ew928

Wonder if the V1 mod can include say, orange lighting, for the back arrow.
LED's have come a long way in the past couple of years.

And I believe that the Bel Pro RX65 has the same internal guts as the Passport 8500.
But the Bel has that crazy voice alert. My old Bel had that.
I loved it when it kept screaming "X-Men. X-Men" everytime near any store with an automatic door opener.
The Passport 8500 I have now just screeches at me. Keeps reminding how I do not want to help fatten my insurance company's wallet and help pay for them small town's budget deficits.

Ernest (NYC)

heinrich

I'd love coloured LED's Dave, can you get them to strobe with the tunes?

GT Jackson

Not wishing to rely on anecdotal stories to lighten my pockets unecessarily when updating my radar detection protection, (haven't we all heard the one about the guy who backed off and the other guy with brand X . . . etc etc.) I have tried to find info that would provide a more accurate assessment of each products capabilities. So far the V1 has tanked, until now.

Aha! My tried and true biblical source, Car & Driver Mag, of which always provides me with data you can take to the bank, that is if you trust banks, and guys who hock full page glossy ads of the products they're testing, writes the V1 kicks ash over the rest of the contenders. So the other guys were a bunch of liars and got it wrong, and OK, maybe me too. 'Cept . . .

Their test was prior to the release of the new Escort XXX and the new fangled Cobra death ray with Bluetooth or what ever. So my money is still in my pocket waiting the next official shoot out,while my trusty old Escort Solo rides in the front window. Hope that extra hundred bucks doesn't end up in the Governor's pocket.

Kaz

I need to send my V1 to get upgraded for something called POP radar. I can't speak to Escort or Cobra as I've never tried those detectors but when I road trip up north from Los Angeles or out to Vegas, my V1 saves me around 3-5 times each way. Even if the Escort or Cobra were to afford me more warning distance, without the arrows it's not nearly as useful.

Alan

Aww Dave - you can solder right! make one yourself - easy!

I would not color code the signal strength bar - doesn't seem worth it - but I like the radar mode color codes. I'd do Blue for Laser, Green for X, Red for K and Yellow for Ka.

Alan

I haven't done it yet but I have the SMT LED's... YABBP!!

(....yet another back burner project...)

Alan

Foz

The big question is: What exactly did the upgrades do over the past 14 years? In that time, computer power has (conservatively) increased 128-fold according to Moore's law (with a 24 month period). Has Valentine taken advantage of this every time? And after a few years, you have to change all the support chips, memory, etc. with the new faster versions, pinouts (BGA), and instruction sets (in order to use all the latest performance features) --- $$$ to redesign everything, meaning that there is a large cost incentive to just do minimal upgrades that keep as much of the version 1 circuitry and software code as possible, so as to keep from having 20 code forks.

And in RF (radio frequency) circuitry there have been tremendous advances: GaAs has been replaced with SiGe, CMOS RF circuitry, direct downconversion radios, one chip baseband modules -- All this RF progress driven by the cell phone industry.

Not to mention signal processing: Adaptive Kalman filters, FFTs, and many other algorithms that have only become feasible to use with the monster processing power of current chips.

There is no way to know how 'current' the upgrades are without ripping open a version 1 V1 & a current V1 and comparing the chips and circuitry, or else having Mike himself come tell us what exactly the upgrades were.

My gut feeling is that they kept a lot of the version 1 circuitry & code for two reasons:

One is because in spite of his (admirable) crusade to keep people off the 'planned obsolescence' treadmill, he has to keep the cost of the upgrades low, because if you get dinged $200 per serious upgrade every two years, it doesn't take long to end up effectively doing the same thing as BEL & Escort, namely charging them the cost of an entirely new unit in a relatively short time. Because the upgrades have to be low cost, that keeps him from being able to do a complete redesign to take advantage of all the latest technology (and still maintain backwards compatibility with the other non-upgraded modules in the unit.

