Valentine 1 Radar Problem

[Patryk221]

Have finally saved up and bought it, I live in Ireland so am testing on EU roads but now Im not sure that its working the way as it supposed to be, First of all Im getting a lot of bogus warnings of Shopping doors ok I know its supposed to work like that according to the forum and I dont mind, Next... last night I tested on speed cameras in traffic, I only got a warning when I was something like 10-30m away from the camera, and as I passed the camera around back warning straight away.., now that is not enough warning?? do u guys think its faulty should I send it for repairs as I dont think that this is working properly but want to get a second opinion

[Taco]

First of all Im getting a lot of bogus warnings of Shopping doors ok I know its supposed to work like that according to the forum, but I only get them when Im 300m close to them more than 300 no warning...

Next... last night I tested on speed cameras in traffic, I only got a warning when I was something like 100m away from the camera, and as I passed the camera around 300m back warning, now that is not enough warning??

do u guys think its faulty should I send it for repairs as I don't think that this is working properly but want to get a second opinion

First, I am assuming you are in A mode, if you are in l or L mode, adjust all my comments accordingly.

For the Americans (such as myself):
300 meter = 984.251 968 504 feet
100 meter = 328.083 989 501 feet
300 meter = 0.186 411 358 mile
100 meter = 0.062 137 119 mile

At 300m, you are getting nearly .2 of a mile of alert before the 'false spot'. Depending on how the radar is pointed (assuming it is pointed directly at the ground if it is an automatic door opener) and the band of radar you are being alerted to, that may be a rather decent warning.
We'd need some more information.

Second question: Again, I do not have enough information about band, location of radar, PSL, yellow timer, etc...

Third: Faulty? I would hardly call picking up non-police radar as being faulty. If the warning is not sufficient for you I would like to know what would be a better range for you.

[b5s402]

you got the worlds best man..
try to find someone else with a detector, and see if he detects te source before you..
it could just be a weak signal..

[Patryk221]

Thank you very much for all the fast Replies to answer questions

Today I have made a trip esp to the stationary radar parked 200m infront of it with my lights flashing amber and tested the V1
ok only at 20-30m sorry mistake not even .2 of a mile I was getting a weak alert that radar was ahead of me display was showing K signal strength 1 dot and I was close to the radar... only Once my car was aligned with the radar I got 3 dots and when the radar was behind me I had full K alert... , I even adjusted option 5 to from normal to very strong signal on the V1 and this did not improve my situation, unfortunately I dont know anyone here who has one of these babies to test, but for the moment the only use I have of the V1 is to tell me where the Radar cameras are but the warning is too late, I have the unit mounted high up tried even in the middle of the windscreen same result

Location of Radar is on the Highway its one of them fixed ones that zaps u from the back, is there any setting I can remove to increase signal strength either than no 5 that is on already, maybe remove POP and X mode my ver of V1 is 3817 the model before the...18



At 300m, you are getting nearly .2 of a mile of alert before the 'false spot'. Depending on how the radar is pointed (assuming it is pointed directly at the ground if it is an automatic door opener) and the band of radar you are being alerted to, that may be a rather decent warning.
We'd need some more information.

Second question: Again, I do not have enough information about band, location of radar, PSL, yellow timer, etc...

Third: Faulty? I would hardly call picking up non-police radar as being faulty. If the warning is not sufficient for you I would like to know what would be a better range for you. Sorry Mistake its not even 100M that I get a warning tested this today by being infront of the radar
Radar only warns me while driving when Photo radar is alligned with my car which is quite too late to brake and avid being zapped

Thank you for all your Help and answers

[Taco]

...ok only at 20-30m sorry mistake not even .2 of a mile I was getting a weak alert that radar was ahead of me display was showing K signal strength 1 dot and I was close to the radar... only Once my car was aligned with the radar I got 3 dots and when the radar was behind me I had full K alert...

... but for the moment the only use I have of the V1 is to tell me where the Radar cameras are but the warning is too late, I have the unit mounted high up tried even in the middle of the windscreen same result

That makes more sense... (why you are asking if it is working)
Hrm... I know very little about the DIY programming, and just leave all of that to the factory defaults... Good luck with that, many here are much more experienced.

As for the camera not alerting you until you are under it, I would imagine it is pointed almost directly down... In that case, I would suggest to move the V1... You already have... Well... I'm out of ideas... :roll:

Goodluck!

[fredito]

Maybe you're getting a weak signal because the camera has its radar looking toward you're heading (shooting cars from behind) and hence you had a full K alert when the camera had you in its aim....

Hope that clears up your doubt... I know 10-20m is not much but it's better than nothing.

[Patryk221]

Yes the camera is Catching me from Behind/my heading direction but to my understanding I should be notified about that radar earlier...20m is not enough if u speeding, V1 should spot the radar frequency earlier than 20m for sure... esp when Im infront of a few cars that are passing or passed the Photo radar already, thats where my Problem is

[jimbonzzz]

What are the radar threats in your country?
If you use the V1 in Euro Mode, you will get substantially better range against weak photo radar aimed away from you. But in Euro Mode, you won't have superwide Ka coverage.

Here's the info on Euro Mode:
http://www.radardetector.net/viewtopic.php?t=3778

[GTO_04]

How far away can you pick up the K band signal after you pass it?

Go past the radar for a mile or two (if it is a straight road), turn around and see how far you can pick up the radar while driving toward it. If that is a short distance also there could be something wrong with the V1, unless it is a very weak photo radar. It would be helpful if you had another RD to compare to. That's one of the things backups are good for.

Just IMHO, 20m does seem to be a short distance, even for a K band radar pointing away from you. Unless of course it is a very weak radar.

GTO_04

[laserblaster]

Your trying to detect the k band gatsometer.



You wont get the highest alert until your passed it because it operates on low power plus the beam is narrow and is pointed so many degrees across the road, this makes detection hard.

The v1 will give 300 meters or more on some gatsos but because every radar situation is different theres no real answer to how far can it detect.

Traffic can be both and advantage and disadvantage, you can get a few cars go through the gatsos and reflect radar back to you, or traffic infront of you can block radar and give you late warnings.

Go back to the gatso with no other traffic about and test the range then, you may find it works better without other traffic my v1 did..

this is from the v1 website
Does Valentine One warn of photo radar?
- L.B., Oregon


Yes, absolutely, but you don't get nearly as much warning. All the photo radars in the US operate on either K or Ka bands, though they could operate on any band assigned to traffic radar by the FCC. The good news is that the radar beam is on all the time, not playing hide and seek like instant on, so we have lots of time to find it. The bad news is that it uses a narrow beam aimed diagonally across the road. And it's usually very low power, because photo radar doesn't engage the target until it's within a few hundred feet. So you really need detector sensitivity to pick up weak reflections. Today's V1s, and older ones equipped with our latest radar upgrade, offer reliable protection against photo radar, but you have to pay attention.


Also valentine research won't ship outisde the u.s and canada, so if you ship it to them they won't ship it back.

They only ship to a proper u.s address so you need to have a resident in the states to ship it back to you if you send it in..

If you want to have it checked if you feel its failing on k band detection which they can do, then someone on here may be able to help you out with the shipping from the u.s.