Valentine One Obsolete?

[MANIACura]

I have had my eye out for deals on the V1 but haven't had any luck. I don't think they're available at a discount. I have seen used ones (Ebay) but I would rather purchase an item such as this brand new. You never know if it was left on the dash, under the windshield in the summer and what temperature it's reached.

Radar Expert - Thank you for the information. Great Stuff.

After reading Scorp's and DocL's description of the laser and LIDAR threats I am thinking that maybe the best set-up may be a combo that includes a removal unit (V1, GX65, 9500) and a laser shifter (Shifter ZR4, Blinder). Most of the tests of the portable units say they don't give enough warning to escape laser.

Radar Expert - Can you tell us a little about the Shifter ZR4 and the 9500ci? The 9500ci looks like the ultimate set-up because this GPS technology seems like the wave of the future. No more false alarms? I'm in. In town, I actually get numb to my supermarket detector going off and have had some very close calls.

I have a V1 and I like it a lot.

I live in South Tahoe and travel to Sacramento a fair amount (2 hours away)
as well as to Socal twice a year.

I have been saved at least five times in the last two years... getting a warning and then slowing down and changing to a middle lane. The most memorable was when a big ford truck was on my tail.... I got the radar warning, did my thing, and then a couple minutes later the truck was pulled off to the side by CHP.

I did get tagged just south of Walker.... I was speeding along minding my own business with no traffic.... coming over the crest of a small hill.... and BAM the detector goes crazy and I see a CHP just sitting on the side of the road - He had me. I didnt even have time to respond.... so I just pulled over and waited. I was respectful and he was nice enough to reduce the ticket to 65 ( I was 85 in a 55).

No detector would have helped in this situation. I am now cautious coming over hills.

I do get a lot of false alarms going through town... I just turn it off... who speeds through town anyways?!

Are there better? maybe I really dont know... But I do like the V1 and I do like the arrows.

This is exactly the kind of info I was after. Real world experience. Nice post.

 

[Malibu Rapper]

I have the RX75 plus which I custom installed on my NSX. It's a good detector but I don't credit it to getting me out of any ticket. I'm not out there racing like a speed demon most of the time. Several times in my NSX and other cars, I've been tagged with radar while speeding but the cop just never pulled me over because I wasn't speeding enough or was just going the speed of traffic. The laser blocking is a nice to have just in case. I do know there are better laser blocking products out there as well. The next generation of the RX75 is that Escort 9500ci which looks like a really nice unit. While I love the look of the custom installed units, it would be nice to have a portable unit sometimes to move from car to car. In any case, I haven't gotten a speeding ticket in years and I owe that more to my driving 'sense' more than anything. I drive over 30,000 miles a year....

I do like my RX75. If I had to buy another detector right now it would be the 9500ix as the GPS features are very nice. I hate false alarms because they are noisy and annoying and being able to mark off bogeys is very nice.

 

[Osiris_x11]

V1, FTW... for most applications!

Any known discounts on them, or are they retailed only by V1?

Hey, my friend! Hope all is well w/ you & the new motoring/track extrodinaire`, namely the wifey!

www.valentine1.com is the recommended & perhaps best site to acquire a brand-new V1 radar-detector.

For $399 (online & phone ordering), you'll get the newest hardware/software combo, all the inclusive-accessories (adapters/cords, mounts, hardwire-kit, etc'), and a limited-warranty.

For $349 (phone ordering only), you can get a near brand-new unit (also w/ all the aforementioned inclusive-accessories & limited-warranty). These units are the ones that Valentine One gets back within the "free 30-day trial & money-back guarantee" that they offer.

The listings on ebay will not give you the limited-warranty (1 year non-transferable coverage for original owner). Also, the ebay listings are generally targeting Int'l buyers & those who reside abroad (as Valentine One doesn't offer their wares outside the U.S., as well not ship Internationally). This is why these advertised brand-new/near-new V1 units are listed at well above the MSRP of $400, as buyers outside the U.S. have no alternative. When the MS Live.com cash-back promo' for ebay/Paypal was at a higher number (~30%), the V1 units offered on ebay indeed were more attractive at that price-point despite the lack of warranty. . .

