I know the V1 is a popular detector for the p-car crowd so I thought I'd pass this along.

Sometime this summer I noticed that my detector stopped it's KA band chirping at it's usual place along my normal route up the highway. Then, I was driving around the city I live in and they had one of those portable speed trailers set up that show your speed, but nothing at all from the V1. So I called Valtines technical support and talked to someone who told me that a lot of the portable speed signs are going to some kind of FM technology that is low powered and is outside the bands that the V1 will pick up. Sounded kind of fishy to me since I've lived here for years and I've seen that same trailer dozens of times, along with the full signal on the V1, but I let it slide.

The other day I was googling Valentine One and came across this article that mentions DSP chip failures in the V1 due to extreme heat. ( http://www.radartest.com/article.asp?articleid=100542 ). The test is about half way down if you don't want to read the whole thing.

Anyway, it got me thinking, I have been guilty of leaving my radar detector just stuck to the window most of the time. Especially in my own driveway. And there have been times in the summer after a couple hours in direct sunlight that I've reached up to take the thing down and had to drop it in the seat it's been so hot.

So I called the guys at Valentine and the guy I talked to told me that the article I was referring to was basically bogus, he didn't know of any dsp failures, and the only reason they wrote it was because V1 hadn't given them any money for their test. Once again, that sounded kind of fishy. The radartest.com writeup seemed pretty legit to me.

I knew that my detector was acting erratically though, and I'm lucky enough to live about 20 minutes from Valentine One's office so I stopped by a couple days ago. One of their techs took it in back, came back about 5 minutes later and said that it was definitely low on sensitivity and not detecting all portions of all the bands. He quoted me something like $45 bucks for the repair and told me I could pick it up the next day.

They never could (or would) tell me what was wrong with the thing, but when I picked it up there was No Charge printed on the receipt and the thing is working the way I remember it (annoying 4 and 5 bogey counter K and KA band simultaneously going off in front the grocery store I go to and all!). So I guess what I'm getting at here is, if you depend on your V1 like I do, keep an eye on it, this might be an issue and it might not. Mine seemed to detect some radar and not others, but I always had this nagging thought that something wasn't right. Oh, and I'm not knocking the guys at Valentine at all either. They're super great to deal with, and I picked up a new lighter adapter, cord, and remote display while I was there.

FWIW!

 

You know come to think of it that my V1 has been fairly quiet recently, it doesn't even go off at the grocery store anymore....

But I know it works because I still detect highway patrol cars coming from ther other direction, and speed traps.

I wonder what cause it to loose sensitivity?

 

OP,

pls use the enter button. paragraphs are your friend. i am trying to read it and boy its tough...

 

Are your serious?!!

Thanks for the post Ron. Interesting.

 

guess i been spoiled

 

You should also begin a sentence with a capital letter, as well as a Cap. I.

That is if we are being particular.

 

too many key strokes at once. this requires coordination on a sun morning.

 

Sorry Chao! I kind of got on a roll with that one (plus I'd been drinking!). It's kind of funny reading a post you made after a few cocktails the next morning when you are sober. I'll see if I can edit it and break it up a little bit. I'm not the best writer...

 

Robin, that's EXACTLY what mine started doing. It would still pick up the occasional trooper heading the other way on the highway or one of those automatic door openers every now and then. Just enough to make you think it was working ok. What a night and day difference though now that I had it worked on. What recently was a single band, single or double bogey indication in the mall parking lot is now K and KA band indications with multiple bogeys, just like when I bought the thing.

 

Interesting stuff! About a year ago I picked up a newer generation V1 to replace my 2nd gen, and it displayed the same symptoms. I resold it, and kept my 2nd gen unit. Maybe I should retry one of the new units...........

Thanks for the info!

 

Thank you Ron. Now that I am fully awake, I guess I will be upgrading my 11 yr old V1.

 

As a follow up, I just came across this great Valentine discussion group. Lots of good info.

http://www.radardetector.net/Valenti...-forum-23f.php

 

Thanks for the link to the V1 forum.

 

Thanks Ron.

I'll 'chirp' in here.... about 4 or 5 months ago, I noticed my V1 did not pick up the signal from the mobile speed displays on our local roads. After speaking with the Valentine folks on the phone, I sent the unit to them for repair. So after a few weeks of cautious driving, the unit arrived... without an invoice. I called and was told 'no charge', eventhough I was expecting the $45 diagnostic charge.

The unit works fine.... gets tested often by New York State Troopers.... its now 6 years old. The folks at Valentine were great! I suggest anyone who thinks their unit isn't what it used to be to call them....tickets aren't getting any cheaper.

 

Yeah Rich, after spending a couple of hours on the Valentine One web forum it seems like these things need to be sent in every once in a while to be "tuned up". And from what I've read, more often than not it's no charge. I guess since I live locally and walked it in I got the one day turn around. Or maybe it's because it's Xmas. ;-)

Now I'm thinking I need some type of lasar jamming system. Here's another good website of independent guys that test detectors/jammers etc. that looks pretty good for those that are interested. The V1 consistently kicks ***.

http://www.guysoflidar.com/