9500 Repaired Warranty-Now Marked Speedtraps Don't Announce!

I had what apparently is a well known issue with my 9500 where when I hit bumps it would slide on it's suction cup mount piece that extends into the detector and end up pointing up at the sky. I called and told them about it and added that from time to time the GPS filter would also suddenly be turned off and when turned back on it would display "GPS Err"- powering off and on always fixed that. ...And yes, it was well in the middle of a big windshield in an X5 that does not have any special coating like IR on the glass- has a good view of the sats etc etc.

Anyway, they sent me a label and I sent them the 9500 while I was off on a business trip. I got it back within the week (excellent). The card in the box said "Replaced top case and speaker. Repaired GPS Brd. Updated SW."

I put it in the car and the mount is great now and the voice sounds better, clearer. The bad news is that when I enter an area where I had previously marked an instant on set up trap, I get no "You are approaching your marked location- 5200 feet....etc" So I figured all my locations got erased, but now even if I MARK a new spot as SPEEDTRAP or CAMERA or whatever, when I drive back into it I get no warning at all! I'm sure all the settings in Prefs are right. Voice is on.

I called Escort and they said "...hhhmmmm, don't know.....we'll send you another UPS Label and look at it and see if we see any problem." That's not very encouraging. Do you think I should press this further...ask for a new unit for example and forego my places that are marked...or do I just suck it up and send it back yet again?

Personally it can’t hurt to ask them to send you a new one. But they have the right to send you a new out of box updated one as well, so you may not be any better off. Ether way you will be fine this next time around. :wink:
Ask if they can give you a new unit because you feel that the one you got has a higher potential to having more problems. :wink:

Hi Pws,

Its possible (probably even likely) that some other tweaks were done to the software aside from the ramp-up fix. Try this:

--Make sure that voice is on (I'm sure you have already done this).
--Mark a location.
--Continue to drive until you are at least 1.5 miles away from the marked location.
--Power cycle your 9500i using its power button.
--Drive back towards the marked location. Your 9500i should alert you that you are approaching a marked location.

Let us know if this works!

--Michael

Yes, voice is on as mentioned in my post. Will try this. I have done this experiment but without the power cycle. In my BMW the front cigarette lighter socket is always on so I rarely cycle the power.
I'll let you know. Thanks for the replies.

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Originally Posted by MEM-TEK

Hi Pws,

Its possible (probably even likely) that some other tweaks were done to the software aside from the ramp-up fix. Try this:

--Make sure that voice is on (I'm sure you have already done this).
--Mark a location.
--Continue to drive until you are at least 1.5 miles away from the marked location.
--Power cycle your 9500i using its power button.
--Drive back towards the marked location. Your 9500i should alert you that you are approaching a marked location.

Let us know if this works!

--Michael

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I think Mem-teks suggestion should work...

Also remember that the 9500i will not mark a location when there is a radar source or the 9500i is receiving an alert. You may think that it will mark it at first but it will not and when you come back, there will be no voice warning. Make sure to only mark a location with no alert or you have to wait until the alert is gone and mark the location.

Thanks, knew that. These spots were marked with no LEO present and no signal. Am hoping the Off/On helps....we'll see.

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Originally Posted by Azonehits

Also remember that the 9500i will not mark a location when there is a radar source or the 9500i is receiving an alert. You may think that it will mark it at first but it will not and when you come back, there will be no voice warning. Make sure to only mark a location with no alert or you have to wait until the alert is gone and mark the location.

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Mem-Tek- you rock. That did it indeed. I power cycled before leaving the driveway and when I got to 2600' from the spot I had marked it announced it and counted down just fine. That saves me from havu=ing to send the unit back again. Big help- many thanks. SHould get added to the FAQ.

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Originally Posted by MEM-TEK

Hi Pws,

Its possible (probably even likely) that some other tweaks were done to the software aside from the ramp-up fix. Try this:

--Make sure that voice is on (I'm sure you have already done this).
--Mark a location.
--Continue to drive until you are at least 1.5 miles away from the marked location.
--Power cycle your 9500i using its power button.
--Drive back towards the marked location. Your 9500i should alert you that you are approaching a marked location.