(I'm placing an order, as we speak... I had two V1 units which are somewhat dated by their current offerings/updates)


I was a VERY satisfied life-long Bel customer, until a some years ago when I acquired some V1 units ( v1.7 & added a v1.8 non-POP later). I've been 100% satisfied w/ my V1 units. Though, I am admittedly intrigued/interested by the laser-jamming/blocking offerings that were aforementioned. I'll have to look into this further (even see if this is a worthwhile endeavor for my area, as I'm not sure to the extent of the usage of laser by the local/regional 'fuzz). . .

 

[ss_md]

Any type of detector is better than nothing, even with false-positives. Radar detectors are a tool, use them as such but do not rely on them as an absolute. As Batmans commented, cops can still give tickets from their "eyeball speed detectors" or through pacing.

Whenever I get an alert, unless I know for sure it is a F-P, i.e. shopping center(s), I slow down. Even with K and X band.

Drivers in California beware!! The CHP uses Lidar and Ka band. The tag team units Scorp mentioned are gaining momentum. Even if you are traveling with the flow of traffic you can be "singled out" and get a ticket. All CHP units are equipped with and use Ka (forward and aft).

IMO - The V1s arrows are big a benefit.

 

[RaDaRkInG]

Nothing beats the Valentine One in radar and laser detection in the under $500 radar detector category.

http://guysoflidar.com/august-2007/radar-detector-test.html

http://guysoflidar.com/july-2007/off-axis-radar-detector-test.html

http://www.laserveil.com/laser-detector-performance/

http://www.laserveil.com/laser-detectors/tests-reviews-comparisons/charts-by-radar-detector/

http://www.laserveil.com/laser-detectors/tests-reviews-comparisons/charts-by-police-laser-gun/

http://www.laserveil.com/laser-detectors/tests-reviews-comparisons/tables-by-radar-detector/

http://www.laserveil.com/laser-detectors/tests-reviews-comparisons/tables-by-police-laser-gun/

 

[RaDaRkInG]

Couldn't find anything recent on the latest wave of portable radar detectors so I decided to ask for opinions here. I'm more interested in a detector that I can move between vehicles. Please keep responses to your personal experience and try to keep emotions out of this. I will personally hunt down and kill the first person to tell me to use search.:wink:

I was getting ready to purchase a Valentine One. The V1 usually receives rave reviews and the arrows seems like a great advantage since knowing where the police are is a pretty huge part of the game. I have had a BEL850STi for years and it has kept me ticket free but with the recent influx of photo radar (especially here in Arizona) it may be time to upgrade. My main complaint with the BEL is false alerts. I have read some threads where people claim that they are not false alerts if there is a legitimat signal such as an automatic door opener or an intrusion alarm but I disagree. I didn't buy a detector to inform me of the location of door openers, I bought it to protect me from police radar. If there is an alert and there is no police radar, IT IS A FALSE ALERT. There is nothing more annoying than reacting to false alerts all day long (except actually getting a ticket).

Just for the heck of it I decided to read some reviews on the internet. Found a site that had some useful reviews but they really hammered the V1 for false alarms and it didn't provide any better protection. Here is a link of the test between the V1 and the Passport 9500ix. It has some pretty eye opening results as far as false alerts.

http://radartest.com/article_2.asp?articleid=100578

I am really interested in a few specific radar detectors especially the ones with GPS which allow you to mark the locations of photo radar traps even if they are not transmitting. The 9500ix even allows you to download databases with the locations of all known photo radar from the internet.

Does anyone have experience with the following detectors:
1 - Valentine One
2 - Escort Passport 9500i or 9500ix
3 - Beltronics Pro GX65

Do you really think the Escorts and Beltronics can match the V1 in perfromance? It's hard to know which websites are really unbiased and not receiving any incentive to steer you toward a certain product.

