as for differences the auto mute after it detects that the radar is not traffic radar is a lot better. I rarely have to push the button to mute things now. It is a bit smaller and lighter. It also has laser and POP. POP IIRC is undetectable by conventional detectors, but also inaccurate, and any ticket with POP could probably be defeated in court as the user manual for POP radars says that results should not be used in court. Go to www.valentineone.com for the complete story. My "upgrade" was $249, but basically I sent in my old detector and they sent me a new one. Mike doesn't recommend that you upgrade soley for radar. You can go to the V1 site and put in your serial # and they will let you know if you need upgrade.

 

I read that bit on the webpage, but a) I'm curious if it'll actually hold up in court, and b) I can't really do that here in VA, because the only way I can say I know it was pop would be to tell the judge "because my radar detector..." and detectors are illegal

 

I had the same problem w/ laser going off constantly. HARD WIRE IT. That fixed my problem. It should have come with an adapter to wire it directly to car w/o using the cig adapter. Once it was hard wired I never had the same problem again.

 

You must have a real old V-1, eh? The ones from at least the past 2 years come w/ a cig adapter and a hardwiring kit, that's basically a phone line lol (It could be even earlier than 2 years...I just know because that's when I bought mine)

 

We both can Ramy! I would ask the Police Officer what type of radar he was using and then bring in the damning information from the manuafcturer. We would know it was POP from our detectors before we ever went to court. I need to send mine in I guess for the upgrade.
I love my V-1, it sings so much down here I don't need a radio!

 

I understand that...but I guess I should explain. The cop is liable to lie. I've seen them flat out lie many a time in court...to the point that it took me great restraint not to yell out "you #(*$&@#$ lying bastard" But whether he's lying or just forgets and assumes it was regular on mode, I can't really enter my radar detector's readings as evidence lol. The (****) Fairfax County judges would def. ask "what makes you so sure it was pop-mode?" or "how would you know?" since I'm challenging the officer's statement. At that point, I'm in between a rock and a hard place....UNLESS there's some law that says I can't be punished/fined etc for admitting to using a radar detector illegally since I'm not on trial for it?

Yea, I know what you mean. Driving back on 66 at night, there's a freakin symphony going on in my car haha

 

The police officer has to bring in the calibration, mode etc for the radar with him to court. Good chance you will catch him off guard with your questions.
I know I have had my share of liars in court through the years. The very first ticket I ever recieved the cop lied. I learned real quick...After that I would always beat them in court and I had my act together. Now that I am a bit older (well kind of) I don't speed much. I hadn't recieved a ticket in 12 years and got nailed about three years ago coming back from DC. (Henrico County/ie ****-land). Thus the V-1.

 

Possibly...but here's where it gets shady Chris. All POP is instant-on, but not all instant-on is POP. Most instant-on radar is admissible in court, but POP is not. To my understanding, cops are supposed to use a two-step process. First, gauge speed with instant-on, then switch to continuous to track. If he lies and says he switched to continuous mode to track your speed, and that's what the ticket is based on, case closed. If he slips up and says he only used instant on, and didn't follow it up w/ continuous, that's not admissible in court, because that's POP: instant on, followed by instant off. But again, with lack of proof, I think the cops can claim it was continuous radar. After all, a radar gun doesn't hold it's reading like a laser gun does (sidenote guys: if you ever get hit by laser, ASK TO SEE THE READING. Laser guns record the last reading, and it's your legal right to request to see it. It can't hurt!)

 

I know it's roll of the dice here in the "commonwealth"...lol

 

I've got a V1, well 2 actually, and I was wondering if anyone else using one gets a laser alert when under full throttle in the FD. First time it happened, luckily I wasn't going too fast, but it does scare the daylights out of you. It doesn't happen in my Integra. And when I called Valentine, they said some of our cars are prone to cause the laser to false b/c the electrical system voltage drops below 12. Hardwiring sounds like a pain, although it may be the only solution. Is it easy to do?

 

Yea....apparently that means "it's common for us to take your wealth" How else can you explain a 94.5 million dollar expansion for the General District Court (mostly traffic cases)? I mean, DAMN, you could solve world hunger w/ money like that...maybe buy a country or two w/ the leftover change...

 

I have mine hardwired. Real easy. Find a 12 volt source fuse in the drivers kick panel that is only on when the ignition is turned on. Run the wire up the side pillar (pull the pillar off) and under the front lip of the roof lining. I then unscrewed the visor and ran the plug out and screwed the visor back down. I had to cut a small slice for the wire. You also have to ground the negative wire. I used a screw in the body near the fuse panel. I always take my V1 out when I am not in the car or I have to leave the car. Takes two seconds.

 

I was arguing with two legislators a month back, both Republicans about a proposed bill that would let DMV fine you on top of regular fines. I cornered them and told them it was bad legislation and all they were doing was revenue hunting. The clowns agreed! They said they needed to raise money to fund more projects. I really dislike this place and it is getting worse.

 

Thanks for the install tips, Mr TT. No wonder local car stereo shops wanted 50 clams to do it. Sounds like almost as much of a pain as changing the air filter, but maybe I'll give her a try when the weather warms up.

 

Umm...I used a power source in the same place, and ran it up the A-pillar and under the front lip of the headliner, but that's about it. I didn't have to cut or unscrew anything... mine's mounted right above the rear view mirror tho.

I'm not in the least bit surprised. It's painfully obvious. This new thing where you pay court costs whether you go to court or not (eg when prepaying a citation) is exactly that kind of CRAP

 

Here's my update, in response to how the POP feature works. I can't exactly say how it works in comparison to before, since I think w/o the POP feature, you pretty much got nothing, or at least didn't recognize it. Now it's REAL clear.

