When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
My girlfriends brother strongly recommends buying the Valentine V1 Gen2 radar detector. Does anyone have any experience with that unit? What are other quality radar detectors?
If you have an athermic windshield, the Valentine will not be effective.
I'm not sure that the Valentine is unique in being blocked by the special glass.
I've got a "normal" windshield and have the Valentine 1 Gen 1. I'll be upgrading to Gen 2 as soon as upgrades are available. Now that I've been reminded to check ...
It looks like I can now upgrade. That's been unavailable for at least six months due to supply problems, but now is open again.
My gripes, such as they were, with the Gen 1 were that my most recent upgrade gave me more X-band sensitivity so I had to disable it. No traffic radar here on X-band, but lots of other signals. Also, processing speed seemed slow. I'd get a signal ahead and see a patrol car on the other side of the freeway and the switch from showing ahead to beside to behind lagged against visual observation. The Gen 2 has a faster processor and generally more advanced technology, so I'm sure I'll continue to be happy, and with fewer (minor) complaints.
My '17 windshield has a 2 small black-dotted area in the upper middle area, above the rearview mirror.
V1 goes on driver's side, & toll road sticker on passenger side. Guess it works OK, since I get tons of false beeps & toll road authority charge me for every transaction...
My girlfriends brother strongly recommends buying the Valentine V1 Gen2 radar detector. Does anyone have any experience with that unit? What are other quality radar detectors?
I have a 2014 F type and assume that it has an athermic windshield, but have had no problems with my hardwired Beltronics radar detector. Here in Florida, it has consistently only alarmed Ka when there are police using that band. Rarely laser, but then it is sometimes too late! But it has worked for me for 5 years. So I haven't had any windshield issues.
My girlfriends brother strongly recommends buying the Valentine V1 Gen2 radar detector. Does anyone have any experience with that unit? What are other quality radar detectors?
I personally don’t have any experience with the V1 gen2 but I did own the V1 gen1. When it was time for me to upgrade I did the research and got it down the the 3 detectors: Escort Max 360, Uniden R7 and the V1 gen2.
Personally I think radar detectors are like shoes, one size does not fit all. In my particular situation I live in an urban setting and just about every intersection in my area uses radar to monitor traffic flow to control the stop light timing. These systems will set off all radar detectors as far as I know. Both the Escort and Uniden detectors have built in GPS which allows you to exclude a particular radar signal based on your location. The Escort will block this automatically if you encounter the same radar frequency in the same area repeatedly. The Uniden has the same feature but you need to do it manually by pressing the “Mark” button. To do this with the V1 gen2 it requires a Bluetooth connection to an 3rd party app on your phone.
Another advantage to having built in GPS is that the radar knows when you are moving. You are able to set parameters to Auto mute when you are moving very slowly let’s say below 20mph or at a stop. Now the V1 gen2 can do it too but you need the Savvy OBD-II module but I would be reluctant to use it for fear of battery drain( a known issue with our F-Type)
This is my radar set up with a radar mount from the mirror. Much better than it being on the windshield and it’s super sturdy. Given El Paso’s high heat days the suction cup varieties invariably loose grip. Some of you more astute observers will no doubt notice the detector is an Escort and yes it’s an old 8500. In El Paso and most surrounding states the prevailing radar guns use Ka band almost exclusively. That makes k
this old detector perfect for me as all other bands are turned off. Laser is an issue but if you get hit with laser you’re already toast unless you are running a jammer.
I have a newer Escort Max 360c and it drives me crazy with loads of false alarms and with every vehicle around me putting out cruise control radar, blind spot monitoring, garage/.store/traffic systems and everything else was just too much. So, I just went back to the 8500 and now I know when I get a hit, it’s a real hit. Front and back works great and this detector has paid for itself hundreds of times over. I concede that this detector doesn’t have any pretty arrows, no GPS, but to me that’s not an issue; I get a hit, I’m on the brakes.
I have a 2014 F type and assume that it has an athermic windshield, but have had no problems with my hardwired Beltronics radar detector. Here in Florida, it has consistently only alarmed Ka when there are police using that band. Rarely laser, but then it is sometimes too late! But it has worked for me for 5 years. So I haven't had any windshield issues.
