STI Performance dramatically Increases Out of the Blue

[YTCD]

Hey,

Well my STI Driver that I've had for almost a year or so now all of a sudden works a lot better.

The performance at detecting Falses has been dramatically increased, and for real LEO encounters has been fanamenal (spelling?)

Its detecting off-axis a lot better too.

I didn't drive/use it for about 3-4 days and then when I finnally used it I could tell instantly something was different.

I hadn't done anything else, besides not drive it. And I also instead of turning it on right before or after I started the car I then and now start it about 30 seconds after beginning moving.

Has anybody else had this happen? I can't remember if I did this before or after it increased but I also have changed my Start up from Fast to Standard/Slow. And I've put X-Band on because in the GOL 2007 Test the experiemented with settings and having X band on made the detector perform better.

So I would tell everybody to start using slow start up and maybe keeping the X band on, but i'm not sure.

So is there anything to this, like technical or has anybody else experienced this?

[Freebird]

In have owned 3 different STI units and set all to x off and fast powerup only enabling x in the states that use it.. I have noticed very very slight performance differance between the 3. I have not noticed any performance gain by changing settings you mentioned. Very interesting, thanks for sharing.

[djrams80]

Originally Posted by YTCD

fanamenal (spelling?)

phenomenal

[hockey005]

but i dont see how having X on would effect the performance since it uses a completely separate horn for X and 1 for K and Ka

[MEM-TEK]

Today there is very low water vapor in VA's atmosphere along the coastline and in roughly the middle section of VA. Higher atmospheric humidity kills false alert detection ranges for me whenever I check out any of my RDs around town with regards to false alerts.

[o2bad455]

I had been running mine with X-off until last week, when I re-read that old GOL test extra. After that, I turned both X and SWS back on, since those gave the best results in their test. Now I'm just using the CityNoX mode to turn off X where K isn't a threat, and leave it in Highway where K is a threat.

I did notice that it seemed to be working slightly better on Ka than my newer V1 PoP version (3.826, even with PoP off on both), so I assumed it was time to send the V1 in for a tune (and sprang for the $139 temperature compensation update too). Don't have the V1 back yet, and I have not yet really put the STi with X/SWS back ON to the hard test on the worst roads, where my my old non-PoP V1 (3.813?) was the only unit that ever gave many useful Ka warnings. Maybe next week.

EDIT: I'm still hoping that Bel will be able to bring the STi up to the apparent Ka-band sensitivity of the STi-R and 9500ci at some point, whether just for new units or as an update. I'll probably send mine in with that request after I get my updated V1 back.

[spankyaf]

Originally Posted by o2bad455

EDIT: I'm still hoping that Bel will be able to bring the STi up to the apparent Ka-band sensitivity of the STi-R and 9500ci at some point, whether just for new units or as an update. I'll probably send mine in with that request after I get my updated V1 back.

I believe the remote units have different hardware so its unlikely the sti will ever come up to that level... They just need fix the ramp up and false filtering is always welcomed

[hockey005]

Originally Posted by MEM-TEK

Today there is very low water vapor in VA's atmosphere along the coastline and in roughly the middle section of VA. Higher atmospheric humidity kills false alert detection ranges for me whenever I check out any of my RDs around town with regards to false alerts.

pure genius

[YTCD]

Originally Posted by MEM-TEK

Today there is very low water vapor in VA's atmosphere along the coastline and in roughly the middle section of VA. Higher atmospheric humidity kills false alert detection ranges for me whenever I check out any of my RDs around town with regards to false alerts.

No, I'm talking about just around here, there is deffinatly a change in its performance. And I don't think I changed the settings before it actually started performing better. Especially off axis, there is an insane difference. I'm picking up perpendicular radar even, where I used to rarely get some.

[o2bad455]

Originally Posted by spankyaf

I believe the remote units have different hardware so its unlikely the sti will ever come up to that level

The STi, STi-R and 9500ci use exactly the same radar antennas, and probably the same LNAs and DSP hardware. The circuit boards are different sizes, but that's probably just for packaging purposes. If Bel managed to squeeze more sensitivity out of the STi-R by tweeking the firmware, that might well be directly applicable to the STi. If so, my guess is that Bel would be willing to apply it to their flagship STi non-remote as well.

On the other hand, if the increased sensitivity of the STi-R and 9500ci has something to do with its distributed hardware configuration, then maybe Bel wouldn't be able to tweek the STi. If it weren't for the 6 feet of non-removable cable attached to the STi-R and 9500ci, they'd be a lot easier to use on the windshield. Hopefully, Bel would tweek the STi or at least change the cabling on the STi-R for those of us who want the better sensitivity in a conveniently removable windshield mount unit.