Four Headed Monster

[STiMULi]

In spite of others recommendations I followed through with cheap for now. Later I will upgrade to the best I can afford but for now given all the other directions I am going with my coutermeasuers.

For now here is my Four Headed Blinder using the older M20/40 technology



Here is the photo crazyVolvoRob suggested:



Link to the original thread:

http://www.radardetector.net/forums/...y-m20-m40.html

[rsatmans]

Nice The m40 has always been known for great reliability. I would consider moving the top pair of heads out farther towards the headlights.

[STiMULi]

Nice The m40 has always been known for great reliability. I would consider moving the top pair of heads out farther towards the headlights.

I tried but there were too many issues with the manufacture of the grill. If I could find my Dremel I could have probably gotten away with a little more distance on the upper ones.

I run around with my HIDs on 100% of the time and I know that it helps some on some cars. I have had multiple saves with the M20 setup using the lower locations in NM and CO. I hope that the HIDs have something to do with it

There are a great number of AZ DPS HP MC cops with Laser now running all over the place because they can. I mean, downtown, heavily traveled county roads that are usually patrolled by Omar Sheriff and now they will pull over and point at on coming traffic in the Interstate.

I hope that my caution and additional countermeasures do the trick out west.

States I regularly travel in are CA, AZ, UT, NV, CO, NM and TX.

[TSi+WRX]

That should be pretty solid.

Be aware that the Imprezas of that generation body-style has a point weakness located at the extreme outboard edge of the fog-lamp cover, as well as at the top outer corner (marker lamp) of the headlamp, per steagall1000's testing ( on a peanut/helicopter-eye STi, white, like yours, of an M25 J16 setup - http://www.speedtraphunter.net/video...-zr4-test.html ), which was, at one time, a publicly posted video, but now removed.

I'd suspect that your use of HIDs can potentially make the top outer corner marker lamp concern all but moot, but the fog lamp cover area, as it blends outward towards the fenders, is definitely at far reach for *any* jammer.

Without direct testing, it will be impossible to tell if you have sufficient coverage at that crucial area, but overall, your risk there is much lower, as that's not the typical aim-point of an enforcer.

In the real-world, your setup should do fairly well.

[STiMULi]

Thanks!

I have afriend that I am trying to see if he can get his hands on a local use LIDAR for me to do some testing.

We'll See!

[crazyVOLVOrob]

If possible make sure your laser sensors are on the outside

I had to use NightShot on my Sony Handycam to make sure they were on mine

[Stealth Stalker]

I run around with my HIDs on 100% of the time and I know that it helps some on some cars. I have had multiple saves with the M20 setup using the lower locations in NM and CO. I hope that the HIDs have something to do with it

They're just as likely to hurt you as help you. Without testing, you have no way of knowing which it is. Never figure any other factors into the competency of your jammer. It either does the job, or it doesn't.

[TSi+WRX]

^ That's a point that I'd agree with.

Without true first-hand testing, there's just no telling what - if any - protection HIDs may confer.

I should've worded my initial response better...that the HIDs may make that little reflector up at the upper outer corners a non-concern - or, that it may offer no additional protection at all. There's just no guaranty, and for someone like me, who has repeatedly tried to emphasize the variables which we've not fully examined in terms of "HID testing," I should've known better.

Thanks for picking up the slack, SS.

[STiMULi]

I hope to test soon but I have had some real world tests that really do not show that they help or hurt only that the M20 was effective in ticket avoidance.

The original reason I drove around with the HIDs on was more for the GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY factor more than anything else. This way I didn't have to flash my headlights at the Left Lane Hawgs. Later after reading that they were known to be effective in some cases is what determined my leaving them on 100% of the time.

As far as hurting the effectiveness of the M20/40 setup I can not understand how they can cause the M20/40 to not be as effective or how they may assist the LEO in obtainging my speed.

From a radio standpoint (radio waves are light waves) I see them as raising the noise floor and adding interference.

How can they help LEO? Please advise.

BTW I love physics so lay it on me.

[TSi+WRX]

^ At this point, the problem is that it's just an unknown.

All we know is that bright visible light - whatever source - raises the noise-floor, and exactly how that may play out in terms of the equation, we truly don't know, when it comes to headlamps (or other forms of vehicle lighting).

With first-generation police LIDAR devices, problems with bright lighting were reported in real-world use. Currently, with modern 3rd-generation devices, we've not seen the same type of concerns, although the singular case of HID-produced interference seems to be at least a somewhat consistent observation, *when it is observed*.

Currently, all active jammers suffer from some form of performance degradation in bright-ambient conditions, and this has been seen repeatedly in performance tests, unwittingly or planned, and official as well as in "run what you brung" optimization/"test and tune" dates.

Given that both of these concerns are, at least in-part, speculated to originate with noise-floor issues, it's somewhat disconcerting to think about the currently observed "protective" nature of HIDs - in that we don't really know what's going on, on the side of "the gun."

Think of an easier analogy - two flashlights, one much brighter than the other.
Place them close enough together, and turn both "on."

Stand so that you're facing their business end, and examine from different distances.

At some point, the much greater output of the one will effectively drown-out the other, when viewed.

Or think of the few seconds of reduced night-time vision you experience, driving at night, when you switch from high-beam to low-beam.

Yes, with our jammers and with police LIDAR, it's operating on IR, but ambient visible light does still exert tremendous impact - and what if that really bright light source, in this example, the HID headlamp, can also serve to visually blot-out the output of the jammer?

That's why, at this point, all that we can say about vehicle HID lighting is that it's a true unknown quantity. Certainly, with the vehicles specifically tested, we can say, specifically, with X or Y police LIDAR devices, we see a protective outcome - but we must be very, very careful in extrapolating or otherwise interpreting the data.

Relevant past posts:

http://www.radardetector.net/forums/...ar-guns-2.html

http://www.radardetector.net/forums/...d-laser-2.html