WTB: Valentine One radar detector

[dshealey]

When you get it Joe, a tip: cover the Laser detector windows with black electrical tape.

After all the time it was on my LT, and now in my 525, it never once did me any good detecting Laser, the ONE time it did actually detect police laser I was in a residential area and not speeding anyway, if I had been it would have been to late. Basically the laser detection only tells you to pull over for your ticket anyway. :D

However, it WILL detect every GM SUV high mounted brake light in front of you, and scare you half to death. I finally taped over the front laser window to prevent that.

[Rocket_Cowboy]

When you get it Joe, a tip: cover the Laser detector windows with black electrical tape.

You know what ... you CAN reprogram the V1 yourself to disable laser detection. :) The V1 in my car is set to detect everything, but on the bike I have laser and X-band disabled.

[messenger13]

You know what ... you CAN reprogram the V1 yourself to disable laser detection. :) The V1 in my car is set to detect everything, but on the bike I have laser and X-band disabled.Please expound! :)
Why do you have laser AND X-band disabled on the bike only...and not in the car?

[cfell]

Gee.. are these useful? mayb I should be 3rd?

[Florian]

When you get it Joe, a tip: cover the Laser detector windows with black electrical tape.

After all the time it was on my LT, and now in my 525, it never once did me any good detecting Laser, the ONE time it did actually detect police laser I was in a residential area and not speeding anyway, if I had been it would have been to late. Basically the laser detection only tells you to pull over for your ticket anyway. :D

However, it WILL detect every GM SUV high mounted brake light in front of you, and scare you half to death. I finally taped over the front laser window to prevent that.


Joe,

With respect to Dave....do NOT cover your lidar windows with tape. Here in OH, as you know, every Statie is issued a Lidar detector. I have driven 500K plus miles in OH and have NEVER once been issued a speeding ticket due to lidar with the V1. It is the absolute best detector for your $$'s. I have been "clocked" by lidar countless times and picked up stray laser, never a ticket.


Later,


F

[messenger13]

Joe,

With respect to Dave....do NOT cover your lidar windows with tape. Here in OH, as you know, every Statie is issued a Lidar detector. I have driven 500K plus miles in OH and have NEVER once been issued a speeding ticket due to lidar with the V1. It is the absolute best detector for your $$'s. I have been "clocked" by lidar countless times and picked up stray laser, never a ticket.Thanks for the tip Dave.

[Rocket_Cowboy]

Please expound! :)
Why do you have laser AND X-band disabled on the bike only...and not in the car?

With where the V1 was located on my previous bike (haven't done the wiring on the RT yet), the only laser it ever picked up was those stupid false alarms from GM brake lights. I could see an officer using laser, and the V1 would hardly ever pick it up, so I turned it off just to stop the false alerts. The windshield bracket blocks the head-on laser hit, so only the brake lights would make it around the bracket and cause it to trigger.

For X-band ... there's just too many false-positives around here, as just about every store front has an X-band based automatic door. I also have the V1 on the bike installed in a hoon hardware radar detector box in order to water proof it. Since I can't get to the mute switch ... I just eliminated the false-positives. There are some rural areas out in Texas that still use X-band, so I give up the possibility of a valid hit out of town ... but this configuration has worked well for me the past 4 years or so.

For reprogramming your V1, check out http://www.valentine1.com/lab/MikesLabRpt3.asp for details.

[messenger13]

Thanks for the reply...and, thanks for the link. Awesome!

[BlackBMW]

Rocket, you seem to have alot of knowledge of the V1. I have owned my V1 for about 3 years. It has saved my ass more than a few times. I keep hearing about available upgrades. POP protection and others. I understand that you can send in the unit back to Valentine1 to get these upgrades. True?

Do you have any information about what benefits/additional protection you get from upgrading?

[deputy5211]

The real reason you have never been issued a speeding ticket is because you are a law-abiding citizen who stays within the limits, right? C'mon, the detector was just so you knew where the police were, for safety purposes.

Joe,

With respect to Dave....do NOT cover your lidar windows with tape. Here in OH, as you know, every Statie is issued a Lidar detector. I have driven 500K plus miles in OH and have NEVER once been issued a speeding ticket due to lidar with the V1. It is the absolute best detector for your $$'s. I have been "clocked" by lidar countless times and picked up stray laser, never a ticket.


Later,


F

[messenger13]

The real reason you have never been issued a speeding ticket is because you are a law-abiding citizen who stays within the limits, right? C'mon, the detector was just so you knew where the police were, for safety purposes.Does anyone else smell bacon!?!?! :eek: Quick! Send out that V1!!! :cool:

[deputy5211]

Just toss out a donut as a decoy . . .

[dshealey]

You know what ... you CAN reprogram the V1 yourself to disable laser detection. :) The V1 in my car is set to detect everything, but on the bike I have laser and X-band disabled.

I did not know that. Checked out the link posted, and I will now disable the Laser detection while here in CA. I will re-activate it for any long trips possibly.

As I said though, in probably 70,000 miles of use, it has never done me any good whatsoever against laser. Radar? Yes, several times. :D

I was getting a couple hits a day commuting because of those darned GM brake lights though. Hate that. especially when in stop and go traffic behind one, and the detector goes spastic every time they hit the brakes.

