X50 reoccurring Laser False

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06-22-2006, 08:05 PM
Orbital75

X50 reoccurring Laser False

A co-worker of mine keeps complaining that his X50 keeps getting reoccurring Laser Falses. He stated that it happens in different locations and only durning the day time. His detertor is mounted high just below the Rearview Mirror and wired by the Cigar Plug. The car is a Flat Black 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee. It hasn't went into Sel Cal yet and hasn't shown any sigh of malfuction. I'm thinking that it's stray light reflecting off the hood. Is flat black known to do this? Any ideas what could be causing this ? I thought I may also Add it's Rev. 5
06-22-2006, 08:35 PM
Arashi666

it could be flashes of light coming off of the other cars, that would be my guess
06-22-2006, 09:29 PM
compu44

Try a different vehicle and let us know what happens.
06-22-2006, 11:18 PM
AirMoore

Re: X50 reoccurring Laser False

Quote:

Originally Posted by Orbital75

Any ideas what could be causing this ?

Noisy electrical system.
06-23-2006, 08:22 AM
M_Six

Or a nearby airport.
06-23-2006, 08:40 AM
f_399

have him test it in another car in the regular route he uses

it could be the electrics in his car
06-23-2006, 09:29 AM
Orbital75

From what he has told me, he's had the detector for about two years and it has worked flawlessly. He always bragged about how well the X50 handled false alerts. When this started happened he was shocked because he had never had falseing issues before. Since it's never had issues before and it's the same car I think we can way out the "Noisy electrical system". You are right though that is a common problem sometimes. There is an airport near by but it's 15 miles away. I told him to try it in another vehicle to see if it's just a reflection off the hood or the postion he has it mounted in may be getting reflections off other cars. I have suggested everything from this Thread to him so if anyone has any more suggestions feel free to post. He wants this issue resolved so he's very open to suggestions.
06-23-2006, 09:37 AM
kpatz

With Passports, laser falses are usually caused by electrical noise. But it can vary from one unit to the next. For example, I have a friend who has an original 8500, and I have an X50. His unit sometimes laser falses when he honks the horn or opens the sunroof in his car (an Audi S4). Last time we got together, we tried his 8500 in my car, and my X50 in his car, and I was able to get his 8500 to laser false in my car by honking the horn. I swapped my X50 back in, honked the horn, nothing. My X50 in his car, nothing.

So depending on the specific unit you have, and the car you drive, you may or may not get laser falses on your X50.
06-26-2006, 04:48 PM
Jeeves

They're not always electrical noise. Mine started this, right before it started locking up, and crapping out.

How's this for fun?
- Scanning dot froze in place.
- Would Freeze at random points, (X OFF, LSR OFF, Etc.)
- Random Service Required
- Occasional "SELF CAL" messages.

Yeah, I shipped it back for repair.
06-28-2006, 12:42 PM
ziddey

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeeves

They're not always electrical noise. Mine started this, right before it started locking up, and crapping out.

How's this for fun?
- Scanning dot froze in place.
- Would Freeze at random points, (X OFF, LSR OFF, Etc.)
- Random Service Required
- Occasional "SELF CAL" messages.

Yeah, I shipped it back for repair.

How would one go about remedying this electrical noise issue?

I had this problem in my old 85 prelude where when I honked, it'd set the laser off. Then I got a 91 fox, which has an ass load of electrical issues (half the wires were rerigged ghetto style by some old mechanic of the person who owned the car before me). Before I hard wired it, I didn't get the laser issue with the horn. Now that I have it hardwired, everytime I honk or use the windshield washer or a lot of other things, it lasers.

edit: I'm not looking to just put a cap inline for the x50. I'd much rather just fix the noisy system since I have some other equipment that I'd like to protect
06-28-2006, 10:25 PM
Brent27

mines falses by the airport everytime least twice while passing on the thruway...
06-28-2006, 10:48 PM
ziddey

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brent27

mines falses by the airport everytime least twice while passing on the thruway...

that's the anti terrorist measure. because terrorists are trained to be able to see laser and theyre detered from airports because the laser beams give them headaches. hope this helps :)
06-30-2006, 12:07 PM
StlouisX50

Mine falsed the other day and I could not figure out for the life of my why. I believe it could have been from a airplane shooting lidar for surveying? I'M not quite sure if this was what it was from but I'M sure it's possible. They use lidar all the time for space and surveying. I have heard that Marksman the gun used in space so who knows if this is what causes the detector to go off.