One last question - If you want to mount the detector up on the visor behind the roof line can a GPS detector still lock on to the satellites or do they have to be out in the open on the dash?

Radartest.com is run by a guy named Craig Peterson who works for Bel and Escort so he bashes the V1 every chance he gets and promotes Bel and Escort products. He got busted trying to sabotage the Guysoflidar.com 2007 radar detector test and he had to part with a couple thousand dollars on top of the $1000 radar gun that he hid under camouflage on top of a mountain to throw off the testing.

http://www.guysoflidar.com/march-2007/sabotage.html


Let me explain to you how the TrueLock GPS feature works so you will understand why you got a ticket with your Escort 9500i and why it was so quiet when the cop pulled you over. The Escort 9500i only breaks down K band into 8 segments so if you "Truelock" a K band door opener, it will not alert to police that are shooting in that segment of K band in that area.

The problem is that if you drive by an area with with more than just one door opener, you could end up locking out the entire K band frequency. Remember, every different segment you lock out blocks 12.5% of the K band used by police in that area. So, if you have 4 different door openers operating in different segments of K band which is highly likely, you will block 50% of the cops using K band in that area. Also, the TrueLock area is about a 1/2 mile radius from the TrueLock source so that is an area of a mile from side to side where this flawed "filtering" takes place.

Another issue is that door openers are cheap and are more prone to frequency drift which means that it may move to another segment of K band which would make the Escort 9500i user TrueLock another segment which would increase your chances of silence and another speeding ticket. Owners of the Escort 9500i think that the TrueLock is some magical thing but they just don't understand how it works so they will never understand its flawed nature.

The TrueLock feature was already tested and it failed as seen in these videos. The first video shows a "TrueLocked" area that is blocking actual police K band radar being shot right next to it.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Dxy7gGG-JlI

http://youtube.com/watch?v=bZnmUd8ysRc


http://www.escortradar.com/pdf/9500i_Manual.pdf

 

[RaDaRkInG]

The best laser jammer you can get is the Laser Interceptor.

http://guysoflidar.com/july-2008/laser-jammer-test.html

http://guysoflidar.com/march-2007/laser-jammer-test.html

Laser Interceptor website:

http://www.laser-interceptorusa.com/

 

[RaDaRkInG]

When it goes off its a cop, or someone with a jamer. Yup, thats right, some jamer's give off laser and radar but the v1 is quick to show the J symbol so I know it was a false alarm.

I think you are confused about what the "J" that is displayed on the V1 means. The "J" that is displayed sometimes only has to do with radar not laser.

Mike Valentine, the inventor of the Valentine One, goes by the name of "W8MM" and he talks about what the "J" means over at the Porsche forum.

http://www.6speedonline.com/forums/996-turbo-gt2/21599-v1-question-what-j.html

From your Instruction Manual Addendum sheet:

"A New Warning

V1 has a new feature. When the signal identification system determines that a current warning is not, in fact, a radar threat, it notifies you with a "dee-dah-doo" sound and terminates the warning. At the same time, the letter "J" will flash briefly in the Bogey Counter."


"J" stands for "J"unk signal.

OK, why did we add this new feature? Because it was the best way to give beyond-line-of-sight warning capability for POP-radar signals while not burdening the user with an excess of unresolved alerts (false alarms).

POP signals are short bursts of radar that last only some tens of milliseconds. They are made short in an effort to escape the notice of radar detectors. Simply speeding up the search process of a detector allows high probability-of-intercept for the POP transmissions but introduces another nasty problem -- microwave interference generated by radar detectors in other vehicles causing false alarms.

There are many hundreds of thousands of certain model BEL, Cobra, Radio Shack, and Uniden detectors that manage to transmit radar-like signals that mimic POP bursts to an infuriating degree. They litter the airwaves with interference bursts on the same, exact frequency as, and similar duration to, a real POP-radar signal. Without some way of fending off these "J"unk signals, a detector would constantly nag its user with false alarms from these poorly designed "poluters" in other cars.

