8500 taken apart. Pix inside

**ejames7** · 06-21-2008, 11:55 PM

Got bored so I thought I would go out to the van and get the 8500 and clean it up a bit. Knew there were those three phillips on the back so I figured 'what the hell' and took it apart. Here are some pictures of inside the unit.

Anyone have an idea on that year?

This is what I wanted to clean:

Interesting color.

Before.

I used Meguiars PlastX on this lense as well as the one up front. Didn't do a whole lot for the scratches but when it lit up it seemed to be a bit cleaner. Sorry no after.
Of course getting a drop of it on that laser thing made me feel good >0. Damn air pocket. Cleaned it up with a q-tip. Didn't get on anything important. Just a bit got on that mesh screen but that probably is important right....

Off Switch-

My 8500 has this problem as I am sure some others out there do as well. When you turn the wheel to the OFF position it clicks and will restart. I figured it wasn't anything electrical but more mechanical. Problem seems to be this thing circled here. Sorry for the pic. It was actually the lesser of three evils.

When it gets to the end or OFF position, there is a little piece that makes a sort of very rounded 'M' shape but in my case the top parts of the 'M' are worn down so that thin piece on the left re-establishes contact and turns back on. If I am very slow with it I am able to get it to turn off using the thumb wheel. I guess the pieces are just far enough away to not contact. I did make a video of it but the sound is terrible. I can try again in the morning.

Very impressed with the internals of the 8500. Super solid. I mean that thing is like a rock. I wouldn't want one thrown at me.

**V1Zombie** · 06-22-2008, 12:03 AM

Originally Posted by ejames7

Got bored so I thought I would go out to the van and get the 8500 and clean it up a bit. Knew there were those three phillips on the back so I figured 'what the hell' and took it apart. Here are some pictures of inside the unit.

Anyone have an idea on that year?

This is what I wanted to clean:

Interesting color.

Before.

I used Meguiars PlastX on this lense as well as the one up front. Didn't do a whole lot for the scratches but when it lit up it seemed to be a bit cleaner. Sorry no after.
Of course getting a drop of it on that laser thing made me feel good >0. Damn air pocket. Cleaned it up with a q-tip. Didn't get on anything important. Just a bit got on that mesh screen but that probably is important right....

Off Switch-

My 8500 has this problem as I am sure some others out there do as well. When you turn the wheel to the OFF position it clicks and will restart. I figured it wasn't anything electrical but more mechanical. Problem seems to be this thing circled here. Sorry for the pic. It was actually the lesser of three evils.

When it gets to the end or OFF position, there is a little piece that makes a sort of very rounded 'M' shape but in my case the top parts of the 'M' are worn down so that thin piece on the left re-establishes contact and turns back on. If I am very slow with it I am able to get it to turn off using the thumb wheel. I guess the pieces are just far enough away to not contact. I did make a video of it but the sound is terrible. I can try again in the morning.

Very impressed with the internals of the 8500. Super solid. I mean that thing is like a rock. I wouldn't want one thrown at me.

man i dont know how you guys could just take these thing apart, i mean i am so delicate with my v1, i dont even want to imagine taking a detector apart.

**KnightHawk** · 06-22-2008, 01:13 AM

I'm curious about why the horn has somewhat a divider. Any reason for that jimbonzzz?

**ejames7** · 06-22-2008, 08:02 AM

He he. It comes from practice. I take a lot of my stuff apart to clean it or try and fix it. I've done it with my cell phone, remote control, keyboard and other things like on the cars. I undid those three screws and when I turned it over the internals literally fell out into my hand.

I was really surprised to see what cone thing. I had no idea it looked like that. Pretty interesting. That thing felt about as solid as you can get. Maybe improvved distance on it. I guess we'll see

**MEM-TEK** · 06-22-2008, 08:37 AM

Originally Posted by Azonehits

I'm curious about why the horn has somewhat a divider. Any reason for that jimbonzzz?

You are seeing the mating edges for the top and bottom halves of the S7 horn assembly. The top half of the horn assembly is both the LO board chamber cover plus the top half of the horn.

**MEM-TEK** · 06-22-2008, 08:42 AM

Originally Posted by ejames7

He he. It comes from practice. I take a lot of my stuff apart to clean it or try and fix it.

Does your 8500 still work? Weren't you worried about static electricity damage, especially by setting the internals on the synthetic car seat material?

**jdong** · 06-22-2008, 09:03 AM

Originally Posted by MEM-TEK

Does your 8500 still work? Weren't you worried about static electricity damage, especially by setting the internals on the synthetic car seat material?

Yeah, I was thinking the same.... That surface just SCREAMS ESD damage....

**jimbonzzz** · 06-22-2008, 10:14 AM

Originally Posted by Azonehits

I'm curious about why the horn has somewhat a divider. Any reason for that jimbonzzz?

If you're talking about the ridge: from what I understand, it's purpose is to make the antenna more broad-banded, so that it has good coverage across all the radar bands.

**ejames7** · 06-22-2008, 02:06 PM

That actually happened once when I took apart the IHKA board on my car to clean up a squeaky fan for the AUTO mode. Knock on wood it didn't do anything.

That was one of my microfibers from detailing. I didn't even think about the electricity part of it. Doh. I haven't been shocked by anything in awhile so everything seemed safe. For now....

I did leave this morning and when I turned the knob I heard a definitie spring noise which makes me think that the unit doesn't like to be in a weird OFF position. I just hate ganking that cord to shut it off. I wonder if something like that switch can be picked up at Rad Shack or some place better.

**KnightHawk** · 06-22-2008, 07:35 PM

Originally Posted by jimbonzzz

If you're talking about the ridge: from what I understand, it's purpose is to make the antenna more broad-banded, so that it has good coverage across all the radar bands.

Thanks. Just wondered what it would do.

You are seeing the mating edges for the top and bottom halves of the S7 horn assembly. The top half of the horn assembly is both the LO board chamber cover plus the top half of the horn.

Thanks too MEM-TEK.