Let us know if this works!

--Michael

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You leave your detector on all the time? Over night...

I never really saw any reason not to. I found that if I shut it off and jumped in the car later and took off down the road, I often would forget to turn it ON. The electrical draw is minimal and it's not like heat is wearing it out or anything.

I think you encountered the reasons why it should be turned off at night. :roll:

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Originally Posted by CJR238

I think you encountered the reasons why it should be turned off at night. :roll:

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Or at least power cycled using its power button at the end of the day after adding any new lockout locations or marked locations. Its during the power down sequence that the 9500i commits these things to memory.

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Make sure to only mark a location with no alert or you have to wait until the alert is gone and mark the location.

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This can't possibly be right, I mark locations where cops are known to hide and are there active when I do so and my marked locations work fine when doing this. My date code is 4307 so maybe this was something that was an issue but they have since fixed. I know I either read in the manual, or here about rebooting it after marking a location, rebooting anything electronic from time to time is always a good thing, solves many a problems with everything from computers, cell phones to DVD players and TV's.

It wouldn't even make sense to make it that way since one of the primary purposes behind the idea of GPS marking locations is for permanently mounted speed cameras. How could you ever wait for a speed camera to be off to mark it, they run 24/7?

Glad you figured the problem out, seems very odd that Escort support didn't catch and suggest this, maybe you were just talking to the receptionist. Then again every company always have those employees that are nothing more than warm bodies hired to fill a seat, it's why you can always have one person claiming tech support somewhere is so great, then someone else complaining about how terrible it was for them. I suppose in fairness to them though they probably never suspected you just leave the thing powered on all the time.

As far as your original thought of requesting a new one, you're probably always better off just letting them fix the one you send in. A new one could very easily have its own new problems, at least the same one repaired has had more eyes in it looking it over than a new one just rush shot down an assembly line would have. You also have to consider the replacement you might get would most likely just be another one someone else had sent in demanding another one, so the only gain would be in your own mind.

I called Escort today and let them know I wouldn't be sending them my 9500 since you guys had straightened me out that it needs to be shut off and turned back on to save sites like SPDTRAP, CAMERA, etc. The tech said no, you should not have to do that. You just have to drive more than a mile away.
HHhhhmmmmmm, I asked if he was sure and he said to let him verify that and I held on. He came back online after 3 or 4 minutes and said, yeah, you should not have to power cycle for a new location to be active. I said, gee, I guess there is something wrong with mine again then. Then he told me you shouldn't leave the unit on all the time- that's 'bad for it'.
Being curious of course, I asked - why is that bad? He said I don;t know but you just shouldn't.
I let it go at that, but now I'm confused again. Based on his 'it's just bad' comment, I don;t take him as such an authority but....
REQUEST- is there someone out there with one of these that can drive a couple of miles, mark a Seedtrap location and then drive a few miles away and drive back through it please and tell me if they get "Approaching your marked location" or not?
I am off to find the user manual online hopefully and see what it says.
Thanks.

Hes right, you need to drive out of the lock out area (over 1mi) it works for me every time, but i turn mine off every night too.
You will get glitches and strange things happening by not powering down with some electronic devices like computers, cell phones and even DVD players.

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Originally Posted by Esoterica

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Make sure to only mark a location with no alert or you have to wait until the alert is gone and mark the location.

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This can't possibly be right, I mark locations where cops are known to hide and are there active when I do so and my marked locations work fine when doing this. My date code is 4307 so maybe this was something that was an issue but they have since fixed. I know I either read in the manual, or here about rebooting it after marking a location, rebooting anything electronic from time to time is always a good thing, solves many a problems with everything from computers, cell phones to DVD players and TV's.

It wouldn't even make sense to make it that way since one of the primary purposes behind the idea of GPS marking locations is for permanently mounted speed cameras. How could you ever wait for a speed camera to be off to mark it, they run 24/7?

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Has anyone with the new update confirm this? I know the older units will not mark a location when it is receiving an alert.

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REQUEST- is there someone out there with one of these that can drive a couple of miles, mark a Seedtrap location and then drive a few miles away and drive back through it please and tell me if they get "Approaching your marked location" or not?