The common method of reducing the number of false POP alarms used by our competition is to reduce the sensitivity to POP signals (and their Junk kin) while leaving longer-lasting (over half a second) signals unmolested. This method requires reducing POP-radar range to line-of-sight-only distances in order to give enough relief from detector-generated false alarms to be worthwhile. I wasn't satisfied with only line-of-sight range for POP radar reception, so we pushed for a better solution.

I did nearly 10,000 miles of development driving, dodging speed traps and logging false alarm situations, while our engineers reorganised and optimised the false alarm rejection methods we finally chose. After lengthy deliberations, we realized that it was almost impossible to prevent every POP-like false alarm without taking too large a hit in POP-radar over-the-hill range. I decided that letting in a few POP-junk false alarms initially that were later announced to be "J"unk was less of a problem than not finding out about a POP radar until too late. I hope you'll agree.

 

[Hugh]

Can you in all honesty say that another detector would have given you all of that information regardless if was needed or not?

Yes. My 9500 would have warned me and shown me the multiple targets about a mile or two before the V1. It also would have told me their badge numbers and searched the doughnut database enabling me to swing into the local DD and get the officers their favorite snacks.

So there!

The main reason I refuse to buy a V1 is that I know that everytime I get into my car and see it, my mind will immediately picture this...which is simply unacceptable.

 

[alum04org]

The main reason I refuse to buy a V1 is that I know that everytime I get into my car and see it, my mind will immediately picture this...which is simply unacceptable.

[/QUOTE]


That's funny! Anyway, just placed an order for the V1.

 

[PhiAlpha44]

Off topic comment - Since you've made some contacts in law enforcement, you should get one of your buddies to arrest that deadbeat poser that stole your wheels.

He was nice enough to finally contact me and tell me I can drive the 3 hours north if I want to pick up my wheels. His reasoning... because he came to me to pick them up the first time. Lol.
I guess I'd be cooler if I'd drive the parts he wants to him.

 

[Radar Expert]

The previously mentioned "design flaw" with the Escort Passport GPS-enabled detectors is not an official representation from Escort of all of the processes involved in a GPS lockout. With the enormous amount of GPS-enabled Passports sold to date, there would be a firestorm of negative reviews if this "design flaw" was true. Escort finally solved the false alarm problem, the number one complaint of radar detectors, expect FUD from their competitors.

Escort, Beltronics, and Valentine all offer 30 day money back guaranteed trial periods. Try each and see which you like better.

OP: You asked about the 9500ci. As Car And Driver recently said, it is the Bugatti Veyron of detectors. It includes the GPS features of the windshield mounted 9500ix (auto-lockout of falses, updateable camera and red light database) with the ultimate in sensitivity and the total stealth technology of the Beltronics STi and STi-R along with software updateable laser shifters, all integrated into one system. The blue LED display unit and control units are separate so that you can mount them in different locations very discreetly (eg the display unit in your instrument panel and the control unit on your center console).

 

[RaDaRkInG]

The previously mentioned "design flaw" with the Escort Passport GPS-enabled detectors is not an official representation from Escort of all of the processes involved in a GPS lockout. With the enormous amount of GPS-enabled Passports sold to date, there would be a firestorm of negative reviews if this "design flaw" was true. Escort finally solved the false alarm problem, the number one complaint of radar detectors, expect FUD from their competitors.

Escort, Beltronics, and Valentine all offer 30 day money back guaranteed trial periods. Try each and see which you like better.

OP: You asked about the 9500ci. As Car And Driver recently said, it is the Bugatti Veyron of detectors. It includes the GPS features of the windshield mounted 9500ix (auto-lockout of falses, updateable camera and red light database) with the ultimate in sensitivity and the total stealth technology of the Beltronics STi and STi-R along with software updateable laser shifters, all integrated into one system. The blue LED display unit and control units are separate so that you can mount them in different locations very discreetly (eg the display unit in your instrument panel and the control unit on your center console).