[Rocket_Cowboy]

Rocket, you seem to have alot of knowledge of the V1. I have owned my V1 for about 3 years. It has saved my ass more than a few times. I keep hearing about available upgrades. POP protection and others. I understand that you can send in the unit back to Valentine1 to get these upgrades. True?

Do you have any information about what benefits/additional protection you get from upgrading?

If your unit is 3 years old, it's probably the larger form factor like the one I just had upgraded. So yes, Valentine does have an upgrade program ... but there is a cost. The cost will depend on what you're upgrading from, so it's usually not very cost effective to upgrade for every little software release ... but to add new features like POP, it was worth it to me.

With the upgrade I just did, they completely replaced me larger form factor unit with one of the new slim units. It added POP support, improved laser detection, adds Ku and European detection support (no really an issue for me, but might be for others), and added another false alert detection where it will "cancel out" an alert that it had previously issued, that it later determines to be a false. That last feature is part of the POP upgrade ... in order to alert to POP mode, it has to trigger an alert before the entire signature can be determined. If it starts to alert, then later decides the signature is a false, it will audibly and visually retract the previous alert. Kind of cool.

I've been happy with the upgrade. The new unit is the one I keep in the car. I have an older "slim" model that I need to upgrade for POP support that I use on the bike.

[meese]

If you go to http://www.valentine1.com/upgrades/ and type in your serial number, it will tell you what upgrades are available for your unit. Then you can decide if it's worth the cost.

[meese]

Raffy - can we move this thread to the Radar Detector sub-forum? The Classifieds content is done, but there is lots of other useful discussion that would be worth keeping.

[Florian]

The real reason you have never been issued a speeding ticket is because you are a law-abiding citizen who stays within the limits, right? C'mon, the detector was just so you knew where the police were, for safety purposes.

Tony,

The V1 is good at sniffing out the Lidar...better yet are your eyes. I havent been issued a ticket due to the fact that the V1 told me there was an issue ahead, so I slow down....like a good law abiding citizen.


F

[meese]

I just figure a radar detector is another piece of useful information about the upcoming road conditions, like a GPS or weather radio. How you interpret that information and what you do about it is up to you.

[deputy5211]

I was just joshin' with you.

I have absolutely no problem with radar (or lidar) detectors. I'd rather you know that there's something up ahead and slow down way in advance than slam on your brakes and create a potential safety hazard when you see a police unit.

Tony,

The V1 is good at sniffing out the Lidar...better yet are your eyes. I havent been issued a ticket due to the fact that the V1 told me there was an issue ahead, so I slow down....like a good law abiding citizen.


F

[messenger13]

Yea, I know WHAT! :( Work, work, work! That's all I ever get myself into. :( What a freakin' MORON! :(

OK, let's see...

Make a fresh pot of java.
Open box and touch everything. Looks good.
Skim through the manual.
First cup gone, pour another cup.
The lease on my first pot of coffee ran out. Head to 'the office', grab manual, read it again.
Go out to garage and ponder where the perfect place is to mount it. Thank God I have the BMA shelf already. But do I want it on the left side of the GPS, or the right?! :confused:
Pour another cup-o-joe
Read the manual again.
Surf the links on all the little tips and tricks to my toy.
Search bmwlt.com for what the experts have to say.
Pour another cup.
Go out to the garage and steer at the GT again, remembering how smart I was to have a fuse block installed up front. Oh yea! Who's da man?! :D
Grin as I remember how easy it is to undress the GT compared to the LT. (A little fire scarecrow?) :D
Come back inside and surf some more. Maybe it'll install itself.
Pour the last cup and slam it!
Realize that it's not going to install itself. Might be time to crack open a Guinness, head out to the garage and just 'get er done'.
OK . . . here goes nuttin'!

Thanks again Hal, for the great deal and quick shipping. :)

[zippy_gg]

All I got out of this was... blah blah... Java... blah blah... coffee...blah blah.. Guinness.

I don't think you really ever had any intentions of ever mounting that thing on the bike, but what a great excuse to indulge in hot dark liquids or cold dark liquids...:rolleyes: :rotf:

Yea, I know WHAT! :( Work, work, work! That's all I ever get myself into. :( What a freakin' MORON! :(

OK, let's see...

Make a fresh pot of java.
Open box and touch everything. Looks good.
Skim through the manual.
First cup gone, pour another cup.
The lease on my first pot of coffee ran out. Head to 'the office', grab manual, read it again.
Go out to garage and ponder where the perfect place is to mount it. Thank God I have the BMA shelf already. But do I want it on the left side of the GPS, or the right?! :confused:
Pour another cup-o-joe
Read the manual again.
Surf the links on all the little tips and tricks to my toy.
Search bmwlt.com for what the experts have to say.
Pour another cup.
Go out to the garage and steer at the GT again, remembering how smart I was to have a fuse block installed up front. Oh yea! Who's da man?! :D
Grin as I remember how easy it is to undress the GT compared to the LT. (A little fire scarecrow?) :D
Come back inside and surf some more. Maybe it'll install itself.
Pour the last cup and slam it!
Realize that it's not going to install itself. Might be time to crack open a Guinness, head out to the garage and just 'get er done'.
OK . . . here goes nuttin'!

Thanks again Hal, for the great deal and quick shipping. :)