Newbie from South East Asia

[jerison]

Hi guys, just ordered my DE1788 and waiting for it impatiently.

Need your expertise. In my country, the police use laser cameras frequently from overhead bridges to aim down at oncoming vehicles.
Under such circumstances, would the RD be in a better position to pick up the signals as opposed to the police standing on the road aiming directly at the vehicles?

Thanks!

[cooljay]

Depends. You might be able to pick scatter up better when they aim from an overpass and that would be the only chance you'll get to slow down, otherwise if you're speeding and get hit with laser directly, by time your RD goes off it's too late. That goes for any RD.

[jerison]

Hiya Cool, really appreciate your fast response.

I am from Singapore. Btw, do you know what my local police force are using in the form of radar / laser guns? I tried to find out in our websites but there's no mention whatsover...

Got another important question. Our local cars are mostly tinted with a sunlight film (V-Kool) that can cause interference. How much impact will it have on the performance of the DE1788?

Rgds,

[cooljay]

tint has a big impact on laser. If your front window is tinted or the laser lens is behind your tint strip this could cause you not to get any laser alerts.

As far as radar goes, if the tint is non-metallic (contains no metal) you shouldn't see any impact on radar, but if it is metallic the radar waves will reflect off the tint causing your range to be reduced considerably.

[jerison]

Got a big problem then.
The tinted film has metal particles and it is affixed all the way up to the tinted glass portion. The tinted glass portion has no film affixed.

What should I do, Cool? Seems I may have to do a little cutout on the film so that the 1788 has no blockage.. Then again, all my windows are affixed with the tinted film... so there goes the 360 degree laser advantage...

[Stealthcb]

Well, the first thing you need to do is laser veil your headlights and license plate. Otherwise, any laser alert you get is pretty sure to be a ticket-notifier. With them aiming DOWN from a bridge, you won't get much scatter off other cars -- the angles are wrong.

I would mount the RD on the dash first and see how that works, but I suspect with a down-angled laser, detection will be rough.

[jerison]

Sure, gonna try different mounting positions first. Think my biggest concern is still the metallic film that I have on all my windows...

[cooljay]

You can try it with the tint and see if you can find like a speed sign (Your speed is) and test it to see the range and if you don't get alerts till you're like right next to it, then the only other option would be to remove the tint or buy a remote unit which mounts on the outside of your car :?

[jerison]

Yes, we have those static speed detectors on the roads. Will use those to test out my RD.
We have speed limits of 50, 60, 80 and 90 km/h on our roads here.
Am I correct to say that in normal circumstances (without window tint), I should be able to get a radar reception about 2km before reaching the actual speed detector?

[cooljay]

Depending on conditions yes you should get around 2km range. Of course weather (rain) can reduce range as well as sharp curves, big hills etc. Sometimes you might only get around 1km alert do to conditions or you could get around 2.5km.

Also some speed signs are out of tune or their power is reduced so on some you won't pick them up till you're around 1km or so from them, so don't be discouraged if your range is around 1km on a your speed sign. But let us know the range and conditions and we can figure out if the tint had any affect or not 8)