Radar Detectors

[Elfie]

Radar units or jammers won't detect Lidar.

Here's just one model that detects all known police radar bands AND......lasers.

http://www.radarbusters.com/radar-detectors/escort-radar-detectors/escortpassport9500iradardetector.cfm

[Obie303]

Here's just one model that detects all known police radar bands AND......lasers.

http://www.radarbusters.com/radar-detectors/escort-radar-detectors/escortpassport9500iradardetector.cfm

And I have prime building land in southern Florida!  Tell me how can a detector pick up radio waves and light waves.  Lidar is target specific.  That means the Lidar beam is approximately 2 feet wide.  It's pointed directly at the front plate of a vehicle (usually) and it happens in a split second.  That whole speed of light theory that some guy thought of.  I can't quite remember his name. 

How do you jam light?  Reflect it, refract it, or absorb it, sure.  But unless GM, Ford, and the imported cars are building "stealth" cars, I think somebody is selling you up the river.

Obie

[Elfie]

Tell me how can a detector pick up radio waves and light waves

The manufacturer can probably describe that better than I. In fact, I can't tell you *how* it works at all. I'll hazard a guess though that there is more than one type of sensor in the detector unit.

Speaking of Stealth......sorta.....

http://www.laserveil.com/cool_videos/

Videos showing Veil being applied to headlights and videos showing various tests against a police Laser. Laser jammers are used in some of the tests as well.

[Obie303]

   $99 bucks for that veil stuff!  It looks like watered down black paint!  Elfie, I don't pass myself off to being an expert at all of the internal working of a Radar or Lidar unit.  I've worked with both and I can tell you this, a police officer first observes the vehicle, then activates the speed detection unit he/she is using at the time.  Target distance, that depends on the lay of the roadway.  Curves, dips, hills, etc, etc.  Lidar speeds are measured within a fraction of a second (I forgot how quick, but its faster than you can blink).  Radar takes a few seconds and it can be jammed.  I've yet to see a detector that does consistently.  All radar units dont operate on the same radio frequency. Makes sense right?  So does the radar jammer have a random radio signal that it jams?  How do you know that the radar detector/jammer will work on all radar units if they operate on differnet frequencies?

I will say this though, you have to give those guys credit.  What a product they got there.  What happens when it rains?  Does the stuff wash off?  I'm definately in the wrong business!  (Oh and that radar detector they had looked like it was a dinosaur.  Many newer models out there for the police.)

Still waiting for an answer on how a person can detect light from the supposed "Lidar Detectors". 

Obie

[Elfie]

  $99 bucks for that veil stuff!  It looks like watered down black paint!  Elfie, I don't pass myself off to being an expert at all of the internal working of a Radar or Lidar unit.  I've worked with both and I can tell you this, a police officer first observes the vehicle, then activates the speed detection unit he/she is using at the time.  Target distance, that depends on the lay of the roadway.  Curves, dips, hills, etc, etc.  Lidar speeds are measured within a fraction of a second (I forgot how quick, but its faster than you can blink).  Radar takes a few seconds and it can be jammed.  I've yet to see a detector that does consistently.  All radar units dont operate on the same radio frequency. Makes sense right?  So does the radar jammer have a random radio signal that it jams?  How do you know that the radar detector/jammer will work on all radar units if they operate on differnet frequencies?

I will say this though, you have to give those guys credit.  What a product they got there.  What happens when it rains?  Does the stuff wash off?  I'm definately in the wrong business!  (Oh and that radar detector they had looked like it was a dinosaur.  Many newer models out there for the police.)

Still waiting for an answer on how a person can detect light from the supposed "Lidar Detectors". 

Obie

That Veil stuff is painted on, I have no idea how it works. Radar jammers are illegal and almost non existent, yet all modern radar detectors detect multiple bands of radar. Ask the manufacturers how that works. The $99 purchase cost of Veil includes enough of the product to treat your vehicle 8 - 10 times. It is recommended to retreat your vehicle every 6 months or so. So 99 bucks for 4 - 5 years worth of protection, not a bad price.

