New Escort Redline Test Results

[snoopyc4]

One of my friends on the Escort forum did the following test with his Redline:

"After returning from more Road Testing of RedLine #725 this evening I decided to do some IO testing with the only Radar I have left from my previous arsenal........a late run K55 X-Band unit.

The antenna of the K55 was placed under the car so as not to overdrive the receiver circuits on the RedLine.

Intitial results were actually pretty good! The RedLine alerted immediately to some shots, most were .5 seconds or less and only a few ranged out to almost a full second. Better than I expected.

Just to make sure the RD was not parking itself on X-Band, I decided to do a few power cycles to be sure.......this is where things got interesting. After the first power cycle back to the scanning dot it took 12 seconds to alert to the first shot! Great googly moogly! The next 10 shots were normal.

Power cycled again.........16 seconds to alert on the 1st shot, then back to normal. Whats the deal here?

Decided to switch off both units and then activate the Radar First, and then Power on the RedLine. It took 28 seconds from power on of the RedLine to the point when it began alerting to the Radar.

Here's the deal. The RedLine takes 10 seconds to complete a long power on with Beeps and Braps........thats 10 seconds from pushing the on button to when it appears to complete the power on sequence and begin cycling the scanning dot. However.......it's not actually looking for Radar yet......it takes another 18-20 seconds before it completes it's initialization routine.

I tested every combination from signal present at power on, to introducing the Radar signal anywhere within 1-30 seconds from Pushbutton Power on of the RedLine........it's not ready to receive before 27-30 seconds after hitting the power on button. Tried this with the Radar in another vehicle with the antenna under the seat to further weaken the signal........same results.

After that 30 second routine the RedLine functioned flawlessly. Alerting to 100 out of 100 trigger pulls in under a second. I then did a couple 10 minute alert tests, again with the Radar in another vehicle. The RedLine held the alerts without dropping them for the full 10 minutes. During that time, I fluctuated the signal strength by putting the radar detector down on the seat or covering the antenna with my hand. I got it down to a one bar alert several times, but it held on for the full 10 minutes.

So, other than finding the true time required to initialize a RedLine, I did not find any issues with the RedLine in regards to delayed alerts or dropping alerts with my X-Band unit."


Cbr and ELVATO, when testing the Redlines, do you remember if you power cycled the Redline at the start of each of runs when you were testing the two Redlnes?

[kpatz]

I see the same thing with mine. Although mine is set to "fast" power-up, it still takes several seconds before the scanning dot starts (V1 boots up much faster), and maybe 20-30 seconds total before it starts alerting to radar. In fact, I have my Redline and V1 connected to the same delayed power-on box (so they receive power about 5 seconds after I start the car), and the Redline doesn't even light up the word "ESCORT" on the display until the V1 is finished booting up.

It's most apparent in a parking lot with automatic doors, since I'm powering up in the presence of radar. The V1 starts alerting several seconds before the Redline upon power-up, but once the Redline finishes its initialization (20+ seconds after power-up) it starts detecting radar normally.

Seems like embedded processors are getting to be like Windows PCs... the latest versions take longer to boot.

[ELVATO]

Yea, this is common with most all Belscort units. It takes a bit for them to actually start alerting to radar. I always assumed it was just 10 seconds, but guess it might be more for the Redline. I guess they do it so your radar doesn't go full blast K band when you power it on while sitting in a parking lot, ready to leave.

Either way, no, we didn't power cycle between runs, and if we did, the unit was one for a couple minutes

The way the "course" we use works is, you have the straight away, which is connected to a neighborhood (why you always see us turning left at the end of runs). We take the neighborhood, and it dumps us out further down the road. We then go down the road, and it turns into the "course." If we were to power cycle, it is usually at the end of a run, before we start going through the neighborhood, to give the unit time to get out of "startup" mode.

Hope this helps.

[snoopyc4]

So this video:

Dslrip Redline vs 34.7

Was this your first run against Ka 34.7? If so, you said you gave it about 10 seconds after it powered up, then you made your run?

[dslrip32]

I already knew about the "calibration cycle" from Escort, BTW is what they call it. And I waited well over 4 minutes on mine, while putting gas in the tank of my car, then proceded to the K band source, when as I said before, right up to about 30 to 80 feet it went off. If Escort has a problem with there "self Calibration" routine on this detector, then it is a software problem they need to fix ASAP! And I mean on all units, because if this is the problem, then it is definately on all units released.

[ELVATO]

Yea, I think that was the first run that night. It had been for more than a couple minutes since it'd been turned on (I'd say at least 5 mins counting arrival to test site, and riding through the neighborhood.)

Besides, just from looking at the vid, the gun had been transmitting for about 50 seconds before the RL alerted, more than the 10+ seconds it takes.

[OpenRoad]

Startup time not a big deal, unless there is a cop waiting for you next to your driveway or the parking lot.

[ELVATO]

Don't think he's making a deal of that. He's just asking/making sure the delay we experienced wasn't from the "calibration cycle."

[snoopyc4]

Don't think he's making a deal of that. He's just asking/making sure the delay we experienced wasn't from the "calibration cycle."

Exactly, I thought you started making runs during the Redline's 30 sec start up sequence/calibration cycle. Oh well, back to the drawing board.

[OpenRoad]

So I'm not finding the 'in car' vids of dslrip's Redline..... have they been posted ? (That is, the driver perspective)