Does anyone know how Escort's cordless S2 radar detector stacks up against the 8500. The only thing i've been able to find is that they're both badass. The cordless would be nice but if too much performance is sacrificed it's prolly not worth it.

 

i would never buy a cordless for the simple fact they have to be turned on and off each time you drive the car or leave them running all the time and have to replace the batteries.
just get the 8500 and call it a day. with all the extra features you will be glad you did

 

Most the reviews said that the Escort S2 is pretty much the cordless version of the 8500...in other words, the difference between the two is negliable.

However, all did say that the S2 is hard to see in bright sunlight due to its display..backlit vs. the red lighting on the 8500.
For that reason, I chose the 8500...it was cheaper too.

 

thanks for the comments

 

Anyone hardwire their 8500's yet? Because I'm getting tired of the cord going down the dash.

 

I hard wired my Passport 8500 a couple of months ago. It fits perfectly above the rearview. Anyhow, the wire running from the mirror up to the overhead console is wrapped with a foam type electrical tape. If you pull the tape back, you'll find three wires inside. The one that I tapped into that is switched is black with a yellow stripe. The other two, black with white, and black with silver are unneccesary if you use a screw for your ground as I did. The wire chase that the mirror's cable runs up is a great place to run your power wire. There's plenty of room in there for another wire.

 

Any chance you took a few pictures while doing the Passport 8500 hard wire install?

 

Yeah, any pics?

 

The S2 has an auto power off feature so it will not drain your battries as quick as you think it might. The unit will power itself off after something like 60 minutes (maybe longer, check with Escort for exact timing) of no alerts. Before it powers down it will warn you (in case your still driving and it's really been 60 minutes since you last encountered radar).

 

I made the same hardwire install, only with Valentine 1, strange thing is, when I shift in reverse, Valentine 1 turns itself off, then when I shift into forward gears its back on, the mirror however has power while car is in reverse (green indicator light stays on).

 

Odessa,

Good to see you - it's been a while. In case you forgot me, you helped me wayyyyy back last year when I was thinking about buying my TSX and I finally got it from Niello Acura.

Anyway, I think it is turning itself off, because somewhere in our car is the ability to have a reverse camera (they have this in Japan) - so maybe you tapped into the power wire that has to do with the reverse camera? Think about tapping into another power source up near the mirror, if possible.

What do you think?

 

!! I want the reverse camera!

 

My pleasure, hope you are enjoying your ride.
As for unit turning itself off, I think that it has to do with the third wire also supplying power to the mirror, but camera would be nice, they have them available for Pilots and MDXs. As for other power source, you can tap into overhead lights connectors. I am just to lazy to change my set up, plus I try to keep under speed limit in reverse, so radar detector can stay off.

 

http://www.valentineone.com/cordless/

Read this..

DONT buy a cordless detector.

 

Good product marketing by Valentine. I don't buy it for a second though.

 

Please explain to me how it's possible to get the same performance out of two AA batteries at 3v running at maybe 800mah that you would get running off a constant 12v running at up to maybe 2000mah?

Read here about plenty of real life problems with the cordless escort sucking ass.

http://www.viperalley.com/showflat.p.../Number/302718

 

And radartest.com mike valentine's arch enemy agrees with him on this point.

"Q. Are cordless detectors less sensitive than corded models?


A. Yes. To prolong battery life all cordless models have a duty cycle and shut down for a certain number of milliseconds each second. X- and K-band sensitivity decline marginally but Ka-band takes a nosedive. That’s because the latter’s huge bandwidth—over 50 times wider than X band—requires the detector to rapidly scan its entire 2.6 GHz-wide spectrum looking for signals. The duty cycle slows this process dramatically and takes a major bite out of sensitivity.
"

http://www.radartest.com/article.asp?articleid=9000

 

I'm getting ready to hard ware mine, what does this mean? 1 less wire tap would be great.

if it helps, the helms manual says that the rear view mirror dimming turns off in reverse (makes sense)