Two, the upgrade page on his website has NO details about what the upgrades were over the past 14 years. I'll bet dollars to donuts that he is still using the same RF circuitry as 14 years ago (with possibly a few small changes to cover new bands that didn't exist 14 years ago). I say this because V1's problem has NEVER been sensitivity. He is a masterful microwave engineer and the sensitivity has always been top-notch. The complaints against the V1 have always been in false alarms.

I am guessing that he is severely constrained on the software post-processing detection of false alarms due to keeping the same RF front-end (and possibly due to a lack of processing power by using minimally increased versions of his existing processor chip, along with software written for the least common denominator version 1 hardware). Think of it this way: It is like getting a Yes/No on your loan application vs. an explanation of why your loan was accepted/rejected. Early RF detectors had very simple descriminator circuits that basically just rectified the output from a tuned filter (basically, they only gave a signal strength). Newer direct downconversion radios give you the entire waveform, with which you can do damn-near magical signal processing in software.

Anyway, these are all just speculations -- There is no debate here, cause we'll never really know the truth, so it's just a waste of words to argue about which is the best: Like a previous poster said, if you happy with what you've got, good for you.

Now the real question is, how can we buy one of those radar threat warning receivers off a fighter jet at military surplus?

vdhd

Well, I just thought I would input on this thread. I have an RX65 which I've had for over a year, and I just got a new V1 installed in my 2007 Turbo. I am a bit disappointed in the V1 because it falses like crazy all over the city, so there's almost no point in turning it on. The RX65 is very good, no falses at all - but almost useless with photo radar because it only detects photo radar after you pass. I haven't had the pleasure of testing the V1 with photo radar because I've left the #*@ing thing off because it's annoying with falses.. I am sure there's nothing wrong with the V1 because I tried another as well just incase

Incidently I also installed a blinder jammer, and they are the best investment ever. They have saved me in all my cars.

Zedmau5

a blinder jammer is the next thing on my list

Ron_H

vdhd:
Switch your V1 to logic mode. The falses will be muted. Use the little "L".

Kaz

I concur with Ron. I run my V1 in Logic mode. Very few falses except for the aformentioned Infiniti vehicle in laser.

Alan

Alternatively - if where you live & drive X-Band alerts are always false (true for me in metro Phoenix & most of Arizona) just disable X-Band all together...

Of course you may need to re-enable if you do any cross country trips - but X band use seems to be fading fast...

False alerts really are the bane of the V1, but its easy to love otherwise. The radardetector site is pretty biassed - I'd say its not hard to detect that without radar! I think the Car & Driver reports probably go too far the other way though... There are several really good detectors out there... just ask H.

I have a Valentine and an Escort Passport 8500 x50. I like them both - the Escort falses less (which I like) but tells me less (which I don't like). I have the V1 in my Porsche and live with more falses than I'd like because otherwise it tells me what I want to know - you get addicted to the arrows... its true.

Now where are those surface mount LED's I bought....

Alan

SharkSkin

I should probably say first of all, sorry for the hijack. Also, I have no commercial interest whatsoever in this mod, just sharing what I found.

Nicole, over time I've become accustomed to figuring out which band is flashing based on it's location relative to the center LED segment on the bogey counter. I've also become more adept at noticing the Ka alert sound. Still, I think the colored lights represent a big improvement in readability. Some folks who posted in that thread that I linked reported being able to interpret signals with their peripheral vision much easier with this mod, and that's the main benefit I'm hoping to realize. In some situations it lights up and I can't afford to take my eyes off the road right away. BTW, the lights shine through holes drilled in the face of the unit. I'm having mine made up without the holes, I'll scrape the red film off the back so that I don't have those holes collecting dust & crud.

Ernest, there was some discussion about that in the rd.net thread. The issue is that the plastic lenses themselves are red. If you want orange, put a yellow LED behind it. I think blue LEDs would yield a dim purple arrow. If someone -- perhaps one of our clear turn lens suppliers -- were to provide clear arrow lenses, then any color becomes possible there.

Heinrich, that's one of my back-burner projects, right after the disco ball that changes speed as the tach moves and the chrome curb feelers with tiny video cameras in the tips.

