Beltronics STi Driver Ramp up fix

[mgiara]

My STI is built in Aug '06 and never ever needed and done any ramp-up fix or any other technical service, over 130,000 miles with this very STI.

Q2: while powering on, hold all 3 buttons down until you will see that AxMx software version, sometimes you need to do it couple of times until you finally get it right. More here: https://www.beltronics.com/manuals/sti_manual.pdf

Q3: send it out back to Beltronics, never done it so can't comment on this one!

Q1: my STI is got a slow and fast ramp-up alert, when it's fast I'm already in the cruiser's range, when it's slow normally I should be outside his range but as soon as I get one such alert I treat it very seriously and slow down right away, also you gotta learn where the falses are so you will know to distinguish btwn a real and a false alert.

Chris

Thanks for the info RoadWarrior

[mgiara]

I was driving from town to town yesterday and encountered a Ka band speed trap.
As I was coming around a bend, a mini-van sparatically flashed his lights at us from the opposite side of the road. Obviously, an alert of a speed trap coming up.
I had my STi driver mounted and on, but it didn't alert until I turned the bend, and the RD went from silent to full signal.

When the bar graph reaches full strength, then you are really close to or are in range of the radar gun, assuming that the radar gun is set for max range.

To check firmware (yours is A6M9 as I recall, same as current units), first power off your STi. Hold down the Volume and Sensitivity buttons and, while holding these two buttons down, press the power button. Release the buttons when "RESET" is displayed. Then the firmware version will be displayed. Actually the firmware version indicates the specific hardware (display and display board) used within your STi, so even if it is flashed with the audio ramp-up fix firmware it still will come back displaying A6M9.

Your STi doesn't have the ramp-up fix, but it does have the three stage audio ramp-up which was introduced before the full audio ramp-up fix became available at the end of last year. You can send it to Bel to get it flashed with the ramp-up fix if you want.

So in my above example, you would say he got my speed when I turned the bend, and if I was not alerted by the mini-van, I probably would have been ticketed.
That's what I think.
I was looking real close to the front (sensor) area of the STi, and noticed the roof line was cutting off half of the sensor of the STi.
In other words, half of the STi's sensor was being blocked by the roof line.
I wedged a lighter sideways between the top of the STi and the ceiling, making it sit more level, and I did notice a ... noticeable difference in performance.
I believe if I remove my visor, I can hang cable ties or something from the ceiling of the car and the STi will have full view through the windshield, and sit level. The only down side would be that it would be looking through the strip of tint at the top of the windshield.
One more question: does the strip of tint at the top of the windshield really damper ability to pick up radar, or is it just bad for laser?
I am now strongly considering buying one of those visor CD holders/concealed RD mount, but wonder if the LEO might see the sensor sticking out of the front of it.