted by an earlier poster, they are timing devices. A cop just sits in his cruiser, hits a button when you pass one landmark and hits another butten when you pass another landmark. A computer, which was previously programmed with the distance between those landmarks, calculates your speed between the landmarks and displays a readout of speed.
Sounds like the device you saw may have been something else - could have been a giant scope for checking registration stickers - could have been a survey of out-of-state cars - who knows?
ps: yes, I am aware that Lidar is measured in waves. It was easier to use "frequency" as short hand. Both measure wave amplitude on different points over the electromagnetic spectrum.
tidester
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Aftermarket & Accessories
Some of us are just curious about the mystery box's that Pat84 and I have seen. So far, no one has given a decription of what a VASCAR instrument would look like.
I have seen this mystery box being used as I was going by (my radar/laser detector didn't go off)and then the officer jumps in his car and I'm thinking I'm toast and he pulls over the car next to me. I should have been plenty close enough that if it was laser my detector should have went off.
Again, I don't think anybody in this thread speeds! LOL
I consider it my civic duty to monitor the performance and diligence of our law enforcement community.
Truly commendable!
tidester
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Aftermarket & Accessories
Good comeback scottc8!
Scott certainly deserves a gold star for that one! I mean it's right up there with mom, apple pie, the flag - who could argue against basic research?
On second thought, a detector does serve one other important purpose. If you're ticketed and don't have a detector, you have absolutely no way of knowing whether the good officer actually had his unit fired up. In court, you only have his/her word that any radiation was coming out of the unit!
At least with a detector, you have the satisfaction of knowing they really do have the goods on you! ;-)
tidester
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Aftermarket & Accessories