Valentine V1 or any other radar detector?

Nitro187

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Looking for a radar detector that will work in Ontario Canada, without those radar detector 'detectors' that they have, such as "instant on"'s and so on.

Any tidbits?

Thanks.
 

CitySnake

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Not sure what you're asking. Are you concerned with instant on radar (for which there is no cure) or are you concerned about "detector 'detectors'" because detectors are illegal in Ontario?
 

SmokinViperGTS

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Well, things are getting a good deal more complicated than that around here these days. The local communities in this area have put up about 300 photo cameras in the past 2 years - red light and speeding mostly. Also, the local mounties have almost completely switched over to laser from radar. The old X band radar is gone completely, and even K, Ka bands are on their way out.

While the Valentine is still tops in X, K, Ka, POP radar, the Passport 9500ci (not to be confused with 9500i) is very close in those areas, and head and shoulders superior on laser and photo radar.

The way the environment has changed here in the past 2 years, there is no contest anymore. Mike hasn't kept up with the changing threat.
 

TAILWAG

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V1 all the way...even if the new Passport is getting closer, the arrows make a world of a difference. :drive::drive:
 

plumcrazy

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no pics of it but its suction cupped up above my rear view mirror on the passenger side. ran a wire from the fuze box under he dash, up the pillar and under the headliner to it. you cant see the V1 even standing next to the car. its the perfect spot for it.
 

TAILWAG

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no pics of it but its suction cupped up above my rear view mirror on the passenger side. ran a wire from the fuze box under he dash, up the pillar and under the headliner to it. you cant see the V1 even standing next to the car. its the perfect spot for it.
very same spot that I have mine. I have mine powered by the wire on the rearview mirror - the only problem is that it is constant power and the thing won't shut off until I manually turn it off. I need to rewire it so that it stays ON all the time as to not forget to turn it on when I leave the house.

I did once and as I was driving a saw a cop shooting radar...I look up as I did not get any warning and it was off...gulp! :omg:
 

vpower01

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no pics of it but its suction cupped up above my rear view mirror on the passenger side. ran a wire from the fuze box under he dash, up the pillar and under the headliner to it. you cant see the V1 even standing next to the car. its the perfect spot for it.

Nice im going to move mine to that spot. :headbang:

I have the GX65 because i thought the built in GPS to cancel out false alarms would appealed to me.
They have a red light camera data base in it
and they send you emails if your state gets new camera location and
you can update your detector anytime online. It does laser, pop radar and the rest. It works good as far as i can tell?
I also have a BLINDER X-TREME M47 Laser Jammer it doesnt get much use at all but it goes off once in awhile.
If you just drive slow you dont need anything...that's what my wife tells me anyway.
 

Sneaky Pete

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I have a V1 as well as a laser jammer and I'm looking to get another setup for another car.

While the arrows are a neat feature on the V1, at the end of the day, all I want, or need, is the notification. It doesn't matter to me where the threat is coming from, all I need to know is slow down and be careful!
 

Roffle Waffle

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my V1 detects laser... and has 2 "smart" modes for eliminating false threads. In PA, the cops only use radar and laser on the highways anyway, where there are fewer false readings
 

TowDawg

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I have the Passport SRX with the laser diffusers. The whole thing is literally "built in" the car. I have always been a Passport guy and I love this one. If they hit me laser, it gives them no reading and gives me plenty of time to slow down. There is a new 9500ci out that is the GPS based system, but I don't have a lot of false alarms photo enforcement around here, so it wasn't worth the extra money for the 9500. I love the system and even better, I can park the car with the top down anywhere and there is nothing for anyone to steal, unlike regular detectors. I bought mine brand new in the factory sealed packaging on Ebay for $470. Proper install will run you another $350 to $500 though.
 

SandViper

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Lets see. I have been toying with this same question for a while now. I have tried for experimental pourpose only a wide variety of different items and idea's and theories both legal and not, with the help of some of my Law Enforcement buddies to see what actually works and does not. Even went as far as making a Magneto to Jam radar. The two results form the magneto were 1# if you were parked it would still say you were doing some random speed. 2# I believe I have speed up the cancer process in my body! The spray on stuff like plate and headlight does nothing to block lasers. and The films for body do nothing aswell for radar.
But on the serious side. I found this site that tested all the comercial stuff with what seemed to be very little bias. I know one thing for sure. The Blinder (from the UK I think) as mentioned above is great it blocks Laser. Even opens your Garage if you go Extreme 47. But most important you must be worried about Specter 3 & 4 now days. VG2 is pretty much dead, but it's still out there. My next project is I have access to some paint that is used on some high performance military aircraft. I dont have enough to do a whole car, I won't paint my own, but maybe a motorcycle and see if that works. But that is for next spring. Here is the site, They breakdown everything! sz new 25 june
 

Red Shift

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Bought both V1 and ****** 9500xi to test side by side. They don't interfere, so no comments on that.

V1 is better for the techie
9500xi is better for the simple don't wanna learn about radar type

9500xi will dodge radar detector-detectors. V1 not so much. The 9500ci is great because it gets the detectors outside of the car, but it's ridiculously expensive, I remember it being $1200-$1500. I bought a V1 for $300, hardwired it (no hanging cord), and a LEO can't see it unless their head is in my car.

If you have LIDAR (laser) cops in your area, get a LI (Laser Interceptor). They're the best, beat any of the others hands down. Check Radar Detector Tests and Reviews by Guys of LIDAR for more info.