Don't try and sugarcoat the fact that the TrueLock feature could block out actual police radar without anybody hearing a beep or anything. The videos don't lie and many people have already reported driving by police officers and their 9500i didn't alert to police radar because they had TrueLocked an area because of the annoying falses. You also call the Escort 9500ci the "Bugatti Veyron" of detectors. Funny, I don't remember there being a part on the Veyron that is as useless as the ZR4 laser jammer that is attached to the overpriced Escort 9500ci. The Veyron is the cream of the crop while the ZR4 is the cream of the crap. Maybe you like dropping a couple of thousand dollars on something that doesn't work but I don't.

http://guysoflidar.com/july-2008/laser-jammer-test.html

 

[Radar Expert]

RadarKing - I thought that I was clear before. I personally didn't compare the Passport 9500ci to the Bugatti Veyron, Car And Driver did in their December 2008 issue, and I quote: "Overall, the 9500ci is a bit like the Bugatti Veyron: darn expensive, but if you've got the money to spend, you won't be disappointed."

The same article also says that "Staffers who were saved by the laser-shifting countermeasures swear by it."

As for the GPS Truelock capability, do you really think that a premier radar detector manufacturer would release not just one but several high-end radar detectors with Truelock that would actively block police radar and expect to stay in business long? I can tell you from personal experience that Truelock works brilliantly as advertised.

 

[DocL]

Wow. We now have an "expert" and "king" fighting it out on our forum. I think I'm going to get my old "Fuzzbuster" out of the crawl space. :biggrin:

 

[BATMANs]

Wow. We now have an "expert" and "king" fighting it out on our forum. I think I'm going to get my old "Fuzzbuster" out of the crawl space. :biggrin:

When are the following going to show up?:

Radar Vader
Radar Master
Radar Meister
Radar Emperor
Radar jester
Radar clown

And of course

Radar BATMAN

 

[slurpee]

I was in police work for a few years and it showed me that radar detectors are pretty much useless. It's only going to warn you if the guy is sitting on the side with the radar constantly on. And almost nobody does that. They point and pull the trigger. So by the time your radar detector goes off, you've already been hit. Almost nobody sits there with just a constant "on" stream of radar. At this point I think your best bet is to get a laser jammer or just drive the speed limit. I haven't been able to do either yet.

I have to disagree if you drive on a road with at least one car per 1/2 mile. Up here in Canadaland, the police typically do one of two things: 1. sit on the side of the road with a laser gun. 2. drive the roads and temporarily turn on the radar when they see a car oncoming(aka instant on). For 2, the police will pull the trigger on the car in front of you FIRST(Assuming there is one car per half mile). This is when your radar detector goes off and you slow down. Once the police pass the car in front of you, they then hit you with radar. This is why good speeders know that a good eye at identifying oncoming vehicles is a valuable tool when there are no vehicles in front of you(knowledgeable police will actually travel behind a semi to prevent this). There are many aspects to 'guessing' when there are police ahead such as watching for traffic ahead of you braking. Radar detectors have saved me many times(usually in traffic), but they have also failed me because I was already hit by the instant on (usually at some God awful time such as 3am when there was no traffic). Considering a speeding ticket is about $250 not to mention insurance premium increases, it is cheap insurance if it works just once. Ironically I have been driving without a radar detector in recent years. I rely on my eyes and I selectively speed using the above techniques....or use my favorite method ... wait for a race leader (although I have been pulled over with the race leader as well). that reminds me of a humorous story,...I was following this van full of kids (looked like a scout group or something) doing about 20k over the limit. After about an hour I see the kid put up a sign in the back window. It read 'Your turn to lead'. ...I had to oblige!

 

[RON98]

if the cop does not sit there with their radar on, the detector is useless.

i got clipped going down a hill. cop was coming up opposite way. 11:30 at night. He flipped his radar on. there is NOTHING you can do and no radar detector will save you.