maybe you 8500 and even v1 users can tell me what to do

i finally decided to hide the detector beside the rearview mirror instead of in the middle of the windshield. so i get some telephone wire, the extension, and plugged the smart cord into one end and the telphnoe wire to the other end, going to the 8500. well the detector works fine but the smart cord doesn't work, meaning i cannot mute it from there and there are not lights on it. looks like the telephone wire or the extension jack did something. what's going on here? do i HAVE to buy a direct wire kit for this?

Note: don't mean to *spark* another 8500 vs. V1

 

I've never looked at the RJ11 end of the cord? Did the RJ11 end of the stock cord have the same amount of contacts as a phone? Probably not. Phone is 4 wire and the 8500 probably has more. It could be the only thing the 8500 has in common with the phone connection is power. Just a guess.

 

I just replaced the cord on my V1, and when I called Customer Service, I was told that the cord used is nothing more than a wall-to-phone cord. Now, how this helps you with the 8500 issue, I don't know, other than maybe the 8500 does use a standard cord??? It may be worth calling Escort and seeing what they say???

 

Just hold both ends of the original cord and look to see how many wires they use, and most importantly how they go from one end to the other. I'm assuming they are straight through, but they could be reversed.

 

When I went to lunch I looked at the RJ11 end of the stock cord. It is 4 wire just like a phone. Black, red, yellow, and green. Now I'm puzzled as to why it didn't work. Looks like you'll have to call ESCORT.

 

Bill - a lot of phone cords are only two wire, as that's all you need for a single phone line. So his phone cord is probably just a two wire...

 

That's true, but phones haven't been two wire for about 15 years now. However, I can see if Radio Shack and the like are still selling the old stuff how someone might mistakenly buy 2 wire instead of 4.

 

At first glance, after reading the message I was like 'How the heck did he do that?? Well now I see.

Escort does make a hardwire kit (with the smart cord) so they might have done something funny to the wire or something (but I doubt it). Now I believe the problem may lie someplace else, how long of an extension did you get??

I think if you bought one too long, then resistance might be a problem, and the signal from the unit is not going back properly to the smart cord unit. I would try a couple of different things; 1) try a shorter length of extension cable, or 2) Try to find an extension cord without the big block where the receiving end comes into (this could be the source where the resistance drops the most.

Also if none of those work try getting a caigarette adapter extension and using that instead of the phone extension.

If all else fails buy the hardwire kit from Passport

 

yep this is it. thanks a lot guys. i looked at the extension block and it had 4 contacts on each end. but the phone cable i used only has 2 contacts -i digged out this cord from an old box that i had received with a computer modem!! time to change phone cables. (i didn't think they made those anymore)