A great defense against LIDAR is no front plate. This will greatly reduce the detection range for the cop. The Viper does not have a flat surface for the laser to bounce off of and likely has a detection range no greater than 1000', likely around 600'. LIDAR cops must be stationary to gun. In most places you can see well over 1000' to slow down beforehand. The Laser Interceptor is sweet, but I have not seen enough LIDAR cops in my area to scare me into getting one. Remember that the installation is important to beam directly at the laser gun.
 

RTTTTed

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I have SRX ****** 8500 built into car with laser scramblers, amplified speaker in console, hidden view/control panel with little LED and 'mute button'. Works fantastic.

For the Detector, detector you want the Bell STi or the ****** 9500i as they're specially built with insulation for the dect detectors and often invisible at 2' of distance. The 9500i (and ci/custom instal) has GPS with speed and red light camera locations downloaded from the internet.

Check out ****** Radar Detectors & Laser Detectors - The Radar and Laser Experts - ****** Inc. I paid $550 for the 8500i and 50% more for the SRX. The SRX took me 6 hours to instal. The reason I didn't bother with the 9500ci was because in BC there are no cameras and radar detectors are OK to have and use. I bought the 9500i because I wanted another detector for all my other cars that was portable and I just left Arizona, California and Nevada where they have many many many Cameras. NO tickets but quite a few "dings'.

All my Cobras were junk and gave me so many false alarms that when I got a REAL ding I threw the detector into the back seat because I was so tired of the constant noise. Oooops, Wi charges $180 for their cheapest ticket (08) and you pay right there of "off to jail".

All the testing I read said that the V1s were good for many, many false alarms. I did extensive reading on a lot of internet sites and although the V1 is more sensitive in some ranges it also is less sensitive in other frequencies. The hundreds of false alarms are why I don't want a V1>

Also, my ****** give SAFETY CODES. Road Construction, Ambulance, Road Closed, etc. You could tell the cops that you only use the detector for the safety messages. My insurance company laughed at me when I asked them to pay me for replacement of my SR7 (excort without laser scramblers) when I wrote off my car. Should have seen the investigators face when I threw down the owners manual with the page of safety codes (65 codes of so).

Ted
 

lxadeuce

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Lets see. I have been toying with this same question for a while now. I have tried for experimental pourpose only a wide variety of different items and idea's and theories both legal and not, with the help of some of my Law Enforcement buddies to see what actually works and does not. Even went as far as making a Magneto to Jam radar. The two results form the magneto were 1# if you were parked it would still say you were doing some random speed. 2# I believe I have speed up the cancer process in my body! The spray on stuff like plate and headlight does nothing to block lasers. and The films for body do nothing aswell for radar.
But on the serious side. I found this site that tested all the comercial stuff with what seemed to be very little bias. I know one thing for sure. The Blinder (from the UK I think) as mentioned above is great it blocks Laser. Even opens your Garage if you go Extreme 47. But most important you must be worried about Specter 3 & 4 now days. VG2 is pretty much dead, but it's still out there. My next project is I have access to some paint that is used on some high performance military aircraft. I dont have enough to do a whole car, I won't paint my own, but maybe a motorcycle and see if that works. But that is for next spring. Here is the site, They breakdown everything! sz new 25 june
you are right, it doesn't BLOCK laser, but it does absorb some of the infrared light that the laser uses to get speed. I did some baseline tests with it on the motorcycle headlight. the results were that he got my speed with a prolaser3 at about 1200 feet with no coating on the headlight, and the best he got then next day after i painted it was ~750 feet. my Valentine was was aleeting me that he was shooting laser as far away as 3000 feet but that was all i had room to test for on this small road. it even made a difference whether i was wearing my black leather jacket or not. with the coating on the headlight and a white shirt, he got me at 900 feet, put the jacket back on and it'd drop back down to 650-. all of the tests were done at 35 mph with the exception of one pass at 63mph. the same results. here is a video, FF to the 2:40 mark, YouTube - veil test
 
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jay01m

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Ted - Where/how did you mount your 8500? I'm curious to see how others have their custom installs done. Where did you mount the control panel for the detector?

+1 for the 9500ci. I wouldn't disagree that the V1 is a great detector, but the 9500ci has too many great features like GPS which allows for a red light camera and speed trap database (it tells you when you are approaching one), upon request it will warn you when you are exceeding the speed limit on whatever road you're on, and it has multiple sensors mounted front and rear for accurate readings. It also has a learning feature where if you know you're getting a false alert you can simply touch a button and the system learns to ignore that signal next time you're in that area. Yes it's expensive, but worth the $$$. Just my $.02.

Jason
 

r25558

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Just did a search myself. Google the Passport 9500ci.

It's very expensive, but you get what you pay for.

Disagree, have both and I'm fixing to sell my 9500ci on Ebay.....It's crap and doesn't pickup even close to what the V1 does...

The V1 can pickup a signal two miles in advance, if not more....I can frequently see the cop before my 9500 even goes off, pathetic...
 

r25558

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Ted - Where/how did you mount your 8500? I'm curious to see how others have their custom installs done. Where did you mount the control panel for the detector?

+1 for the 9500ci. I wouldn't disagree that the V1 is a great detector, but the 9500ci has too many great features like GPS which allows for a red light camera and speed trap database (it tells you when you are approaching one), upon request it will warn you when you are exceeding the speed limit on whatever road you're on, and it has multiple sensors mounted front and rear for accurate readings. It also has a learning feature where if you know you're getting a false alert you can simply touch a button and the system learns to ignore that signal next time you're in that area. Yes it's expensive, but worth the $$$. Just my $.02.

Jason

I'll make a great deal for anyone on this board who wants to purchase my 9500....

It's about two months old, barely used, and I'll make someone a great deal...
 
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