Escort Smart Cord LED Brightness difference between Red/Blue

[xfortay]

Hello guys. I am new to the forum but I have spent a couple weeks reading for hours on end about the difference is detectors. I had bought the top of thhe line GPS Cobra XRS-R9G, the one where the detector and GPS box mounts up by the tint strip and it has a wireless 2.4 GHz remote display unit. I got it for 280$ on sale at Circuit City, regular 400$. Boy am I glad I decided to read your wonderful forum! I had no idea Cobra was as terrible as everyone says...noob haha.

Good news is I never installed the Cobra and I bought the 9500i instead. I've got a couple questions. First off I read the the Blue LED direct install smart cord had an incredibly bright blue LED and some people cover it up.. I was wondering if the RED hardwire smartcord was as bright? See I have a souped up awd Turbo Mitsu Eclipse turbo and I have a SUPER bright air\fuel gauge that blinds me at night so I am trying to come up with a fix for that. Along with my other gauges and upgrades I have a very blinky light cockpit already :? . The direct wire cord display is going on my A-frame gauge cluster and I do not want another bright light in my face. I would do a better job searching the forums but I want to install the wiring today so if the blue is too bright I will go exchange it for a red smartcord.

My second qustion is my 9500's born on date is 0908. I have read about the ramp up issues etc and I think I am in the clear but is there anything else I should do, or need to know? Sorry this got so long! Thanks in advance, I already see I will have a new hobby on my hands. I had no idea such a community for detectors existed, I will be looking into the Escort zr4 jammer as soon as it is released I think. Look forward to hearing from you guys Thanks-Trent

[CJR238]

Congratulations and welcome. Your going to love your new 9500I.
Both seem to be very bright at night, especially blinking in your face. There are a few opinions as to what is better.
Well i went out side and tested both my regular smart cords (not sure if its the same as direct install smart cord) Blue is the power on light and yellow/orange is the alert. The other one has a Green power light and Red is the alert.
both are pretty bright. I prefer Blue so i would lean that way. :wink:

Also read my thread below:

[fire65]

I have a red and a blue. Can't really say one is brighter than the other, but they are both way to bright at night. I put a small piece of window tint on mine and it helps. I have to wonder why when you dim the RD it doesn't dim the smart cord also.

[TSi+WRX]

Welcome, xfortay .

I, too, am a DSMer ( I've been since high-school, a 1Gb Eclipse - it just went on from there; it's only within the last 3 years that I crossed-over into the Subaru crowd, mainly because I needed a family vehicle, and the wifey outright vetoed the Evo IX ). I still have my fully-supported Evo III 16G 2Ga Talon in the garage.

Like CJR said, I also went out to the garage and tested out both of my standard (coiled) plug-in SmartCords. The one that came with my "red" 9500i was a green power/pilot light, with red alert light. The one that came with my "blue" x50 was a blue pilot light, with amber alert.

I also do not know if there's a red pilot light SmartCord.... Although my 9500i is hardwired into my Legacy, I use the ZR3 interface setup, so there's no hardwire SmartCord.

[ PS: What A/F gauge do you have? it doesn't dim? If it's a narrow-band, you might as well upgrade to wideband instead, most are either ambient-sensitive (i.e. AEM UEGO) or user-adjustable in terms of dimming. ]

[focalcivic]

Hello guys. I am new to the forum but I have spent a couple weeks reading for hours on end about the difference is detectors. I had bought the top of thhe line GPS Cobra XRS-R9G, the one where the detector and GPS box mounts up by the tint strip and it has a wireless 2.4 GHz remote display unit. I got it for 280$ on sale at Circuit City, regular 400$. Boy am I glad I decided to read your wonderful forum! I had no idea Cobra was as terrible as everyone says...noob haha.

Good news is I never installed the Cobra and I bought the 9500i instead. I've got a couple questions. First off I read the the Blue LED direct install smart cord had an incredibly bright blue LED and some people cover it up.. I was wondering if the RED hardwire smartcord was as bright? See I have a souped up awd Turbo Mitsu Eclipse turbo and I have a SUPER bright air\fuel gauge that blinds me at night so I am trying to come up with a fix for that. Along with my other gauges and upgrades I have a very blinky light cockpit already :? . The direct wire cord display is going on my A-frame gauge cluster and I do not want another bright light in my face. I would do a better job searching the forums but I want to install the wiring today so if the blue is too bright I will go exchange it for a red smartcord.

My second qustion is my 9500's born on date is 0908. I have read about the ramp up issues etc and I think I am in the clear but is there anything else I should do, or need to know? Sorry this got so long! Thanks in advance, I already see I will have a new hobby on my hands. I had no idea such a community for detectors existed, I will be looking into the Escort zr4 jammer as soon as it is released I think. Look forward to hearing from you guys Thanks-Trent

Come to think of it do you really need the smartcord direct wire? You can get the reg direct wire without Leds and a mute. If it is going into the A pillar then the mute button would not be in a great spot anyway.

[MEM-TEK]

I've found that my direct wire Smartcord's display mounted at the bottom of my left A pillar is a very convenient position for both its display and its mute switch.

