Radar Love

[jono035]

Laser detection is a pretty hit or miss matter. I've been lasered 6 or 7 times with my detector (ticketed once) and none of those have been in situations where the splash off another car would save me. That said, RM's picked up laser splash from the car in front on the motorway. Laser sources are also getting better all the time meaning less splash. It is a nice bonus but don't rely on it, if you're worried about lasers, get a jammer!

Davereid - I would have thought slippage would be relatively easy to account for? All speed measurement devices read at whatever the lower bounds of their accuracy is anyway, they have to or they wouldn't be admissable. They aren't getting reflections from a specific point either, it'll be a relatively disperse pulse that gets back, they will just time off the leading edge.

Don't by a second hand radar detector, and buy one from somewhere that will actually honour the warranty, they can (and do, frequently) go dead when they fail a self-test.

GPS - worthless, no court anywhere is going to accept any form of digital 'evidence' of where you were or how you were travelling. There are too many ways to fudge the data easily, and the gps 'speed' is calculated as an average of your movement speed. It will have smoothing algorithms applied to it as well.

[slofox]

On a motorcycle, you dont need to speed to pass.

But but but...that's the whole POINT of having a motorbike! Dropping it down, cranking shit out of the throttle and screeeeaming past those evil cages in a big looping run!!...eeeeheheheheheeeehahahaarararararrrrrrr!!! !! oops..er...i mean...beg yr pardon..coughcough

[CookMySock]

But but but...that's the whole POINT of having a motorbike! Dropping it down, cranking shit out of the throttle and screeeeaming past those evil cages in a big looping run!!...

Hehe, yeah this is true, but actually I have much more fun slipping through little gaps, using my cunning and experience, and just twisting the throttle. Anyone can twist the throttle and hang on. Not everyone can split and filter.

Also I think it's really dangerous running a large speed-differential in dense traffic. Anything can and will change in front of me, and if I can't get my speed back pronto, I end up being a part of someone elses' bumper.

Steve

[Rincewind]

Laser detection is a pretty hit or miss matter. I've been lasered 6 or 7 times with my detector (ticketed once) and none of those have been in situations where the splash off another car would save me. That said, RM's picked up laser splash from the car in front on the motorway. Laser sources are also getting better all the time meaning less splash. It is a nice bonus but don't rely on it, if you're worried about lasers, get a jammer!

Davereid - I would have thought slippage would be relatively easy to account for? All speed measurement devices read at whatever the lower bounds of their accuracy is anyway, they have to or they wouldn't be admissable. They aren't getting reflections from a specific point either, it'll be a relatively disperse pulse that gets back, they will just time off the leading edge.

Don't by a second hand radar detector, and buy one from somewhere that will actually honour the warranty, they can (and do, frequently) go dead when they fail a self-test.

GPS - worthless, no court anywhere is going to accept any form of digital 'evidence' of where you were or how you were travelling. There are too many ways to fudge the data easily, and the gps 'speed' is calculated as an average of your movement speed. It will have smoothing algorithms applied to it as well.

O K would someone like to enlighten me as to what a jammer is,sounds very illegal....ish

[Swoop]

O K would someone like to enlighten me as to what a jammer is,sounds very illegal....ish

Something that makes laser detection a little more difficult and is also legal.

[CookMySock]

O K would someone like to enlighten me as to what a jammer is,sounds very illegal....ish

It can hardly be illegal - it's just a bunch of ultrabright LEDs. All you are doing is using it as a countermeasure. If you were deliberately blocking police measuring cars with it, likely they'd charge you with obstruction.

Even a microwave jammer isn't illegal. The Ka band is for public use IIRC. Certainly X band is, and there are door minders everywhere transmitting on K band.

Steve

[jono035]

O K would someone like to enlighten me as to what a jammer is,sounds very illegal....ish

Like DB said, it is basically a set of high-brightness IR LEDs that attempt to decrease the useful signal that the gun receives back by swamping it with higher strength signals. They don't just turn on and stay on, they are modulated and frequency swept I believe (at least some of them are...). It isn't illegal and anything anyone speculates they can charge you with such as obstruction should surely affect radar detectors too? There are laser guns now that can detect that they are being jammed and alert the officer, but like I said, it isn't illegal...

There are also ir-absorbent coatings you can buy (like veil) for painting your number plates and head light reflectors but I've never had a chance to test those personally, although there is data out there indicating they do help a little bit. Using a projector style headlight with less reflective area would be a bonus too. Once LEDs become common then that will be even better, no reflector needed at all.

http://www.guysoflidar.com/ has good test data on the different radar detectors and laser jammers available. They test in a lot of different ways vs a lot of different radar/laser units. Interesting stuff.