Just real quick background info tho...at least where I am, false alarms are simply beeps on the V-1: "beep." Any time I get radar, it's a chirp: "brpp" or somethin like that. It's a very distinctly different sound...so whenever I hear the chirp, I know it's not playing around, and slow down.

I was drivin back up from Charlotte NC to DC last night, and I got quite a few POP warnings, from OVER a mile away. I was driving, and all of a sudden, I got a faint chirp (one dot only). Then it would go away. Then like 30 sec later, I'd get the chirp, but stronger, and it would immediately go away. Then a few seconds later an even stronger chirp (more dots), then it would immediately go away. The arrow always pointed forward. Like 2 or 3 miles later, the V-1 went ballistic, as I saw a cop car on the side, who was obviously using POP intermittently. So hey, it DEFINITELY works. Tihs happened once or twice more along the way.

The other time was REAL dirty. I was comin off the 85N interchange onto 95N, and I saw an Impala dipping in front of me. I was like aiight straight...I found someone to speed with. So I started speeding up to catch up to him, when all of a sudden the V-1 chirpped like crazy. So of course, I slowed down, thinking there's a cop somewhere, and I'll let the Impala take the fall, not me But I couldn't find a cop ANYWHERE... So I sped up again to catch up to the Impala that didn't slow down....then all of a sudden, the V-1 went crazy again. So I slowed down again, and the Impala pressed on. This happened 3 or 4 times till I figured out what was going on (hey, it was 2 am, and I was struggling to stay awake lol...). The Impala was a copcar, who was flying down the highway, using POP radar WHILE DRIVING, as it came up behind cars. And surely enough, like 15 miles down, it slowed and turned off onto the shoulder, then into one of those cop trap spots on the left.

 

Speeding without a good radar detector is like sleeping with hookers without a condom.

 

I did the Pop upgrade about 2 months ago. I have a 2+ year old V1.

I switched to full logic mode about a month ago, I was too sick of all the bogus X alerts in the city, where I do most my driving. No problems yet. In the manual it also says that irregardless of what the logic thinks the signal is, if it is a strong/very strong signal, you will still get it. I hardwired the unit with the "phone line", underneath the roof cover and just leave the plug dangling about 3 inches down above the rear view mirror. No false/power surge alerts.

On a side note, my Escort Shifter Z3 Laser Jammer has saved me at least 3 times.

 

Who wants to sell thier old V! to me?

 

Sounds good. Keep us updated plz. My setup's the exact same, minus that I still run it on A mode, cuz I'm paranoid about the super troopers we have around here lol. I'm slowly workin my courage to try half and full logic mode.

Really? Could you please elaborate? Cuz what I read was those jammers don't do jack...but if they do, guess what's next on my list? I'll tell you though that the V-1 def. works for catching laser. The downside is, that's basically letting you know you just got hit LOL (unless it was someone ahead of you).

 

I wouldnt drive my car without a V1. I love this thing. Best detector on the market, IMO.

 

the Z3 shifter.
Originally, for about a couple months, I 2 or 3 warnings, brief ones, but never saw the cop. Laser has only slowly been coming into use around Houston.

About 3 months ago, I was coming back from some friends at night (about 11:00 or so). Very light traffic on 4 lane highway (US 59 from Sugarland -> Houston). I was doing 80. Rounding a bend, I saw this white car in the left median, parked. 200+ yards away. Next think I know the Z3 goes off and I hit the brakes. As I get closer I saw the cop standing on the driverside, pointing something. I turned the jammer off and drove past him. I was not pursued.

The instructions with the Z3 say slow down when it goes off, then shut it off to stop the jamming.

Anyways, I don't know if the Valentine went off, it probably did but I have the z3 at a max volume and it has multiple tones, so I wouldn't necessarily have noticed it.

Another occasion I wasn't speeding, I was in light traffic, doing about 30. The Z3 went off. I was like WTF??? I looked up the road and saw 3 cops standing next to the road, one of the pointing a laser gun. I waved when I was about 50 feet away and one of them started laughing and waved back. I was tempted to pull over and ask them what they saw but I didn't.

Radar Jammers don't do jack, that is correct. There is a review of the Escort Z3 and the Blinder system at RadarBusters.com. Don't get confused because they talk about passive jammers not working. These systems are active systems. There are 2 emitters in the nose intake (off to the sides) and one in the tail (above the rear plate). They detect and reflect back at the laser gun to give it screwy readings.

Laser guns are designed to reflect off a couple common areas.
1) Front Plate
2) Headlights
or from behind at the Read Plate.

With an RX-7, no plates, you have one of the best vehicles. Curvey, no chrome and concealed headlights. I have no plate so that helps. I would never get a headlight kit for these reasons, and the fact that I think most of them suck.

By Federal standards, Laser Jammers are legal, because Light isn't regulated
But, some stated have outlawed Laser Jammers: MN, UT, OK, CA, NB, VA.

 

Hmm...that's good stuff!! I was always weary of radar jammers, because that's a federal offense = jailtime. But if there are no federal laws against laser jammers, booyah... guess what's on my list?! Any reason you went w/ the Z3 vs. the Shifter? And would you recomend the Z3? Any probs, complaints, etc? You obviously say it works, so that's the positive hehe

 

The Z3 is the shifter.

The two choices back then (last summer) were Z3 shifter, or Blinder. I was able to find the Z3 shifter locally, so I went with that.

I occasionally get a false alert, but they are very brief. That false has been in the exact same area, so maybe there is something there that is causing it.

 

Yea I meant Z3 vs. Blinder. So otherwise, you like it a lot, huh? Looks like this is yet another thing on my list... How/where does it mount exactly?