wolfgang1

My Valentine One has arrived! I hope it's as good as everyone says it is! Anyone have any thoughts to share in addition to what I will learn in the owner's manual?

Thanks in advance,

Larry

Kerrysatx

Great! I am getting mine in a couple of days....so I cannot offer too much advice. Did you get the remote unit? How are you mounting it?

I am having my local mechanic do the work because I do not want to mess with anything electrical on this car. He is hardwiring to the sunroof switch and running the cord behind the dash. I am putting the V1 on the passenger visor or glass, so only about 2 inches of cord are exposed. The remote unit will go above the console buttons, below the dash. Id love to do the tach install for the remote unit...but will not try with my tach. I ordered another one, and may try it on that one. All I have to loose it the new tach and a $39 V1 remote unit.....

Please let me know what you think about yours in a week or two, also..send pics of the install.

Kerry

Paul in Chicago

Wolfgang and Kerrysatx,

Congratulations on the purchase of a fine bit of merchandise. V1 is the best there is.

My thoughts on improving the usefulness of this important tool.

1. Learn what the beeps and squeeks mean. Is it just a radar controlled door at the grocery store, or is it a real speedgun? Also, learn about the arrows and number of "bogeys" display.

2. Do not ever just trust blindly in this device and consider it a license to speed on the open road. You will get nailed anyway when you least expect it. You must continue to be aware of all the vehicles around you. You may get paced, clocked and never know it till the flashing lights appear in your rearview. They can still get you. Also, you should get your fast driving worked out in a safe environment like autocross or Driver Education, perhaps club racing.

3. Be aware of who is driving around you. If there is no one around, V1 cannot alert you to instant on. The one time I got ticketed was on a two lane road where I was the only one in my lane. The cop driving the opposite direction had not "illuminated" any other cars, and the first indication I got was full scale lights and volume on the V1.

4. When you get the first weak, intermittent indication of cop radar, watch your speed and keep your eyes open for a few miles. What may be happening is a cop using instant on (and instant off) up ahead of you. You don't get much warning, and may be tempted to blow it off as a "false", but believe me, you'll be thankful if you stay alert (see rule 3.)

5. Make sure the warning display is within your normal visual limits. You don't want to have to take your eyes off the road to see from which direction the radar is coming. e.g. don't put the display down by the radio or elsewhere, unless all you care about is the beeps (poor technique, in my opinion.)

6. If you have window tinting applied, expect your rearward detection to diminish. The metal in typical tint will attenuate the radar signal.

7. Don't soil yourself the first time the laser detection warning sounds!! It's full volume and all the lights come on. Mine falses quite abit driving toward sunrise or sunset (but it's a '95 model. perhaps newer ones are better.)

That's my 2, er, 7 cents.

fbfisher

Paul's advice is dead on. Here are my additions:
8. The faster you are going the less notice time you have. Atmospheric, geographic and other conditions also dictate how much time you have. I have "watched" (with lights and sound) the sherif or CHP approach for miles, at other times I have less than 2 seconds to identify a true "bogey"

9. First reaction is to sound, not sight. First action should be to remove your foot from the gas as soon as you hear the "right" sound. Don't look at the display until your speed is within normal limits. You will get to know the sounds and which band they represent and which law enforcement agency is using which band. You may not have time if you react first by checking the display. assess the situation and then adjust your speed. It will be too late in most instances. The arrows and signal strength dots are great features but they are secondary to reacting to the sound and reducing speed. The arrows are good for tracking bogey activity and ruling out false signals after you have taken the initial step of slowing down.

10. I mounted my remote display in the ash try. I removed the plastic tray, mounted the display to the inside top of the compartment and my cell phone fits nicely under it. The ash tray door still closes and the display folds up and away in the process so the compartment can be used for storage as well.

11. Don't mount the unit on the visor as it will make the unit not function with the visor in use by the passenger. Mounting the unit to the passenger side of the rear view mirror high on the windshield is a good spot that allows for the visor to still be used, only blocking the rear facing detector.

12. Use the full logic mode to rule out more false bogeys.

13, A programming upgrade by V1 is needed now that IR speed control is becoming more common. You will jump out of your skin the first few times that SOB goes off.

14. Next...

STLPCA

Paul has given you a very nice list. I'd add:
Re. #1 - Like many things, it will take time & real world experience to learn to properly "read" the warnings. 'Til then be extra cautious. Apart from obvious false alarm sources are: some newer cars have low power radar signal cruise control sensors which will trigger your V1 as you pass the car & some radar detectors "leak" a low level radar signal w/the same result.
Re: #5 - Around town I keep my audio alarm level low enough that it won't startle passengers, but that also makes it easier to miss during the (sometimes) crucial first few seconds. Having the remote display w/in my peripheral vision allows an almost instant response when the arrow lights up.
Re: #7 - I'm getting an increasing # of false laser alarms from LED brake lights on some vehicles, esp. SUVs.