[ckai]

Thank's Guys,looks like we are all on the same page...which leads me to where should I go for the best deal on either of the two winning devices...

For what it's worth, Bel STI all the way and I got mine from Radar Direct as well.

On another note, has anyone else noticing that the STI doesn't pick up the camera vans anymore? I was thinking it's something to do with the latest camera's they've got. Can you actually update the software in the detector to pick them again?

Oh and a warning if you're looking at getting an STI, because they're made from a lot of metal that blocks signal leakage, don't leave them out in the sun when you're not riding/driving. It causes them to play silly buggers for a little bit because they get so hot. Throw them under the seat in the car and of course on the bike you'll take it with you.

[dipshit]

http://www.guysoflidar.com/ has good test data on the different radar detectors and laser jammers available. They test in a lot of different ways vs a lot of different radar/laser units. Interesting stuff.

From looking over sites like that and many other detector reviews - i see a common general pattern.

Top of the range; Valentine and Bel STi. (with prices well over 1K)

Midrange; Escort 8500 X50 and Bel's 940, 955, 965 etc.

Bottom range; Cobra, Whistler.

I ended up going for a Bel 940 for $350 (brand-new) off trademe. Most of the Bel' have an earphone jack.

[jono035]

From looking over sites like that and many other detector reviews - i see a common general pattern.

Top of the range; Valentine and Bel STi. (with prices well over 1K)

Midrange; Escort 8500 X50 and Bel's 940, 955, 965 etc.

Bottom range; Cobra, Whistler.

I ended up going for a Bel 940 for $350 (brand-new) off trademe. Most of the Bel' have an earphone jack.

Yeah, I went Escort 8500 X50 and I've been happy with it ever since... Same deal with the earphone jack. You can also hook it up so that it flashes a warning light from the same connection as the power cable.

[Naki Rat]

3rd vote for the Bel STI No false alerts, never misses a radar. oh yeah! Bike friendly. You need it in the feild of vision or it ain't worth squat, or a remote audio or flashing light for your helmet. A connection jack is required. I am not sure on this but have been led to believe that only the bel sti, Valentine and latest escort have jacks for remotes.

Superbright red LED panel aimed at eyes and run out of earphone jack on Bel 65. Works for me

[roogazza]

On another note, has anyone else noticing that the STI doesn't pick up the camera vans anymore? I was thinking it's something to do with the latest camera's they've got. Can you actually update the software in the detector to pick them again?

Activate K band (I think it is ?) They changed cameras apparently. My V1 now is a pain in built up areas but thats the game we play . Gaz.

[davereid]

If he/she is skilled enough to get it almost instantaneously, you're fucked. But if he/she has to hold you for as bit to get a reflection (and remember laser is light and reflects at angles from curved surfaces) you just might just get enough warning to save your arse.

Yep, I have taken a couple of steps to give me extra time to slow down, (not that I speed). I have described them here before and plod laughed - but they are effective at delaying (not stopping) laser lock, for the reasons I described in my post on Laser slippage.

My car is black, really non reflective and it has a limited number of places that will provide a reflection.

One is the number plate, which I have mounted on an angle, rather than perfectly vertical. This causes slippage and delays laser lock.

The second good reflector is a DVD I have in the windscreen. DVDs had billions of dollars spent on them to create a surface that is a good reflector of laser. This will work exactly the same way, as it is at a very steep angle, any laser will suffer slippage if its most reflectve target is the DVD.

The third is on both my bike and car.

I have three cats eyes reflectors facing forward. They are one behind the other, spaced at 2 and 3 cm.

The idea is that viewed from in front of the vehicle, the cats eyes appear to be virtually in one place. But a laser reflecting off them will get 2-3-5 cm variance over only a few fractions of a minute of angle. This is enough to delay the laser lock on, until the MK1 eyeball has found the operator.

Does it work ?

Seems to. I have driven past a laser operator on the road into Shannon who seemed very frustrated with his gear, and was attempting to get a lock until I was only 100m away by which time I was at a very safe speed.

The principals of operation are sound, all we don't know is how the software in the laser tries to compensate for slippage error.

[Swoop]

On another note, has anyone else noticing that the STI doesn't pick up the camera vans anymore?

You need K-band activated. I did a few passes of a stationary cameravan to test out the bands. No problems detecting them.

[Gremlin]

Activate K band (I think it is ?) They changed cameras apparently. My V1 now is a pain in built up areas but thats the game we play . Gaz.

As he said... and be prepared to hear the warning of K Band... god it drives me nuts. What are the cops playing at? How unsporting