My X50 false alerts to laser when the horn is honked. ( The first time) If you honk the horn any more after the alert it won't go off.
06-30-2006, 02:21 PM
venexoz

There was a post that explained why when you pass by an airport you get laser falses, I think it was that the airports have a laser system to calculate the wind speed and other stuff.

My X50 today just falsed with an ambulance on the opposite lane :roll:
06-30-2006, 03:26 PM
DAG

Fixed my 8500 X50 shielding

My 2005 WRX started giving laser false alarms on my blue 8500 X50. I have used this detector for more than a year and never saw this until three days ago when I went to "stage 2" by adding a new downpipe to my exhaust. Then, on hard acceleration, I'd get laser alerts. I've read all the thread on this board as well as others and before I added capacitors and ferrites to the power line, decided to call Escort. I spoke to a tech there who said this is not uncommon. It is due to RF interference and not from vehicle electrical noise as others have postulated. There are already capacitors in the electrical feeds into the unit and adding more would not help. What Escort does is double check the internal shielding around the laser part of the pc board, resolder the one factory shield joint, and solder others. I decided to fix my own. Remove the three screws from the case bottom. Find the shield that looks like a metal box, It is screwed down to the board with two screws and has one solder joint on it. I re-did that joint and soldered the other crimp tabs that are there as well. Tested it out several times today in the same situations that it gave consistent false positives before and voila! It appears to be fixed!

BTW, I found one of my case screws missing due to cracked plastic mounting posts in the case cover that the case screws go into. Crappy brittle material and design. I reinforced these with CA glue and it is holding up now.
06-30-2006, 03:33 PM
ziddey

Re: Fixed my 8500 X50 shielding

Quote:

Originally Posted by DAG

My 2005 WRX started giving laser false alarms on my blue 8500 X50. I have used this detector for more than a year and never saw this until three days ago when I went to "stage 2" by adding a new downpipe to my exhaust. Then, on hard acceleration, I'd get laser alerts. I've read all the thread on this board as well as others and before I added capacitors and ferrites to the power line, decided to call Escort. I spoke to a tech there who said this is not uncommon. It is due to RF interference and not from vehicle electrical noise as others have postulated. There are already capacitors in the electrical feeds into the unit and adding more would not help. What Escort does is double check the internal shielding around the laser part of the pc board, resolder the one factory shield joint, and solder others. I decided to fix my own. Remove the three screws from the case bottom. Find the shield that looks like a metal box, It is screwed down to the board with two screws and has one solder joint on it. I re-did that joint and soldered the other crimp tabs that are there as well. Tested it out several times today in the same situations that it gave consistent false positives before and voila! It appears to be fixed!

BTW, I found one of my case screws missing due to cracked plastic mounting posts in the case cover that the case screws go into. Crappy brittle material and design. I reinforced these with CA glue and it is holding up now.

New car, nice ride. But it probably wouldn't hurt to upgrade all the ground wires in the engine bay. I know a lot of people consider that to be a performance mod too. Better grounding also yields stabler power and often a bit of extra power as well. :)
07-03-2006, 09:41 AM
DAG

Re: Fixed my 8500 X50 shielding

Quote:

Originally Posted by ziddey

New car, nice ride. But it probably wouldn't hurt to upgrade all the ground wires in the engine bay. I know a lot of people consider that to be a performance mod too. Better grounding also yields stabler power and often a bit of extra power as well. :)

Bah. Snake oil. I'm already at stage 2, 285hp with real mods (Cobb AP and DP) that are dyno proven. If it was an older car with rust, etc. maybe it'd make some difference. My car is pristine. In the meantime, the soldering of the internal shield joints has fixed it perfectly. No more false positive laser alerts!
07-03-2006, 09:44 AM
ziddey

hmm I might do the same then. Could you post some pictures?
07-03-2006, 12:25 PM
DAG

Quote:

Originally Posted by ziddey

hmm I might do the same then. Could you post some pictures?

If it weren't for the crappy case screws, I'd post shots, but I'm reluctant to take the case apart again. Just remove the three screws from the bottom and look for the metal shield that runs along side of the bottom of the board. You can't miss it. Re-solder the factory crimp and solder the other few crimps that are there. They connect the shielding from the top part of the board to the bottom. That's all you have to do.