There was no radar detector in any of the videos I watched. They were testing the Veil system and Laser jammers vs a Lidar unit in the main video that I watched. Specifially, Veil Valentine One detector, Blinder Xtreme M20 (Laser jammer) vs the generation 3 Stalker LZ1 laser gun. (There were other videos, I just didn't watch them all.)

If you want to know how a detector can pick up a Laser beam, go look it up on the net. I'm sure that info is out there somewhere.

*edit* Vulcan uses a Laser jammer, ask him how well it works.
**edit** I'm no expert on this stuff either, I just look up the info's on the net.

[LePaul]

One honest question, as this happened to me years ago on a motorcycle.

Officer pinged my motorcycle as going 44 in a 35.  Pulled me over and asked if I knew how fast I was going.  I answered 35mph on the nose, as I know the area is patrolled thoroughly.  He mentioned I probably had a faulty spedometer and that the "grace" for spedometer error is around 4-5 mph.  That being said, he suggested I have the spedo checked out, be wary its reading low and let me go at a warning.

Sure enough, the cable was found to have a kink in it when I had the motorcycle serviced.

Generally, do they really have any sort of grey area for "spedometer error"?

As to the topic at hand...my days of flying along at 10 mph anywhere are over.  Its just not worth the fines and punched up inusrance rate risk to me.  If you get pulled over and have a dash full of LED lights blinking radar warnings, to me, that just tells the officer you were caught trying.  Just me of course.

Edit:  The biggest problem I have is that people ahead of my car think its a police undercover vehicle, since from the rear view, my car has that color/profile.  So in most of my driving, I'm always driving 24 mph  Doh!  Dang paranoid bastids! 

[Obie303]

Edit:  The biggest problem I have is that people ahead of my car think its a police undercover vehicle, since from the rear view, my car has that color/profile.  So in most of my driving, I'm always driving 24 mph  Doh!  Dang paranoid bastids! 

   Thats pretty funny. 

As far as the lazer jammers go, I think I'd actually have to see one in action before I take somebody's "testimonial".  I'm with LePaul on this one.  Your radar/lazer detector/jammer may stop you from getting a ticket 9 out of 10 times.  But all it takes is that one time and there goes your insurance premiums through the roof.  Is that really worth $99 bucks for a chance that it may work? 

As far as the internet stuff.  I don't trust it.  Too many scams out there. 

Obie

[Elfie]

  Thats pretty funny. 

As far as the lazer jammers go, I think I'd actually have to see one in action before I take somebody's "testimonial".  I'm with LePaul on this one.  Your radar/lazer detector/jammer may stop you from getting a ticket 9 out of 10 times.  But all it takes is that one time and there goes your insurance premiums through the roof.  Is that really worth $99 bucks for a chance that it may work? 

As far as the internet stuff.  I don't trust it.  Too many scams out there. 

Obie

It's going to cost you far more than $99 to outfit a vehicle with a good detector, laser jammer and stealth for the lights. You can easily look up brand name stuff on the internet and find product reviews for it.

[Maverick]

LePaul,

There is no grace for speedo error per se. There is no way for the Officer to know which way the speedo is off. What is comes down to is this. The average Officer isn't all that keen on going to court that much so they typically do not write a ticket for 5 mph over. I have yet to see one for 2 mph btw. That would be an example of pretty extreme chicken feces. It's when the vehicle is doing a significant speed like at least 12 to 15 over (other than a school zone) in town. Doing almost 45 or more on a 30 zone is a pretty decent margin and that is what I looked at. When you start approaching half again the limit in town for the smaller speed limits I figured I was being more than fair.

On the other side of the speed issue, almost no one ever calibrates their speedometer. Few folks know how to pace the car on a measured distance and calculate the actual speed and compare it to the speedometer. Detroit has no clue on how to build accuracy into them. We found supposedly factory certified speedos in Police cars that were off by 5+ mph under 45 mph. We ended up having to put every darn one on a dyno and then post in each car the error corrected speed given an indicated speed. Example, when the speedo said 40 it was actually 43 or when indicated 30 was actually 26. Looking at your uncalibrated speedometer and trusting it to be accurate isn't a good plan. Since intent is not a part of speeding it's not a defense either. Deciding to go 10 over the limit based on the speedo may just have you doing about 15 over actually so you can't figure you'll be safe doing that.

