interesting.
i live in cali. Anyone know where i can get one installed.

 

hmm should i spend 400$ on the Lidatek or on a Valentine One?

 

Depends on what the preponderance of speed detection equipment is in your area. (wow that's a mouthful).

But consider this, when you get "painted" by laser, you have been HAD! You have NO chance to slow down or avoid being clocked. Radar, you have a chance.

 

Most people recommend you get both

 

Has something to do with the safety of the lasers shining into people's eyes That's why lasers are regulated by the FDA.

Yeah. I was just saying that the cheaper jammers use a lower power LED versus a laser diode. Similar to how an computer network optical transeiver has a range of a few hundred meters when using an LED, but a range of a few miles when using a laser. At least that's what our LAN admin said back when I worked in the IT department in college.

110% correct.

 

Do your research, the V1 is outdated and overpriced. Go for the Escort Passport 8500, cheaper and is better than the V1

 

What are you talking about? How is it outdated? You can get firmware updates for the V1. And when your hardware is too old, they have a trade-in program. The only aspect of the 8500 that was tested better than the V1 was laser detection. But they both still suck for that, hence the Lidatek discussion. As far as usability, the V1 is far better than the 8500, mostly because of the directional arrows and bogey counter. And if I remember correctly, the 8500 only has a single anntenae wheras the V1 has two antennaes. Therefore the 8500's rearward protection is compromised, as it relies on reflection, etc.

 

Go look at any of the "radar test sites", the Bel or the 8500 come in first now. They all comment on how old and outdated the V1 is.

come on RadarKing, do your flaming stuff!

 

Owned

 

They're illegal in EVERY state, under FCC regulations.

Oh, and she was "tapping" it? bad readings some up all the time, and they just move on to the next car....

 

Only RADAR jammers, Laser jamming is not covered by the FCC.

 

BS Which sites are you talking about? (Certainly not, "all", as stated in the previous post ) I just looked at a bunch, and many still claim the V1 and 8500 are in a dead heat, with the nod going to the V1 because of it's superior rearward protection, and directional arrows.

The sites I saw that said the V1 was old and outdated, said it was referring to the case design, not the performance.

 

Well you asked for it:

From Radar Roy:

The Valentine does have the advantage of having dual antennas, allowing its directional arrows identify the direction that the radar is coming from. However, Radar Roy and other reviewers have all agreed, that the filtering on the Valentine 1 is inferior. So much so that in the November 2004 issue of Autoweek magazine's review, they called the Valentine 1 the "Chicken Little of radar detectors".

From Laserveil.com

Bottom line - all three of these radar detectors are truly stellar performers and we have yet to encounter a real speed trap that any of these detectors weren’t up to the task of providing the maximum level of protection that a detector is capable of providing today.

Beltronics RX65 Pro, Rev 3.6

Ergonomically, it was superior. Most importantly, though, it was consistently quick at alerting to approaching ALL radar threats encountered.

Escort 8500 X50 (Red), Rev 5

Overall, the Escort 8500 X50 (Red) was the easiest with which to get along. It was the most quiet in terms falsing, provided exceptional sensitivity to both K and Ka radar, and ease of programming and/or setting changes while driving.
*UPDATE: 19 NOV 05 We have lived with a later model of the 8500 X50 for several months now and have found that its X-band performance appears to be more in-line now with the RX-65. Furthermore the detector appears to be quite a bit more sensitive to Laser than its cousin the RX65. Based-upon our updated experiences, we would tend to favor the 8500 X50 [over the RX65] if laser was our primary concern. *More on this subject in the near future.

Valentine One, v1.8 /w POP2

The Valentine, as expected, was quick at alerting to ALL radar/laser traps encountered and may provide ultimate performance [particularly with laser], but our venerable V1’s stellar performance was somewhat diminished by a greater propensity* to “falsing” on K band and required the most involvement of the driver to properly interpret its alerts. We would prefer it to be quieter [even at the risk of some advanced warning time to a real trap] because, after awhile, we found ourselves ignoring its K-alert anyway which can be just, if not more so, as risky.