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I'm already home for the night and naked at my keyboard, so I'd rather not go back out into the cold. In the morning however, I have about a 250 mile each way drive to make on a stretch of highway I haven't taken my new detector on yet but know there are some VASCAR markers on it I'll want to mark so I'll just leave my detector on when I arrive to my destination and see what happens on my way back, then post my findings here for you.

I'd be curious to see if this works or not as well seeing as how Escort told you this and I know I've read somewhere that you do have to power down for it to set.

As far as turning it off, it's not good for any sensitive electronics device to suffer through voltage and current spikes, you could very easily damage internal components by doing this. When your car is up and running you're being powered by your vehicles alternator which will typically put out about 14Volts DC into your electrical system, as well as a higher available current output. when your car is off then everything is draining off your battery, in an idea world you'd see a voltage output of about 12Volts DC, in reality you could be running as low as 9 volts DC though.

The 9500i does have voltage protection built into it and powering it in the range of 9-14 volts shouldn't be a problem on paper, but even these voltages and currents running through your vehicles electrical system are far from fixed when you are starting your car up, you could have some pretty dramatic drops and rises during this time as the starter on your car pulls down a lot on your electrical system, then in that split second your car starts up you get hit in the opposite direction by the high output of your alternator. Sensitive electronics do not live long if repeatedly exposed to this type of abuse, and it's an unnecessary abuse on your part for just being too lazy to reach over and hit a button. I don't even like having my electronic devices plugged into my vehicles electrical system till the vehicle is started and up and running, then I don't just turn it all off, but also unplug everything before I even turn the vehicle off.

There is another side to that same argument though, turning sensitive electronic devices on and then off for extended periods of time will cause fluctuations of the internal temperatures. Heating and cooling extremes like this causes things to expand and contract and has certainly been known to cause even just microscopic cracks, particularly in solder joints, which will make things not work at all or properly.

These radar detectors are not high heat dissipating types of equipment like say your computer is, so the hot and cold extremes when on or off are going to be rather negligible and the danger of high or low voltage and current spikes to it is by far a larger threat to its longevity and reliability.

In addition to that, just by leaving it on all the time also increases your threat of theft. Maybe you keep it in a garage at night, but what about when you're at the mall shopping for your new designer jeans? Having the thing on in your vehicle is just begging for it to be stolen, a thief may walk by and not even notice it if it was off, or better completely taken down and placed out of any sight. Having it on though if the lights from it doesn't catch their eye when walking by your car, an alert by a passing cop could draw attention to it from several cars away. It seems kind of silly that you'd want to increase your odds of walking up to your car to find a window broken out and your detector gone just because you didn't want to take 1/10th of a second to hit your power button.

I can't comprehend your reasoning for always wanting to leave it on in the first place other than just to save a second of time from turning it off. You could spend that second of time turning it off for the rest of your life and it still isn't going to add up to the time and money you're going to waste having to take your car in to get the window replaced, the broken glass cleaned out and replacing your now stolen detector.

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I know the older units will not mark a location when it is receiving an alert.

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Tell me then, how do you mark speed camera's?

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Originally Posted by Esoterica

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I know the older units will not mark a location when it is receiving an alert.

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Tell me then, how do you mark speed camera's?

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Mark it before or after the alert. :lol:

To clarify- I didn't really have any question about marking locations where there is a signal. I gather you can not do that nor can you lockout and store a 'Ka' signal- fine, no problem. [Note there is a fixed Ka signal on the way to 95 from La Guardia that I believe is Ka on a traffic sign- I would actually like to lock that one out- it is full strength on the expert meter every time through there- I think that's Nothern Blvd but not sure)
Myquestion is whether you can add a location and have it remembered when you return from more than a mile away without powering off and on the 9500.

I agree with the post on turning off the unit is ideal. Saves battery, fluctuation surges....makes it less noticeable to passersby so less likely to get stolen- yeah, I get all that. I have returned to a car once already in college to find a very cool (then) Whistler radar detector stolen and a window smashed so I already put the unit away when parking at the airport or at the mall etc.