I agree with everyone that at night either the red or blue alert light is just way too bright -- its like a fracking beacon! The blue LED alert light is very easy to see in your peripheral vision during the day. On the other hand the red LED alert display at night doesn't ruin your night vision. This is why astronomers use red illumination at night around their telescopes.

I need to get busy and design a simple toggle switch modification which can be made to the hardwire Smartcord housing where, by simply flipping the toggle switch, the LEDs will be dimmed to about 1/8 of what they are for night driving.

[TSi+WRX]

^ Remember, although "red" lighting is typically associated with "night safe" lighting, this isn't just because it's red - as you thought to dim your LED's output, MEM-TEK, that's precisely the thing.

It's dimming that matters, not so much the actual color.

To-wit - dark-room or other "tactical ambient" lighting isn't only red, but also very, very dim, at-that. And while there's specific reasons why darkroom lighting may need to be "red," actually, a variety of tactical lighting conditions can utilize amber, green, or even BLUE "colored" lighting - only very, very dimly so.

To demonstrate the validity and science of this is easy - try staring at a bright red LED at night. You'll still get temporary burn-in, and yes, your night-vision will be just as ruined as with "white" light. Heck, with bright-enough "red" lighting, you can close your eyes, and you can still make out the light source! :shock: (And no, this isn't "retina searing" levels of "red" light, either, you can easily demonstrate this with an automobile's dome-light, using either aftermarket red LED or incandescent bulbs.)

On the flip-side, acclimate your eyes to dark, first (about 20 to 30 minutes, minimum), and then use extremely dim blue lighting to, say, read a map. You'll find that you're still just fine when you take your eyes off the map, and orient yourself in the dark.

There's more science to it than that, of course, but you honestly don't need to go into it any deeper than with just simple demonstrations that you can verify, to yourself.

The important thing is to dim properly. The LED color can well be secondary.

As long as you've got a good dimmer setup, you'll do great!

[MEM-TEK]

^ Remember, although "red" lighting is typically associated with "night safe" lighting, this isn't just because it's red - as you thought to dim your LED's output, MEM-TEK, that's precisely the thing.

It's dimming that matters, not so much the actual color.

I have to 100% disagree. I have been an amateur astronomer since I was 13 years old. Any color except for deep red illumination immediately destroys the build up of visual purple within the human eye. It takes roughly 30 to 45 minutes of near absolute darkness to once again "dark adapt" your eyes for nearly the best possible night vision if your eyes are exposed to any color other than deep red since any illumination other than deep red light will immediately destroy the built up visual purple within the human eye.

To-wit - dark-room or other "tactical ambient" lighting isn't only red, but also very, very dim, at-that. And while there's specific reasons why darkroom lighting may need to be "red," actually, a variety of tactical lighting conditions can utilize amber, green, or even BLUE "colored" lighting - only very, very dimly so.

To demonstrate the validity and science of this is easy - try staring at a bright red LED at night. You'll still get temporary burn-in, and yes, your night-vision will be just as ruined as with "white" light. Heck, with bright-enough "red" lighting, you can close your eyes, and you can still make out the light source! :shock: (And no, this isn't "retina searing" levels of "red" light, either, you can easily demonstrate this with an automobile's dome-light, using either aftermarket red LED or incandescent bulbs.)[/quote]

On the flip-side, acclimate your eyes to dark, first (about 20 to 30 minutes, minimum), and then use extremely dim blue lighting to, say, read a map. You'll find that you're still just fine when you take your eyes off the map, and orient yourself in the dark.

Nope. Even with extremely faint illumination from any color light other than deep red will ruin your dark adaptation.

[quote="TSi+WRX"]There's more science to it than that, of course, but you honestly don't need to go into it any deeper than with just simple demonstrations that you can verify, to yourself.

The important thing is to dim properly. The LED color can well be secondary.

As long as you've got a good dimmer setup, you'll do great!

Again and finally, the LED color is primary -- not secondary. For example, staring at a black and white map faintly illuminated by either very faint white or blue light is far worse than if the black and white map was illuminated by deep red light. As an amateur astronomer I have stared at star charts for over 20 years at night. Only deep red light does not ruin night vision.

[TSi+WRX]

^ I see what you mean now, MEM-TEK - you're talking very, very DIM lighting, and on a very, very technical level.

However, in real-world practice, we've got so many dashboard illumination sources as well as ambient lighting (not to say the least of our own headlights) that to carry things to such extremes (i.e. to equate this with your own astronomy practices or, for that matter, my time in the dark-room [I'm a visual scientist, and spend a decent amount of my time doing dark-adapted ERGs on small animals, and in our dark-room, as with your astronomical setup, a very, very, very dim "safe red" is used, for the same reason that you cite]) is simply not practical....

For use in one's automobile/driving, I think that the biggest issue is to dim properly - with the LED color secondary.

My apologies if I had not made that intention (to the ends of the discussion being related to the automotive/driving context) - indeed, you're 100% correct, color DOES matter.

But in the confines of one's automobile and in the application of real-world street driving, I think it is counterproductive to focus on this lone consideration, particularly as the "red indicator LEDs" in these ancillary devices (such as our detectors, other accessories) are typically extremely bright, and failure to dim will significantly degrade dark-adaptation in and of itself.