To find out if your expensive radar detector (or cheap paperweight Cobra ones) are actually working when it comes to laser detection, try this.

Power on your detector.

Move your detector right at the CD insert slot below the NAV screen. (The nav screen must be on)

You should get a laser alert.


The NAV screen illumination tube must operate on the same frequency as the police laser.

If someone posted this a while back, sorry.

 

I have a Passport X50 and my detector in my '06 does this. I've been debating whether or not my X50 is defective. At least I'm not alone.

 

i have valentine 1 hardware connected to the car.
purchased it in Jan.2007 so it should have the latest version, which means it should work the laser detection (according to Valentine 1 website)

 

nah i got a passport 8500 & my 06 does it also.

 

My valentine does this when I point in at my navi brain under the passenger seat. (I have aftermarket navigation)

 

does anyone know which radar i should get if i want to mount it behind the grill. my car is always parked on the street so i dont want anyone to break into my car.

 

I think its the k40 or something
but man you have a radar hide it or take it with you when you park...

 

same here. lol. i thought my radar detector was defective also. It usually started beeping like a old style rotary phone ringer as I were placing it on the dash. Now I know why it does that. Thanks

 

Does anyone else get a lot of laser alerts around airports? I've had two X50's and they both did it...weird.

 

My laser alert goes crazy whenever i point my sony cybershot at it.
Edit: I have the V1 as well.

 

My laser detector is completely useless, it false positives far more than the radar and for whatever reason they made it's audible alert far more obnoxious than the radar alert. You can disable it by opening it up and covering over the light detector with a piece of opaque tape, I just haven't gotten to it yet.

 

The laser alert is obnoxious because of the urgency of a laser hit. It pretty much means that YOU have been targeted, and are being clocked, and that you have almost zero time to react to the alert. In the case of you getting stray light from another car being clocked, its meant to warn you that you could be next, and very, very soon.

What detector do you have? Some have diagnostic modes that let you adjust or turn off the different bands.

 

It's a cheapo Whistler. I guess I can apreciate the need to make LIDAR detection loud but due to the false positive rate it might as well not go off at all.

Side gripe: the lady who does the voice alerts sounds like a phone sex worker.

 

Now I'm intrigued. Is the LIDAR alert a female spoken voice? What/how does she say that it is so obnoxious?

 

No there's a few different modes, rediculous beeping or a female voice saying "laser" in a skanky drawn out tone.

 

Hmmm, what happens if you point it at your crotch?

 

I also disabled LASER on my X50. It goes off all the time around airports (in fact, at LAX, it STAYS flashing and beeping alerts constantly, it never lets off - when driving down Lincoln Blvd).

In all my years of driving with a detector (a LOT) I've only encountered ONE legit LASER alert, in Oklahoma on I-40.

*Knock on wood* ... hope I don't run into another!

 

V1 for the win!!!

 

huh?

I borrowed my Friend's V1, and my impressions were.

V1 Win: More sensitive than X50, has directional arrows.
V1 Lose: Very sensitive, and therefore obnoxious as hell with false alerts. Picks up door openers a mile away.

Escort Win: Quieter than V1, so easier to distinguish which alerts are real, esp when you drive on the same road every day. (It does show multiple alerts.)
Escort Lose: Less Sensitive than V1.

The only situation where I would favor V1 is if I lived in the middle of Arizona with open highway with nothing around. In the suburbs, I'd rather have the X50.

 

Things that set off my V1's LIDAR detector:
Red Neon
Break lights on Chevy Trailblazers
The Infiniti that looks like a sneaker
The big boxy Infiniti
Stamford, CT cops lighting me up shortly before pulling me over