The reason I had been leaving it on in my own secure garage was purely the convenience of not having to remember to turn it on the next time I jump in the car. May be it's my age or how busy work is or whatever, but I forget to power it back on. I can remember times when I would jump in the car and take off and come upon a LEO with radar running and think- "Wow, I wonder if he wasn't transmitting?" I'd look at the detector and realize it was still turned off! Duh!
So call me forgetful or whatever, but that was my thinking in this- better to risk that it can deal with startups of the car better than I can deal with getting tagged with a radar that didn't get detected because I had it mounted on the windshield and still turned off. To my mind, it will die from being outdated before it dies from starting the engine and having spikes.

Nevertheless, I will keep testing. I am still not back at 100% confidence that it is working as it should. I was initially relieved to try the power on/off to 'save' the new locations to memory or whatever. That seemed to resolve my issue. But last night, having marked 2 locations near eachother 2 days before on a local road where the police sit off to the side and instant-on Ka band tag cars coming down a hill, and having powered down (with the power button) and re-powered on the 9500, I drove through that road on my way home last night. NO ALERT! So I marked the 1st spot again as SPEEDTRAP....What the?
So I powered it off an on and it alerted when I got to the second spot as it should have on both. I just don't get why it's doing this.
More testing before I am willing to give up and send it back to them.... Could I have NOT succeeded in marking that first spot? Did I wait too long to power off/on the unit? We'll see- more tests.

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Originally Posted by Pws

Note there is a fixed Ka signal on the way to 95 from La Guardia that I believe is Ka on a traffic sign- I would actually like to lock that one out- it is full strength on the expert meter every time through there- I think that's Nothern Blvd but not sure)

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You cannot lock out a Ka band source. Only K and X(not sure on this since I have not locked an X band source before).

K & X no problem, the trick is to lock out the X band falses without locking out K band falses if you’re in a high risk area. :wink: I have done it with no problem. :wink:

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Originally Posted by Esoterica

I'm already home for the night and naked at my keyboard, so I'd rather not go back out into the cold.

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Obviously Esoterica likes RD.net just as much as viewing Internet porn while naked! I prefer to keep my clothes on. :lol: :oops: :wink:

You owe me $3.00 for the additional gas I used testing this for you by the way. I'll send you a bill in the mail.

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Myquestion is whether you can add a location and have it remembered when you return from more than a mile away without powering off and on the 9500.

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Ok, are you ready for what I determined...

I tried this twice in 2 different locations, once by my house before leaving, and then another location about 150 miles away, drove an additional 100 miles to my destination, left the detector on the entire time and on my return trip back neither of the marked locations were alerted. I then drove another 3 miles past the location by my house I had marked this morning (2nd pass by that earlier marked location, no alert) and powered my unit off. Drove back three miles to the marked location and was alerted, approaching marked location, countdown in feet, then blam! I get hit by a Ka alert as I entered the intersection I had marked, sure enough there was a highway patrol setting at the light waiting to cross the road.

The marked location did register before (and during) the Ka hit I took, but I thought this may have skewed the test I was doing for you, so I drove another mile past this location and returned with the Ka or any other signal absent from the area. My marked location did alert.

So my findings were conclusive to me that I do have to power mine off (date code 4307) before any of my marked locations then work. I use the mark location feature for all the VASCAR markers in my area (several) and it has worked for me every time, so I have no concerns that maybe something is wrong with my unit, you just have to power it off and back on before marked locations work.

As far as the lock out feature goes, I have locked out both K and X band (not at the same time that I'm aware of) and it works ok, though there is one I question because it seems odd to me. It's a cell tower looking thing out in the middle of no where in the desert about 100 feet off the road. As I approach it the bar drama slowly builds till I'm right next to it and I get a full blast X band false from it. I locked this thing out, but noticed the other day while passing it again (at 65mph) I still pick up a single bar X false before going into spinning icon lockout notice and the detector ignores it like expected.

I can't imagine there's a second X band source out there, it's in the middle of no where, I can only suspect it has to be the same signal, but I must be getting it before I'm within range of lockout working on it (did not check odometer, but if it is picking this up it certainly isn't more than a mile away from it, I'd guess closer to 1/2 mile if that and that's at 65+ mph).

