jpalamaro
Mar 2nd, 2007, 7:41 pm
Laser jamming, while it may be illegal in a few states, as of now it is not in all states. As I indicated some time ago I acquired the Blinder M20 X-Treme. Per many reviews it may be considered the best. I am in the final throes of dressing lots of wiring, but thought that I might pass along my findings as there will be nothing new about this installation until I get Laser’d or convince some local LEO to let me test it. For safety sake of course!
Some of you asked for pictures of the installation but unlike some who are excellent at pictures, step-by-step, there’s so little of which to take pictures that I did not do it.
The Blinder jammer has a shortcoming in that it has no audio output that can be fed to a communication system. It does have an audible Sonalert, which is quite loud and an LED that changes color when a laser is detected and the unit is in a jamming mode. Not being satisfied that I would hear the 95 decibel alert or see the LED change color I lamented how I could get audio into my Nolan helmet which is set up for the Autocom Super Pro AVI. For those that have the unit, I use Etymotic ER6i earbuds in lieu of the helmet speakers/earphones.
Bob Wilson, known as RFW, is an engineer that resides in Vancouver, BC to the rescue. He designed, engineered, and built a ‘black box’ (quite small) that takes advantage of one of the lesser known features of the Blinder (more on that later). The ‘black box’ enables you to plug an audio output e.g. iPod, XM radio, into the ‘black box’ and the ‘black box’ plugs into the communication unit where the original audio device was plugged. When there’s no jamming occurring, the audio from the audio device e.g. iPod/XM passes through the ‘black box’ as if it wasn’t there. When jamming occurs 12VDC activates a solid state relay, cutting off the audio from the audio device e.g. iPod/XM, and the ‘black box’ emits a warble two-tone (akin to the Euro emergency/polizei vehicles) into the communication system. The Blinder is now in the jamming mode and one would be wise to throw out the anchor and drop to legal speed limit. Once at legal speed, the Blinder would be turned off via the switch on the gas side handlebar so that the Laser operator can get a normal 'read' on you. The ‘black box’ is powered from the Blinder. 12VDC is picked up from the Blinder and power is applied to the ‘black box’ via a simple switching circuit Blinder added. That is, when jamming, the ground side of the 12VDC circuit is completed and the ‘black box’ cuts off the audio device and emits the warble tone. Now, I know a lot more is happening than what I have said. Things like ground-loop feedback problems (I think that’s what Bob talked about) were designed into the product. The entire unit, about 1.5 inches square and a bit thicker than ½ inch, encapsulated in this neat urethane composite that is quite attractive. We were worried that Homeland Security would see this black box, with no labels and wonder! No problems there. Also, to show the degree of thought, a clean/neat hole is in the urethane to get to the volume control/potentiometer in the event the audio warble to communication unit not proper. BTW, Bob is probably writhing should be be reading this, calmly asserting it was really 'nothing', but I saw the printed circuit board before encapsulation (curing done in his wife's convection oven btw) and it was populated with quite a number of electronic devices, resistors, diodes (I think), some bigger stuff that I could not recognize, capacitors, etc.)
Installation as I have said is quite straightforward. Anyone who has had the Tupperware off and has fiddled with a communication system will have no problems. DOES IT WORK. Blinder give you the opportunity to test it with an IR device e.g. TV remote. It works slick . . . the real test will be in the field. Any questions, I will do my best to answer them.
Special credit and thanks to Bob Wilson, RFW, of Vancouver, BC.
Some of you asked for pictures of the installation but unlike some who are excellent at pictures, step-by-step, there’s so little of which to take pictures that I did not do it.
The Blinder jammer has a shortcoming in that it has no audio output that can be fed to a communication system. It does have an audible Sonalert, which is quite loud and an LED that changes color when a laser is detected and the unit is in a jamming mode. Not being satisfied that I would hear the 95 decibel alert or see the LED change color I lamented how I could get audio into my Nolan helmet which is set up for the Autocom Super Pro AVI. For those that have the unit, I use Etymotic ER6i earbuds in lieu of the helmet speakers/earphones.
Bob Wilson, known as RFW, is an engineer that resides in Vancouver, BC to the rescue. He designed, engineered, and built a ‘black box’ (quite small) that takes advantage of one of the lesser known features of the Blinder (more on that later). The ‘black box’ enables you to plug an audio output e.g. iPod, XM radio, into the ‘black box’ and the ‘black box’ plugs into the communication unit where the original audio device was plugged. When there’s no jamming occurring, the audio from the audio device e.g. iPod/XM passes through the ‘black box’ as if it wasn’t there. When jamming occurs 12VDC activates a solid state relay, cutting off the audio from the audio device e.g. iPod/XM, and the ‘black box’ emits a warble two-tone (akin to the Euro emergency/polizei vehicles) into the communication system. The Blinder is now in the jamming mode and one would be wise to throw out the anchor and drop to legal speed limit. Once at legal speed, the Blinder would be turned off via the switch on the gas side handlebar so that the Laser operator can get a normal 'read' on you. The ‘black box’ is powered from the Blinder. 12VDC is picked up from the Blinder and power is applied to the ‘black box’ via a simple switching circuit Blinder added. That is, when jamming, the ground side of the 12VDC circuit is completed and the ‘black box’ cuts off the audio device and emits the warble tone. Now, I know a lot more is happening than what I have said. Things like ground-loop feedback problems (I think that’s what Bob talked about) were designed into the product. The entire unit, about 1.5 inches square and a bit thicker than ½ inch, encapsulated in this neat urethane composite that is quite attractive. We were worried that Homeland Security would see this black box, with no labels and wonder! No problems there. Also, to show the degree of thought, a clean/neat hole is in the urethane to get to the volume control/potentiometer in the event the audio warble to communication unit not proper. BTW, Bob is probably writhing should be be reading this, calmly asserting it was really 'nothing', but I saw the printed circuit board before encapsulation (curing done in his wife's convection oven btw) and it was populated with quite a number of electronic devices, resistors, diodes (I think), some bigger stuff that I could not recognize, capacitors, etc.)
Installation as I have said is quite straightforward. Anyone who has had the Tupperware off and has fiddled with a communication system will have no problems. DOES IT WORK. Blinder give you the opportunity to test it with an IR device e.g. TV remote. It works slick . . . the real test will be in the field. Any questions, I will do my best to answer them.
Special credit and thanks to Bob Wilson, RFW, of Vancouver, BC.