GT Jackson, whenever something is touted as "top of the line" everyone will try to shoot it down. Maybe your best bet is to try each, buying from places with good return policies or better yet, borrowing from friends. EVERYONE doing reviews has an agenda. Do your own review.

Alan, you're right, I could do the whole thing myself -- except this guy has already done all the fiddling, worked out a set of parts that work in the display with comparable brightness to the original LEDS, and so on. It's worth a few $ to save the trouble of running down the parts. Time is the one thing I have the least surplus of these days -- I have so many back burner projects, I need to start building more back burners... I like the idea of the signal strength meter starting off green/yellow. Hopefully this will help me evaluate the threat in my peripheral vision as well. If I don't see red down there, I know it's a weak signal. I think the color scheme was intended to mimic a traffic signal for easy familiarity. Green, no big deal. Yellow, Caution. Red, watch out! Blue, you're getting pulled over. They are all custom made and you can ask for whatever color setup suits you.

Foz, you make some good points, but there have been upgrades in the past that have meant new case, new guts, upgraded/added components, etc. Mike V stated at one point that he does not post detailed release notes because he does not want to help the competition. I have the impression that some upgrades are simple flash/firmware upgrades as they tweak the various algorithms. A recent change involved switching from an analog to a digital temperature compensation component. I had POP detection added to mine for free. True, there are limits and the V1 may be approaching them. Back to your computer analogy, despite that 128-fold increase in power, are we really saving any time doing common tasks? I have spent far more time fending off MS's infernal paperclip than I ever did puzzling over how to do something in WordStar back in the 80's. In this case that 128-fold improvement has bought nothing -- except Bill Gates' house, maybe. A tool isn't better because it has more MB, GB or MHz -- it's better if it makes life easier for you.

vdhd, as has been mentioned, use logic mode in town. It'll keep you sane.

GT Jackson

Dave:

I did an impromptu test with the V1 in an area I am very familiar with (driven there some 20 years with old and new Escorts) and know most all the hot spots and faults. To me the V1 performed poorly, not only with too many falses but also the arrows seemed random rather than pointing to known transmitters. Had I been in a strange environment I would have been needlessly impeded.

None the less I had a strong conviction that the V1 was the right choice to upgrade until I began reading reports that confirmed my personal observations. I am a believer in the axiom, "If your mother tells you she loves you, check it out."

SharkSkin

GTJ -- If the arrows seem random to you, maybe you're just not used to interpreting them. If there are multiple bogeys, the one that the V1 considers to be the biggest threat will have it's signal strength displayed on the meter, and even if all arrows are lit, one arrow will flash to indicate where it thinks that biggest threat is. But if you're unhappy with it, by all means get something else! The only one you have to convince is yourself.

BTW, here is another site I found that conducts tests -- and they don't sell anyone's detectors! They have a companion site where they have info on LEO equipment. http://speedzones.com

Kaz

Four and half years with my V1 and I have not found the arrows to be inaccurate even when falsing. In fact I was on PCH (south bound) about 7 months ago and picked up a signal where I never had before. It was weak, the road takes a bend so that straight ahead (which the arrow indicated) was the ocean and a house on stilts next to an empty half lot/beach. Figured it for a false but since I wasn't speeding there was no need for me to react. The car behind me was impatient and took that moment to rocket around me. She was promptly nailed. Motorcycle cop in a place so concealed I actually went back to see where he possibly could've hid. That empty half lot had some concrete barriers and just a lot of clutter in general so one could hardly pick out a persons head in all that mess.

In my opinion radar detector regardless of which model you wish to use or trust are meant as an additional tool to help one avoid tickets. I'd rather be falsed a few times too many and slow my speed, especially in unfamiliar areas, than have blind faith that my electronic device will be correct 98% of the time. Ride along with a cop or trooper who is running radar and it will open your eyes as to how far out they actually home in on you. Throw in unfamiliar terrain and the digits I like to move at when roadtripping and you won't consider a few falses a bad thing.

YMMV