I have not tried locking out any Ka bands around here as I've never had a Ka false to try this on so I can't comment on that.

That's very helpful! I do have a follow-up question to make sure I understand.

You say "...findings were conclusive to me that I do have to power mine off (date code 4307) before any of my marked locations then work....."

Is that to say that if I have 50 locations marked and I add a new one and have not power cycled that the other 50 will cease to alert until I cycle? That's what I get from the "...before ANY of my marked locations....". If so that explains the odd behavior I thought I was seeing. Said another way, 'If you mark any location with SPEEDTRAP, CAMERA or OTHER, until you power cycle all previously marked spots do NOT alert any longer.' Have I got that right?

Thanks man. And yeah, I owe you three bucks. :o

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Originally Posted by Pws

That's very helpful! I do have a follow-up question to make sure I understand.

You say "...findings were conclusive to me that I do have to power mine off (date code 4307) before any of my marked locations then work....."

Is that to say that if I have 50 locations marked and I add a new one and have not power cycled that the other 50 will cease to alert until I cycle? That's what I get from the "...before ANY of my marked locations....". If so that explains the odd behavior I thought I was seeing. Said another way, 'If you mark any location with SPEEDTRAP, CAMERA or OTHER, until you power cycle all previously marked spots do NOT alert any longer.' Have I got that right?

Thanks man. And yeah, I owe you three bucks. :o

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I haven't fooled around with the marked location feature much. But I have to go to town this evening and I will test your question out for you and post back here later this evening. Yet I am 99% sure that all previously marked locations will work, just not the newly marked locations, until you power cycle your 9500i again.

No, you're reading that wrong or I wasn't clear. My existing marked locations worked fine, it was only my new marked locations that did not work untill after driving more than one mile away and then power cycling the 9500i.

I'd be curious to know though just how many marked and locked out locations the internal memory of this is capable of holding, should you find yourself back on the phone with their support and think about asking this question it would be cool to report the info back.

I was reading a pre-review of the new 9500ci and it indicated that after detecting the same signal 3 times and noticing you haven't slowed down it will auto lockout this signal as a false. I guess reading that is what really had my curiosity going about how many locations this thing can store. If you think about it, this would mean the thing would have to be logging every single signal and location you ever pick up for the rest of its life for that to be possible. I'm sure these things don't have infinate memory capabilities, there has to be some limit right?

I also wish they'd hurry up and get the software out so people can back up their stored locations. I'd like to be able to clear the internal memory on mine from time to time and reload my back up to it as I'd be certain there would eventually be an issue of data in it being corrupted over time and causing problems, at least there always is with any other electronic device I own like this.

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Originally Posted by Esoterica

No, you're reading that wrong or I wasn't clear. My existing marked locations worked fine, it was only my new marked locations that did not work untill after driving more than one mile away and then power cycling the 9500i.

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I've returned from town and from testing the mark location feature. It works exactly as you describe. However, I decided to throw an additional test into the mix:

-- I drove 4 miles outside of town and marked a location next to a gas station.

-- I made a U turn to head back to town.

-- After driving for 2 miles toward town I then power cycled my 9500i to permanently store the marked location outside of town.

-- Back in town I marked a new location in town.

-- I drove 4 miles back to the stored marked location and got the alert and countdown in feet for the stored outside-of-town marked location.

-- I then cleared this stored out-of-town marked location. [i]Note that I did not power cycle my 9500i again after clearing this marked location outside of town.[/]

-- I drove back to town and got an alert that I was approaching the location which I had marked in town! This in-town location had not been stored yet since I did not power cycle my 9500i!

What can I conclude? Apparently the act of unmarking a location forces the 9500i to commit all new marked locations since the last power to memory without having to power cycle the 9500i.

Now I wonder if the same holds true for TrueLock too. I didn't test that since I was tired and wanted to get home. Besides, snow is forecast here to come in this evening which is another reason why I wanted to get home.

