My dog ate my Valentine!

[valentine1fan]

...no, it wasn't in February, it was the Valentine that served me well for over 5 years and survived a few "other valentines"

Now I have a predicament: do I stay with the V1 or move onto a GPS-enabled version of Escort?

Factors that I am considering:
1) V1 nails the core issue (sensitivity) but seems to lag the market in other "cool" features such as GPS, red light camera database, etc

2) Are there other features in Passport that are in the works (anything that has to do with GPS, internet, etc)?

3) Is there a risk that Valentine Research (which is pretty much a one man show as I understand) shuts down its operations within a few years from now, just because Mike Valentine himself may want to retire...

All comments are appreciated, especially from users that have used other detectors.

Thanks a bunch!

[Stealth Stalker]

Cool features don't save you from radar. Sensitivity, reactivity, and situational awareness save you from radar. The GPS enabled detectors are fatally lacking in the reactivity department, with no cure in sight. And they aren't much better in the situational awareness category either.

The GPS benefits can be realised in just about any top tier detector utilising a Cheetah GPS and radar detector interface. Click on the Cheetah bar in my signature for info.

Unless you live in a really big city, with a lot of radar drone falses on your daily route, and feel that quietness is the number one most important feature in a detector, I'd skip a GPS controlled RD. It's just too big a risk for my money, for nothing useful in return that I can't get elsewhere.

Welcome, and happy hunting!

[kpatz]

Sounds like the real question is, would a GPS-enabled Escort be less tasty to a dog?

Like Stealth Stalker said, the V1 rules the highway, while the Escorts are better in town where there are a lot of falses. So you can base your decision (somewhat) on where you tend to drive.

I think even if Mike V. retires, VR the company will continue, maybe with his son (does he have one?) taking over, or someone else taking over. Even if they don't make new detectors, they would still service existing ones.

But, give VR a call, they will get a kick out of your story and will probably offer a good price on repairing your V1.

[valentine1fan]

You are right on
I was very tempted to call VR and ask them to put an accelerometer into the next version of V1, and maybe optimize software to identify excessive chewing so that if my dog wants to eat another one, the V1 can scream "bad dog!" "bad dog!" hehehehe... The possibilities are endless...

Sounds like the real question is, would a GPS-enabled Escort be less tasty to a dog?

Like Stealth Stalker said, the V1 rules the highway, while the Escorts are better in town where there are a lot of falses. So you can base your decision (somewhat) on where you tend to drive.

I think even if Mike V. retires, VR the company will continue, maybe with his son (does he have one?) taking over, or someone else taking over. Even if they don't make new detectors, they would still service existing ones.

But, give VR a call, they will get a kick out of your story and will probably offer a good price on repairing your V1.

[valentine1fan]

Cool features don't save you from radar. Sensitivity, reactivity, and situational awareness save you from radar. The GPS enabled detectors are fatally lacking in the reactivity department, with no cure in sight. And they aren't much better in the situational awareness category either.

The GPS benefits can be realised in just about any top tier detector utilising a Cheetah GPS and radar detector interface. Click on the Cheetah bar in my signature for info.

Unless you live in a really big city, with a lot of radar drone falses on your daily route, and feel that quietness is the number one most important feature in a detector, I'd skip a GPS controlled RD. It's just too big a risk for my money, for nothing useful in return that I can't get elsewhere.

Welcome, and happy hunting!

Would it be a correct assessment to say that the radars with GPS bells and whistles are not good enough w/ other, arguably fundamental parameters? Or do you mean that the main difference is that the GPS false alarms and other features like that desensitize you to the possible real threat?

Are there drone falses in some cities, intentional??? I used to get a couple of strange false positives - one was from a huge LCD screen (is it possible) - it would activate a laser sensor. (if anyone is from the san francisco area, maybe you can confirm - the giant LCD on the side of 101 in redwood city)

[Stealth Stalker]

Would it be a correct assessment to say that the radars with GPS bells and whistles are not good enough w/ other, arguably fundamental parameters?

Depends on the parameters. They hang well with the V1 in sensitivity/range, but sensitivity is not the Holy Grail of detection. That's about the only place they compare favourably though.

Or do you mean that the main difference is that the GPS false alarms and other features like that desensitize you to the possible real threat?

No, the GPS reduces false alerts, which is theoretically a good thing. But you simply cannot reduce false alerts without also reducing real alerts, which is a very, very bad thing.

The real question is, do you want to decide what is a real alert and take the appropriate level of action, or do you want a machine to do it for you?

Are there drone falses in some cities, intentional???

Yes. See http://www.radardetector.net/forums/...tml#post603214

It's a big problem in LA, but I dunno about SFO. Probably so. That's why the state is bankrupt.

[Buz]

...no, it wasn't in February, it was the Valentine that served me well for over 5 years and survived a few "other valentines"

Now I have a predicament: do I stay with the V1 or move onto a GPS-enabled version of Escort?

Factors that I am considering:
1) V1 nails the core issue (sensitivity) but seems to lag the market in other "cool" features such as GPS, red light camera database, etc

2) Are there other features in Passport that are in the works (anything that has to do with GPS, internet, etc)?

3) Is there a risk that Valentine Research (which is pretty much a one man show as I understand) shuts down its operations within a few years from now, just because Mike Valentine himself may want to retire...

All comments are appreciated, especially from users that have used other detectors.

Thanks a bunch!

If you have the scratch, you can get one of each. Get a V1 and disable X & K bands, using it as a Ka and Laser sniffer only. Then get a gps radar detector and use it for all bands. Run them together like many members here do.

[kpatz]

I would say any chewing is excessive chewing when it comes to a V1.

So, how badly did your V1 get chewed up? Did the dog swallow any parts of it? Maybe you can post pics of the carnage. Well, don't bother if the entire V1 took a nice trip through doggie-land. though.

That said, instead of chew sensors, maybe they should just use paint that tastes bad to animals. Or just feed your dog when it's hungry. Or if he has a particular taste for radar detectors, buy some junky Cobras for him to chew on.

Also, the magnesium case of the V1 is probably more chew-proof than the plastic cases Escort uses.

[DrCoke]

Can we get a picture?

[Uhn_Tiss]

haha wow

solution: buy a V1 and replace dog

j/k all the dogs i've had were for their entire life span.

edit: how can you go against your own name!