*UPDATE: 19 NOV 05 This issue has now been resolved with an updated version (v3.25) and the detector now is now one of the quieter ones! In addition, the newer Valentines have a "J" [for Junk] feature which will automatically identify some Ka-falses as bogus LO leakage and auto-mute them out - a very nice touch, indeed. We will address the additional capabilities and features of our updated model when we release a follow-on to our report.

We still love the arrows, that immediately identify the location of a “threat” and have been accustomed to them for well over a decade! But, we did not specifically encounter a speed trap, during this test, where they would have made a substantive difference - which is not to say that there aren’t specific conditions, where they may have. And - as evidenced on our driving route of day six - they may occasionally be misleading, requiring proper interpretation from its owner.

Additionally, the Valentine was somewhat ergonomically challenged as compared to the other detectors from Bel and Escort.


Taking everything into consideration- if we had only to pick one radar detector to take with us on our trip, it would be the Beltronics RX65 Pro

From Radar Test.com

The Valentine One is a highly sensitive radar detector--good enough that we declared it the winner if our 2000 Automobile Magazine shootout--but it's no longer top dog. The world has changed since it was designed in 1991. The Apple IIsi also was hot stuff that year but Apple was smart enough to regularly replace it with smaller, faster, user-friendly models packed with advanced features.

Valentine and their V1 seem locked in a time warp. Even the owner manual reflects 1980's thinking, replete with wildly outdated statements such as "X-ban [is] most common for moving and stationary [radar]." Huh? 47 of the 50 state highway patrols abandoned it years ago and the remaining three are dumping theirs as quickly as they wear out.

With an increasingly wide gap in the V1's level of sophistication compared to modern designs--not to mention a minimalist feature set, quirky ergonomics, and exceptionally chatty nature and stiff price tag--the competition has clearly passed it by. Small wonder that Valentin's market share continues to shrink, down to an estimated 0.6 percent and falling. Time for a new model, guys.


So, lets review, the Valentine 1 Sucks, Sucks, Sucks.

 

Dude, why don't you read the rest of that test. In the actual "performance" tests, the V1 beat or met the other detectors. And even in your own pasted reference, after they updated the firmware on the V1, it stopped falsing, and was one of the quieter detectors.

And the main purpose of the dual antennae is to not give you the directional arrows, it's to give you better rear-ward protection, because it doesn't have to rely on the signals reflecting off your windshield.

So they don't see the use when driving on the freeway? Doesn't mean it's useless... Try driving doing some city driving. There are tons of traps around here where the cops hide near radar-signs, etc. The arrows are quite handy. And I don't know what they mean by mis-leading. It's not like it points in the wrong direction. At least mine never does.

This is irrelevant as far as performance is concerned.

This doesn't say the v1 "sucks, sucks, sucks"

They talk as if the v1 hasn't changed. Even the other reviewer knew you could send in an older unit to get upgraded. Most of these sites still showed the V1 as being the benchmark, and the other sites usually said something like the gap closing, but never said they have surpassed the V1.

I would also question the credibility of the source, if they are talking about an Apple IIsi, as there is no such computer. Apple II series came in II, II+, IIc, IIe, IIgs... But no IIsi.

Just because the documentation is outdated, doesn't mean the equipment is. I can show you lots of documentation, including car owners manuals, that have outdated information in them.

Really? Minimalist? The V1 has all the features as all the other detectors. Quirky ergonomics? That irrelevant. Chatty nature? Didn't the reviewer say that after the firmware update that it was one of the quieter ones? And for that matter, the reviewer said the new firmware came with a "junk" filter. If he is just now realizing that, his firmware is actually VERY old.

Actually, you still failed to prove the V1 "sucks, sucks, sucks"

 

Say what you will, NOT ONE site picked the V1 as the detector they would use.