The memory on the 9500I is over 5,000 locations, and according to the patent if the memory is used up it will delete the unused last lock/mark location.
I wouldn’t mark anymore than 20-30 or so location’s anyway. :wink:

Very cool MEM-TEK it sounds like any completed action is confirmed with the next completed action (powering down or mark/locking a location) it actually makes sense. I will try it with an older 9500I build 1607, and see if it does it with that one too. :D

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I wouldn’t mark anymore than 20-30 or so location’s anyway.

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I was just curious about it is all, I probably have about 10 marked locations stored on mine for the VASCAR markers in my area. People living in the Phoenix AZ area though could probably end up with 20-30 easy if they were marking speed cameras.

I'm accumilating a lot of locked out false signals though, that's a great feature of this detector that I'm really enjoying. I'm about to the point of just turning the stupid X band off completely, I've never seen a non false X band hit.

I also just can't get over how I've never lost my license from tons of speeding tickets prior to using this thing. I had 3 more saves yesterday, and 3 really good saves today, all three of the ones today they would have certainly had me at 20mph over and I would have never seen them coming.

I did get a single POP alert today and looked for a cop but didn't see one anywhere, there was a large group of cars heading the other way I thought maybe an unmarled could have been mixed in with them. It was just one POP and then nothing more. What was even stranger is that on my return trip past that same exact area but in the opposite direction 2 hours later I took a single bar Ka alert, that came and went just as quick as the POP did going the other way. Again I seen no cop around and its an area of highway I travel often and get no falses on, weird.

I think I'm averaging now about 3-4 good and solid saves a day, just can't believe I've managed to survive this long without the thing and especially with as much driving all day as I do.

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Originally Posted by Esoterica

I did get a single POP alert today and looked for a cop but didn't see one anywhere, there was a large group of cars heading the other way I thought maybe an unmarled could have been mixed in with them. It was just one POP and then nothing more. What was even stranger is that on my return trip past that same exact area but in the opposite direction 2 hours later I took a single bar Ka alert, that came and went just as quick as the POP did going the other way. Again I seen no cop around and its an area of highway I travel often and get no falses on, weird.

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^ This sounds like a false-scenario.

However, it's rather strange that it can't be pinned-down to anything in-[particular. Strange indeed!

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I'm about to the point of just turning the stupid X band off completely, I've never seen a non false X band hit.

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That’s one of the things I love with locking X band I don’t need to turn it off. I occasionally drive through areas that use X band and I don’t want to forget to turn it back on.

^ +1.

Here in Ohio - although I rarely road-trip anymore - X-band is still in-use, most infamously by our State Troopers. As-such, I still need X-band protection.

The LockOut feature of the 9500i allows me to not have to worry about constantly switching modes. :)

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I occasionally drive through areas that use X band and I don’t want to forget to turn it back on.

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I guess that's what I was wanting to hear, if anyone still used X Band anymore. So since it sounds like they do I'll leave it on, there are still a lot of little towns around that I haven't had a chance to take this to yet and they would likely be using old hand me down radar they bought cheap on eBay.

The 7 hour drive from Reno Nevada to Las vegas is a speed ticket horror story. It's mostly wasteland and 2 lane 75mph highway, but then it hits every little run down mining town along the way where they drop from 75 to 25 mph and the only way these towns survive at all is by all the speeding tickets they make off of this. If I thought the speeding ticket money was going towards building a bypass around these towns I'd let them write me tickets all day long, but more likely the money just goes to put new windows in the mobile homes they use for a town hall. It would not surprise me if they were using X band in these towns.

As far as that POP signal I got, it would be my first Ka false I've had, I thought maybe it was one of those Cobra's I was reading here about that are claimed to cause POP falses, but then when I got the Ka single quick hit coming back through that area 2 hours later I kind of ruled the likely hood of that out. Just drove through there today and got nothing like in that area in the past. Guess it just bugs me to leave a mystery hanging like that and I can suspect all I want but will never know for sure what it was.

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Originally Posted by Esoterica

Guess it just bugs me to leave a mystery hanging like that and I can suspect all I want but will never know for sure what it was.

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Totally agreed. That kind of thing bothers me to no end, too.

I know this one house down the street from me that set off KA occasionally but only when a beat up Chevy was there. Apparently he had a cobra and never turned it off.

^ ROFL!!! :lol: