Radar detector users, when did you decide to get a new one?
 

I have the Escort 8500/X50 blue display and it's been fabulous for the last five years or so. I kept wanting a newer model, but could never justify it because this one still works great and saves my ass regularly. Recently it has starting giving a lot more falses, though when it's a real bogey, it gives a TON of warning, sometimes too much. Sometimes I end up thinking it's a false because it takes so long for the cop to show.

I rode the bike back from Vegas today and got a ton of falses in the middle of the desert, where I could see ahead for miles, there was nothing to hide behind anywhere and it was pretty frustrating. At one point on I-40 near Kingman, I had a steady K-band chirp for almost 10 miles that sometimes went to a Ka-band chirp, making me think the cop was behind me a mile or so back. I think it was the Mercedes in front of me, perhaps his LED tail lights. Once I got the nerve up to pass him, the chirps ceased. I take Ka-band pretty seriously and got a ton of hits in the middle of nowhere today where there were no cops at all.

Does this mean my RD is on the way out? It got rained on a little on the way out to Vegas Sunday. But from prior experience in a torrential downpour, it's either too wet to work or it works fine. Escort fixed it for me after that soaking. Is it time for a new one?

I bought my Valentine 1 a little over 3 years ago and it's paid for itself many times over...

I got rid of my trusty Cobra from 2000 when it finally died earlier this year.

I bought a new one when my old one was stolen...

So has anyone had one wear out or just get tired? And if so, what were the symptoms?

After 5 years I'd buy a new one. Why chance it? I'm sure your current one has paid for itself.

The Mercedes LED light issue is interesting.
There is a company selling parking sensors that apparently jam Police Laser guns.
I'm not sure how good they are but who knows???

Locally radar detectors are illegal and our cops have "Radar detector detectors"...
...Big boxy looking things suction caped to the windscreen of the cop car.
But there is a company in Perth WA selling ones that the cops can't "see"... The only problem is they are over $1,000 AU.

me too.
old valentine replaced with new valentine.
alerted me eleven times yesterday between new hampshire and new york.
beautiful day for speed traps and rollers.

I got the blue display one because they're illegal in VA, where I lived at the time and blue was very hard to see outside of my car. Where they're illegal is also where they're most effective because the cops get lazy, run them always on and use antiquated equipment. The detector detectors are also easily defeatable with a Bel RD, I forget the model number. For a while I had a cordless Escort Solo S2 and it was great too. But I was able to run the 8500 just as stealthily once I had it hardwired. Anyway, it's moot now, since they're legal here.

It never misses a real threat. It just gives a lot of falses now. I have a nagging suspicion that I may have messed up the settings with my glove, while trying to adjust it on my bike at speed. I had my gloves on and recall hearing a bunch of funny chirps when I was adjusting it on its mount. So I need to sort that out before deciding to drop another $400 or so on a new one. This thing really has been great and I just don't want to give up on it or spend the money on a new one.

I got rid of mine after the third power chord broke and the fourth one broke the radar detector.

i too received "hits" in the middle of BFE. nothing around. I-8,I-10,I-40 etc.


my theory.............and i actually sent mine back to escort and even switched them (i have 2) and still escort stated they werked perfect. my 1st thought was their lil electronic guts inside had been baked until well done by the insane summer heat.


wasnt it.


my theory. we are BEING PAINTED by the MILITARYS radar!



and to prove this fact both of mine go ape-poopers when by marine corps air station yuma, gila bend gunnery range davis monthan and luke a.f.b..



or it may be UAV's emitting radar beams.



all i know it scares the POO out of me. but then WTF do i know?

There must be a procedure... Can you reset it to factory defaults?

OddJob, do you still have your factory manual? I can't find mine and can't find it online either. I want to try a reprogram before giving up.

Rick here is your cell phone? Mine will set my S2 off if it is close

yes let me look around for it. or just send it back prepaid to escort. will e-mail ya when i find it.

My phones are always in my jacket, tank bag or door pocket. Nothing has changed there, but a lot more falses today.

now that you mention it way the hell past yuma on the way to dago on I-8, no one around, but a cell tower and mine was going ape poo poo.



lazar(laser) sends me right to the moon when it goes off and on the way back, right outside gila bend was a azdps shooting lazer(lay-zar beams) and got me. doing 80 in the 65. let me go cuz i was such a fine upstanding law abiding individual and gave him my AZCCW! they LIKE ME! real cool guy. we talked for about 15minutes about spoons and all sorts of nonsense.

Oddjob, those falses are probably the aliens stalking you. If you wake up with a sore butt you will know for sure!:D

Bought my V1 after getting nailed for 75 in a 45 on my motorcycle a few years ago (yeah, yeah I know - shaddap). It's been a great investment and as they say, "never leave home without it!"

Disable the X band. There's no point in having it. I don't think there's a single PD left in America that uses X band. That gets rid of 90% of the falses.

Read a R detector test years ago and they rated all the top models and what won out was a radio beacon detector, triggers when it picks up a radio beacon signal, since cops can't turn off their radio's it always worked everytime. when the other R detectors missed the cop the Beacon detector picked them up. apperently they were illegal. don't know about now though, anybody here about these?

"radio beacon detector"

I've heard about this but I haven't seen a commercially available device.

Imagine having one linked into your GPS screen so you can see were the bugger is. (James Bond style) ;)

Last month my 8500 went into self calibration mode when I was using it in the 911. It never finished the self calibration and then lit up with "service required." I turned it on and off and it kept doing the same thing. I didn't feel like paying $70 or so to get an 8 year old model fixed so I bought the Escort Redline. Then I read that voltage fluctuations can cause a self calibration. I tried the old 8500 in another car and it works fine. Guess I now have a spare.

My dad has had an Escort for 5-10 years...His has been showing these symptoms as well, lots of falses and the occasional Ka chirp chirp chirp that won't go away. Granted, in your case, the Mercedes seems like a reasonable cause.

My dad deals with it because, like you said, if there really is a cop it still works fine and it is obvious to see/hear that it isn't a false. Both he and I think it is just on its way out...though we have no proof of this.

My advice would be, If Escort will take a look for a small fee, send it in to see if they can find anything wrong. Otherwise, just save that money and get a new one sometime soon.

I get the self-calibration mode a lot, but it never finishes, so I unplug and restart it, which always seems to work.

I wish Escort had some kind of compare option on their site. I don't know what the difference is between the Redline and the 9500i and it's not obvious from their descriptions on their site. They have an $80 credit for a trade-in on a new one. But I can probably find anything they have somewhere else for $100 less and then eBay off my old one.

Buy a V1 and be done with it.... I love mine. Saved my ass 90 in a 70 lastnight fer sure....

That's not compelling at all. My Escort has saved my ass regluarly for years and takes plenty of abuse being on my motorcycle, exposed to the elements. I'm not switching brands because my vehicles are already hardwired for Escort and I'm very happy with its peformance. Besides, V1's wear out too and the repairs ain't free.

I need a new one. My Uniden GPS-RD is about done. It needs a new cable between the GPS and the main unit, but Uniden through out all support parts...

I expect I'll end up with one of these:

Passport 9500ix

Go to amazon.com and read the reviews on all the Escorts there. That is what I did to find out what all the differences are. The big difference is the 9500i has the gps to eliminate the false alarms around town and the Redline does not have the gps, but does have much longer range sensitivity, which is what I wanted. The really interesting thing is that about 3 days after doing my amazon search, they sent me a code to get $100 off any Escort. I posted about it on here and I know at least one other person was able to use the code.

I still have the owners manual for my 8500 if you need any info out of it.

Escort will take any RD in on a trade, if you can't get more than $80 for it somewhere else.

Sounds like the Redline is more what I need, since I do a lot of long desert hwy. runs. If I can eBay off my 8500 for $150 or so and find a Redline for $100 less than Escort gets for them, that will be very affordable. When my first 8500 got soaked in a monsoon on my bike on the OH Turnpike, Escort replaced it for $80. So mine is probably worth $150 to someone and besides, it still works pretty darn well.

My friend has an 8500 that is showing similar symptoms. Lots of false alarms - mainly laser, which are really annoying.
No idea how it could have gotten messed up. It didn't get wet, maybe baking in the hot Seattle sun? :rolleyes:
FWIW, we did a side by side test with my valentine a while back, and my valentine warned us a little sooner. The number of false alarms were fairly close.

Escort also makes an add on unit, SC55, for the Redline which gives it all the 9500ix capabilities.

And the 9500ix& the SC55 have the ability to download a database of country wide redlight cameras, speed traps, etc.

I just checked, and with the send in your old radar unit, it ends up being slightly cheaper to buy direct. Hmmm. I have my old second GPS-RD unit....

Still $432 after rebate for the new one.

I gave up on my RD... too many false alarms... as long as I keep it below 80 on the interstates I don't get bothered.

YMMV

bought my V-1 in '01....sent it in for the POP update...still working fine.

1st and foremost..............how old are you gh85 carrera? do you have any clue what is emitted from military aircraft as far as RADAR?


do you have any clue as to whats emitted from microwave relay towers?????????


do you realize how many years i have owned escorts and hauled azz without a ticket?


do you realize how many trips i have made to calif/baja along I-10 or I-8 or I-17 or I-40?


do you realize i have personally entered all of these military installations in the southwest and do have an idea of what is going on?


do you also realize that I-8 parallels the UNION PACIFIC main southern railroad line and I-40 parallels the BNSF mainline with all of their radio freaks(frequencys) and their repeater towers.


do you realize that i have had this happen to me NUMEROUS times and NUMEROUS mileposts and went so far as to send back BOTH escorts to the mfg. asking them WTF was going on.


now since "the rickster" was coming back from vegas along a known military airspace from luke/davis monthan and nellis a.f.b. and gila bend gunnery range and MAS-Y(marine corp air station yumma(yuma), this would stand to reason his false signals.


aside from the fact the vast majority of military UAV and u.s. border patrol UAV's are based out of ft huachucha and davis monthan a.f.b. and also nellis a.f.b. FOR THE PLANET!



and for one second if you dont think this is plausible, then look up what the hell a F-4 WILD WEASEL is all about and its radar emitting/jamming capabilities and that would give you a vietnam era glimpse at the old technology let alone what the hell new crap they have.


so as a student of stealth high speed driving and the outstanding SPOTLESS motor vehicle record and the INSANE CHEAP $414 bucks a year premium for FULL COVERAGE on my p-car, from liberty mutual insurance, i think i kind of have a good grip on things re: der autobahn.


now another interesting observation. the only thing that changes on the highways, is the officers times as to where he lays in wait. people and cops are CREATURES OF HABIT! and if ya see a cop laying in wait at one place you can bet he will be there again on your return trip unless responding to an accident. where the cop lays in wait is because YOU the driver have limited vision to see him. and if speeding excessively, theres not a damn thing you can do. ie. ME leaving gila bend towards phx a month ago and getting nailed by lazer beam death rays .


so the key is to speeding is just like off road dirty bike racing, you have to KNOW the AREA before ya HAUL AZZ or risk getting thrown into the pokey and having gh85 carerra as a CELL MATE!

If you did a side-by-side test with two RD's in the same car together, you got bad results. They interfere with each other. I get about one laser false per month and just ignore them. The one time it was real, another biker had warned me and I slowed down before the cop painted me.

Actually, I've been getting a lot of Ka-band falses on Carefree Hwy. recently. It's particularly annoying when I'm in the middle of passing someone and have to lift off the gas when I get the chirp and then lose my opp. to complete the pass. Of course, when it's one of Sheriff Joe's goons really hiding and running Ka-band, it always picks them up. But the falses are getting to be a real PITA.

yes and if you notice the cell repeater towers along the way, that could be another angle on this as i too have gotten false signals.


now with the new cop shop on cave creek road for all of the north valley,they are running undercover mobiles also. the shurfs are running undercovers also, crown vics jeeps etc. and who the hell knows what they run deep deep undercover.


so carefree hwy is a BAD JU JU zone or zona de peligro for getting nailed.


why i say this about I-8 is because i have gone thru at all hours of day and night weekdays and weekends. on weekends i have never gotten a false signal. and why this is, is because the military isnt training on weekends at gila bend gunnery range. basically flights start coming in at O-dark thirty on mondays and then end on friday afternoon.

p.s. my biggest worry is LASER BEAM DEATH RAYS, i pick up all K Ka and X wayyyy before those morons can nab me.


if i upgrade it will have ANTI LAZER-LAZERS with it and ultra-sonic turbo soundwaves that make them have uncontrollable volcanic diarrhea!