I don’t believe the athermic windshields were offered until MY’17.
I Used to repair certain makes of radar detectors and often tested them side by side. Some makes are set off by other makes so could not do that for all of them.
Out of all that I tested the Escort Max II was by far the best with incredible range.
It would, as stated above, "switch off" an alert based on frequent occurences at a specific GPS location. However the local police took advantage of that ! So one has to wonder
how many police departments do that.
It is of no use with Lidar however and I do not know of any that are and on motorways Lidar is quite common.
Current lidar devices have a horizontal beam width of one meter at 300 meters, compared to the registration plate width of 30 cm, ensuring that little of the signal is scattered to following vehicles. Detecting the LIDAR signal in advance is difficult as the tight beam, short signal duration and targeting of individual vehicles minimizes scatter of the LIDAR signal to following or adjacent vehicles. Modifying the vehicle to deflect, absorb or jumble the signal is difficult, as it is typically the registration plate that is targeted. Modifying the registration plate is easily detected and may not be legal. Returning a false separate signal will be detected by current police lidar models and may not be legal, depending on the jurisdiction.
Hey all, I'm relatively new to the site. Just purchased a 2016 AWD V6S and learning more about the car through this site.
I've been thinking of picking up a Escort Redline 360 and the laser shifters. I had a Escort RD a while back and it had bluetooth functionality that allowed you to control the RD via an app. Has anyone every thought about permanently mounting their RD near the front bumper and hard wiring it to the car and just using your app on your phone to silence/control things? I'm guessing you'd have to put it in some water/weather proof bag/wrap but shouldn't be too hard.
Here are some photos of my radar and mount. Some of you astute observers will no doubt notice that I am using an old escort 8500. I purchased this detector many years ago. I subsequently purchased an Escort Max 360c which proceeded to drive me batty with all kinds of false alarms from cruise control, blind side mirrors, garage/store systems, you name it. If a Winnebago drove by all hell would break loose. And yes, I do know all about GPS/learning etc., but still the false alarms persisted. Here in El Paso and the surrounding states we are fortunate in that we primarily encounter Ka band and little else. If you get zapped by laser, unless you have a jammer, you are toast anyway. So, I now use the 8500 only on Ka and it’s just perfect for me. Both front and rear hits are real, no fallsies. I don’t have the pretty little arrows but if it gets a hit, I hit the brakes. I could care less where it comes from because I figure I will find out soon enough. The mount is extremely adjustable and solid and given the heat we experience here it stays put unlike the suction cup mounts which are usually temperamental in the heat.
My next project is to hardwire the detector to the rear view mirror. I have a kit coming that I hope will solve that problem.
Here are some photos of my radar and mount. Some of you astute observers will no doubt notice that I am using an old escort 8500. I purchased this detector many years ago. I subsequently purchased an Escort Max 360c which proceeded to drive me batty with all kinds of false alarms from cruise control, blind side mirrors, garage/store systems, you name it. If a Winnebago drove by all hell would break loose. And yes, I do know all about GPS/learning etc., but still the false alarms persisted. Here in El Paso and the surrounding states we are fortunate in that we primarily encounter Ka band and little else. If you get zapped by laser, unless you have a jammer, you are toast anyway. So, I now use the 8500 only on Ka and it’s just perfect for me. Both front and rear hits are real, no fallsies. I don’t have the pretty little arrows but if it gets a hit, I hit the brakes. I could care less where it comes from because I figure I will find out soon enough. The mount is extremely adjustable and solid and given the heat we experience here it stays put unlike the suction cup mounts which are usually temperamental in the heat.
My next project is to hardwire the detector to the rear view mirror. I have a kit coming that I hope will solve that problem.
I'm in VA and detectors are illegal so I'm starting to lean towards a fully installed system because it's more discrete. I got a rough estimate for a full radar/laser jammer set up for $7k. Is that pretty normal? I was hoping to spend no more than 3k or 4k for an installed system but 7k seems bit high. The spot between the start/stop and cigarette lighter seems to be a perfects spot for the radar system remote controller.
02-04-2021, 09:55 PM
