self calibration??

[stamp4]

I have aV995 and it is a great detector. But do these really have self calibration ability to fix themselves or is this just another way of telling you it needs serviced? Mine is working fine but I have a friend who has a 2 year old unit that is displaying this. Thanks for any help.
Kip

[MetalFlame]

If RD displays "self cal",it means that it failed to self calibrate...that's not good.

[LordV]

I have aV995 and it is a great detector. But do these really have self calibration ability to fix themselves or is this just another way of telling you it needs serviced? Mine is working fine but I have a friend who has a 2 year old unit that is displaying this. Thanks for any help.
Kip

My 940 recently went down in a similar fashion. "Self Cal", "Service Required" then finally would not power up at all........

Not a good sign, not a good sign at all.

[stamp4]

I understand that this is a bad thing, but my question is do these REALLY self calibrate THEMSELVES. How does the detector know it is needing to cal. itself?? Does it check itself every time you power it on and if its not quite right it tries to do it itself or does it just display the self calibrate message. Would like to know in case mine ever does this. Thanks for the replies guys.
Kip

[stamp4]

Anybody out there know enough about these detectors and electronics to try an answer on this? :?: I am just wanting to learn. Thanks!
Kip

[RW'07]

Anybody out there know enough about these detectors and electronics to try an answer on this? :?: I am just wanting to learn. Thanks!
Kip

Running the STI (A4M9 with no 33.8 Ka fix, no need for me to do it) for 14 months now and never got the 'self calibration' or 'service required' display messages so mine is working properly, in your case, or your friend's case, this message means the RD needs some technical attention, by this I mean send it over to Beltronics on your own expense... it's similar with getting the 'engine check' light for your car, what can you do, either you buy a self-test gauge and see for yourself where the problem is coming from, but that gauge costs over $100 and still you will have to go to a mechanic shop for the repair unless disconnecting the battery for 15-20 min and then connect it back on will get rid of the problem... I suggest to reset your RD so back to all factory-set features, maybe that will take away that self calibration message, if not be prepared to send it to Beltronics on your own expense... best of luck

[MEM-TEK]

Anybody out there know enough about these detectors and electronics to try an answer on this? :?: I am just wanting to learn. Thanks!
Kip

Hi Kip,

Yep, Belscort radar detectors perform an internal self calibration upon power up and then periodically thereafter in order to compensate for temperature induced drifts of the calibration. But I think you are wondering how they do this. Basically the RD has just one crystal oscillator on its circuit board. The crystal's frequency serves as a reference frequency, allowing the RD to then adjust the voltages for the voltage controlled oscillators until each oscillator is tuned to the correct operating frequency and bandwidth. That, in a nutshell, is how it works!

--Michael

[stamp4]

Thanks mem-tek!!! That is what I was wondering. Mine is working fine, but a friend of mine who is also a truck driver has sent his in so we will see what he finds out. I have been thinking hard about a STI, but my 995 is still working great. I still wonder how much more warning the STI would give in the real world compared to my 995. It is a great detector, but sometimes its outstanding on all ka, sometimes not so great with instant on. But I know how radar works and this ka stuff especially the IO type is tricky at best. Thanks guys.