I run in town at high logic (big "L") & at low logic (little "L") on the highway. Low is max sensitivity, but lights only alarm (no sound) at low strength radar signals.

I disagree w/Fred about the warnings. I find I react much faster to a visual rather than an audible warning & therefore have my remote w/in my line of sight. See what you prefer.

The V1 is the Porsche of radar detectors - short on bells & whistles, but long on performance. Enjoy.

Kerrysatx

Great advice guys...Paul, do you have a pic of your ash tray hole (hope that didn't sound...funny). I wouldlike to see what you have done. I need a place for the remote display, and for my phone....and I never use the ash tray....

fbfisher

Dan, if I did not have the On Board Computer display in my tach I would have used the location you chose for easier recognition of the visual alert. In the ash tray it is sometimes difficult to tell which of the bands is illuminated, perhaps these two conditions are why I have come to depend more on sound than sight - and this does allow me to keep my eyes on the road during those few startled moments that accompany the targeting of a bogey.

IMHO, the ideal display would be a GM type Heads Up Display on the windshield, now that would be cool!

993RS

Absolutely forbidden here in Switzerland.
Where is William Tell when we need him??

STLPCA

Fred - your location makes sense w/the OBC, although I think the remote would be fine centered between the tach & speedo or oil guages. I was surprised how the remote's red flash catches my attention even when my eyes are focused down the road.

wolfgang1

Thanks for your input. You guys are truly awesome. I am driving to Galveston TX from New Orleans this Sunday, and my new electronic device will get its first test! I will be cautious.

Since buying my 993, I have met the greatest Porsche folks. Great folks on this board, and really nice folks at my local dealership. Thanks!

vjd3

Dan, did you find the sensitivity to be compromised from behind mounted that high on the windshield? The owner's manual makes something of a to-do about being able to "see" out the back glass although radar spreads so much it probably makes little or no difference. (Not sure if it matters at all in a cab or not.)

Wolfgang, I have mine dead center about 3 inches above the dash, and I ran a thin black ribbon phone cord through the defrost vent to get to it. Not particularly stealthy, but easy to remove and install one-handed and the way I see it, I would never leave it visible in a parked car regardless, and if you get stopped, they're gonna notice it anyway.

If you look on Valentine's website, there's a procedure to disable the X band warning, which people have mixed emotions about. X-band is used on a lot of automatic door openers, and so forth. Most law enforcement types use K or Ka band.

Be aware that certain truck or SUV have LED brakellights and will false the laser warnings on you when they hit their brakes; some BMWs and Chevy pickups do that.

Also be aware that certain other detectors will cause the V1 to false as they get in close proximity to you. The K40 is a particular offender; I know this because I bought a 993 which had a K40 installed and hardwired, and when I ran both detectors simultaneously, if I pulled the car up to my garage door or behind an 18-wheeler, the K40 would "reflect" off the door and set off the V1. This solved a lot of mysterious lengthy alerts on the highway for me, when, say, a Jaguar would be the only vehicle visible and I would be getting low-level K band alerts for miles. I ripped that K40 out by the roots in short order. Side by side, the V1 trumped it in every way.

As others have said, a radar detector is almost useless if you do not remain constantly aware of what is around you, merging with you, behind you and, especially, as another Rennlister pointed out, if you are the only car on the road. If the gendarmes are using instant-on radar and you are the only car around, you'll have no warning besides your own visuals. And at night, if he's not running radar constantly, there's no way to tell who those headlights behind you are hiding.

Enjoy your purchase and welcome to the board!

Vic
95 C4 cab

BobbyB

Have had mine for 3 yrs and love it. OK I will add to the things you might want to consider list:

#16 (?) check their website every 3 to 6 months with your V1 serial number for new updates to the software.

Good luck

Mark in Baltimore

Great advice from everyone. I'll just add that you might want to learn how to left foot brake so you can automatically and constantly keep your left foot hovered over the binders. It just might save you when taking half a second to slow the car down may be half a second too long.

Ray Calvo

Had mine for prob. 10 years. Mount it similarly to 1st picture of Dan96C2.

Only thing I can add is if using it on highways/interstates, add a CB radio. Greatly reduces your chances of a ticket, esp. when cop is hidden in side of highway and presses the radar tirgger just as you pass by his location.

STLPCA

Excerpt from my Nov 2001 post:
Actually, there is no problem detecting signals out the rear window. Our local Science Center is kind enough to have an array of radar guns shooting traffic from an enclosed highway overpass. It's a great constant test area. I've run tests w/the V1 mounted in various places & none did better than the over mirror in my coupe - front or rear. And, it's barely visible from outside the car.

V1 Tech Report on windshield signal blockage.

BTW, 993s use 2 different size sun visors. On my '96 coupe I have the smaller visors allowing full movement w/o touching my V1 mounted above the mirror. However, that V1 mount would interfere w/the use of the larger visors. I'm not sure which cars have which, but it makes a difference for the over the mirror V1 mount.