[GtoRA2]

I went on a road trip for a week in the jeep.

I did the speed limit the whole way. 

I used to speed a fair amount, rarely more then 5 over but still just about all the time.

The reason I started doing the speed limit is, well, the jeep gets MUCH better MPG at 65 then at 70 and any speed above 70 and the MPG really go down.

It was nice not having to watch for highway patrol or worry about getting a ticket. Made the whole trip more pleasant.

The best part is, I was never annoyed at some doofus in the fast lane going 69, when I wanted to to do 70 or 75. And amazingly it still took about the same time to get to all the places on the trip.

[Sox62]

Mav, while the laws were not "intended" to be revenue tools, they most certainly have been turned into such. Take Dallas for example. They installed red light cameras to prevent accidents and improve safety. It did just that. Unfortunately it also cut the amount of revenue the city was getting. Now Dallas is turning off those cameras so it can make up the cash shortage.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/editorials/stories/DN-cameras_20edi.ART.State.Edition1.45f8c23.html

Well now,isn't that interesting.

It's different here in Columbus.It isn't about generating revenue...it's all about safety and reducing accidents.

 

[Vulcan]

How do you jam light?  Reflect it, refract it, or absorb it, sure.  But unless GM, Ford, and the imported cars are building "stealth" cars, I think somebody is selling you up the river.

Obie

Fairly easily actually. LIDAR operates around 900nm (iirc). Laser jammers use an array of extremely bright LEDs on the same frequency, 'blinding' the LIDAR unit. LIDAR is also susceptable to interference from the sun (especially when it is low to the horizon), halogen lights (if they're near the target points usually used for speed measurement), and a few other light sources.

You sure are showing your ignorance obie, I've owned my Bel Laser Pro for 7 or 8 years now. The Laser Pro gives an error which translates too "Too Much Ambient Light" on the LIDAR units. My most extreme "test" was 140km/h in a 100km/h area at 2am in the morning (4 lane motorway with just me on it).

[Warspawn]

For the cops in this thread, neither radar nor lidar (laser) are 100% accurate, and are prone to both technical error, human error, or sometimes even human deceipt. I don't speed much, at the most 120km/h in 100km/h areas, usually its with 5km/h of the speed limit though. However our police force are tasked with revenue gathering, and often their performance evaluations are based on ticket issuing, sometimes they need to make up their numbers. I see myself as defending myself against an inaccurate and dishonest system that deems the driver 'guilt until proven innocent'.

Take away the revenue gathering and put 100% honest cops out their and I'll man up.

QFT.  When I was moving to Oregon from Florida, I passed thru a smallish town called Burns, OR.  City had the police vehicle during the morning and early afternoon, then it was the county's.  True story...

I was watching the speedometer closely, knowing that I was driving with Florida tags in a rural area of the Pacific Northwest.  I was pegged at 25mph in a 25mph zone.  On a side-street, 90 degrees off to my right sat the Ford Explorer that was used by the local law enforcement.  They came out of there pretty quick, pulled me over, and cited me for doing 50 mph in a 25 mph zone.  First, I was not going that fast, nor anywhere near it.  Second, there was no way they could have gotten a Doppler reading from that angle.

I took it to court and won.

But it got me pretty fired up.  I drive safely, and have never had a ticket or an accident.  I'm actually now in the market for a good counter-measure system for my new Mazda  

[Elfie]

I'm actually now in the market for a good counter-measure system for my new Mazda  Smiley

From what I've read, Valentine One detector, Veil for the lights and a good Laser jammer such as Blinder for the rest.

[Holden McGroin]

You might find it hard to believe, but it's a cold, hard fact.

You are right about Austin taking 1/2 the money in a scam. How did they do it? Republican legislature.

2/May/2007The Texas state House of Representatives today approved legislation banning speed cameras. State Representative Vicki Truitt (R-Southlake) introduced the measure to combat the cities of Marble Falls and Rhome which have begun using automated speed traps without the legislature's authorization.

hummm.