Valentine V1 Ka Band False Alarms...

Valentine V1 Ka Band False Alarms...

Because most of us use Valentine V1s, I'm posting this here:

I've been fighting ghost police Ka band signals now for about one year. I would pick up a Ka signal and not be able to find the officer. I thought they were just getting trickier. Well, it turns out it's a V1 design problem. Probably (hopefully) firmware. A new Escort 8500 does not have this problem.

Which V1s:
I have two V1s: 1 about 11 months old, and 1 about 1 month old (with the new Pop protection). They both exhibit the same symptoms.

Problem Synopsis:
Some fixed "Your Speed Is xx mph" signs based on K band will cause the V1 to show a 2nd ghost Ka signal for about 5 seconds depending on conditions.

Sign Examples:
1) Northbound (down hill) on Forest Drive before it dead ends into Coal Creek Parkway in Bellevue.
2) Eastbound (down hill) on Lakemont down from 63rd Ave (before Matthew's Thirftway in Bellevue.

How to repeat problem:
V1 on windshield. Placement doesn't seem to matter. Car doesn't seem to matter (550 or 360 Spider). V1s purchased over the past year (my two) exhibit the failure.
100 repeatable:
* Choose either radar sign above (and probably most all others in the area).
* Drive *towards* the sign (sign facing you) at posted speeds. V1 correctly picks up the K band as it should. Shows front, side, rear signal as you past.
* At about 50ft before reaching the sign, a second signal appears - Ka. The K signal is still the dominant signal strength.
* Ka ghost signal remains until 50-100 feet after the sign, then disappears, leaving only the K signal.
* Seems to fail with or without other cars on the road at the same time.

10% repeatable:
* Same basic setup as the 100% repeatable case above, but drive towards the sign from the *rear* (sign not facing you).
* At about 100+ ft *after* you pass the sign, the ghost Ka appears for about 3 seconds.
* Because it fails so rarely in this case, I don't know if other cars going either direction have something to do with it.

Call Valentine 5/9/05:
* They said they never heard of the failure.
* They acknowledged that a Ka signal should be 100% legit police.
* I offered to send them a video of the failure with both units. They declined.
* They'll pass it along to the engineer(s).
* Have a good day. :-|

Have any of you observed what may be ghost Ka signals with your V1s?

On your way back from Newcastle Golf next time, drive down Lakemont and see if your V1 picks up the bad/ghost Ka signal. I'm wondering how many other error cases this thing has. I also noticed that my new V1 detected 2-3 Pop signals out in the middle of nowhere during our Cannon Beach drive. Never saw an officer. Don't know whether it was false or not.

Tim

 

My V1 picks up laser signals from some of the laser sensor equiped cars, as in most of the new Lexus and Infinities, more specifically the QX45 or whatever their SUVs are called these days.

Can't say I have noticed what you are posting here, does it happen in any of the settings (All, Logic & Full Logic)? With me just recently got out of a speeding ticket, with Ms. Mucklestone's help of course , I would rather deal with a few annoying false alarms here and there, that's just MO tho.

 

My V1s are setup with default settings from the factory. i.e., Auto mode. The laser false alarms are known issues that the factory talks about. The Ka is new to me, and most everyone else I've talked with. - Tim

 

I have the same problems you're explaining with my 1 year old model, but not with my 4 year old model.

The 4 year old model is not near as sensitive though as the new one.

 

I get phantom Ka signals ALL the time on my V1 ... not quite in the same way as described, but often triggered by some other car on the road (and usually verified visually....and it's NOT a PD cruiser...)

I've just learned to ignore those signals and recognize the patterns, but it can be annoying at times...

nlh

 

I also get a number of Ka hits, some of which may be phantoms (other than what I described). I just never found a case that was 100% repeatable - and blatant. I always thought Ka was more stable than that. Silly me. ;-)

 

Tim,
I have a V1 made just prior to them adding the "pop" feature....I only very rarely will get a false Ka reading....at least I think it is, as I can't find the police unit...other than that, I get the occaisional false laser warning from third brake lights on certain model cars....and the damn K band radar doors at every Bartell's, Safeway, Fred Meyer, Staples, Albertsons, UGH!!!!

 

False Ka signals are often due to nearby cars with cheap radar detectors that "leak" emissions (superheterodyne design). These "leaks" are what cause them to be detectable by police wielding a VG2, for example. The V1 is sensitive enough at times to pick up these cheap detectors. By watching the V1 carefully as I pick my way through traffic, I can figure out which car is the guilty culprit. Very annoying, so, sometimes, if I'm irked enough by these people who spend $49.99 at Wal-Mart for a cheap detector, I'll pull out my trusty one-piece handheld Bushnell k-band radar gun (six AA batteries), and fire an emission directly into the offending car, thereby triggering a full-on K band warning, leading to an immediate slamming on of brakes. Oh, yes, sweet revenge....

vty,

--Dennis

 

One of those your speed is xxMPH thing was put up near my house today. I tried both my V1s today (They were just "upgraded" with the POP mode receiver recently) and neither one of them had reported any Ka signals. I know that a lot of security systems and doors are set to use the K band, thus false signals with the K, does anyone if there are things out there that uses Ka bands?

 

Isn't that kind of dangerous? I would think that an accident can easily happen from someone slamming on their brakes like that.

 

D,
is that one of those "sports" radar guns for baseball and such? I gotta get one of those! I was driving down to Astoria, OR last week and had a Ka signal tailing me for 5 freakin' miles! I had no idea what it was, and kept watching my rear view, expecting to see an unmarked cruiser or something. Now I know what the hell was going on. I occaisionally get a Ka coming from the opposite direction and passing by me, now I know those too, are probably just another detector.....

Dave

 

It is every bit as dangerous and deadly as, oh, I don't know... police using radar to trap speeders? Road signs that use radar to tell you your speed? Other sources of K band signals?

Think about it.

vty,

--Dennis

 

Correct. The idiot behind the wheel is the danger (Not refering to you but the idiot who slams on their brakes).

Yes, leaky detectors -- i.e. cheap units -- and the other uses for radar are what give so many 'false' alarms. Remember people, radar is not used just for city income gathering

My old V1 has been a real trooper and paid for itself on many occation.

 

Okay Dennis got me fired up.....

http://www.opticsplanet.net/buve10frups.html $100 delivered is about as good as it gets...if Dennis can confirm this is the one to get, I'm ordering it.

 

nice! Dave I will drive your car, then you can see how fast I am going

 

My 5-year old V1 has a slightly different failure mode.

If I park and leave the detector switched on a very hot day, it will periodically emit a full-intensity Ka warning that slopes down to zero over the span of a few seconds. The V1 has to be too hot to touch before it will generate these spurious warnings.

I used to think there was an instant-on speedtrap somewhere nearby until I observed the same behavior wherever I went, so long as it was hot.

Rolling down the windows and getting a little breeze going is all it takes to cool the V1 enough that it quits misbehaving. The Ka warnings always go away a minute or two after driving off.

 

Not much danger in this happening since those using Radar Detectors are ready to slam on the brakes quickly upon detection.

 

Oh yeah!!

 

I'd send it back....I've used mine in Eastern WA...sitting in a parking lot on a 103 degree day....no falsing...

 

Confirmed! Not identical, but slightly cheaper version of what he has...His has an additional feature (memory to store readings).