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hey guys.. have been thumbing through the manual and trying to get the most out of it. I see some guys on here using the scanning dots. What is the purpose of this? I am gonna try out the expert mode tomorrow. How do you 8500 users program yours?
right now I have mine
aMute-on
tone-loud (loud exhaust on car)
meter-std
text-complete word
display-bright
mounted high behind non-metallic tint strip above RVM and hard-wired and lovin it so far!!
I have never used the roaming dots. I just leave it with "H" or highway, depending on mood. Auto Mute on. X off (nearly non existent in my state). Tone Loud. Expert Mode is my preference.
I am not sure if the scanning dot does anything than give you something different to look at. Unless your display is not visible through the rear windshield, might I suggest low brightness or dark mode for the night hours? also, you may want to consider turning off the x band if it's not inuse in your city. Check here: http://www.radardetector.net/forums/...-8-6-09-a.html for radar bands by town.
Also, are you using a plain 8500, or one of the X50s?
My settings are currently set like this:
aMute - off (that's what the volume wheel is for, plus my music is too loud otherwise)
tone-loud
meter-spc (trying to get acclimated to the local bands in use, doing alright so far)
text - complete word
city -noX (I turn this to highway when leaving town/going to houston cause hpd uses X, believe it or not)
Members here like the scanning dot because if your 8500 ever freezes up, you'll know it because the scanning dot stops moving.
Great to know! I never thought about that
Didn't know that they could freeze. something else for me to watch out for, I guess.Quote:
Originally Posted by djrams80
It's not common, but it's bad news if it does.Quote:
Originally Posted by Davis
X2, plus it looks cool.Quote:
Originally Posted by djrams80
I had an X50 freeze up once. There is no way to tell it's frozen without the scanning dots ... everything looks fine until you push any button and get no response. :(
The scanning dot is just a pilot light option, it does not change what your detector does in any way. its just how you want it to look when it is not detecting anything and just searching.Quote:
Originally Posted by cclt1z
I always called it "movie mode" so the RD has flashy lights to blend in with the fast and furious cars. Freezing up would be a good thing to know, wouldn't want to find that one out by getting a radar ticket when the officer "didn't have his radar on"Quote:
Originally Posted by Obsidian
i have the regular 8500. I have never seen X in use in my area even though on the list of cities it says that X is used. Even in the small town I live in they use K and Ka. I will have to try out the dots. that makes sense..
"H" as the pilot light because I don't like extra lights if I don't need them
Fast power on sequence because I don't want extra noise
Spec Display because I am a numbers freak
Automute off because I don't want to forget about an alert
Loud Audio Tones because I might have the radio cranked up
Maximum Brightness which used to be on Last brightness but I would forget to turn up the brightness if I used it at night
X band off because it isn't used here
I'm curious, but when the rd "freezes up" you just restet the power and it works again? Or do you have to send it in?
Turn it off and then turn it back on. It only happened to me once (that I know of), but I almost got sick when I realized I had bombed 30 miles worth of canyons with zero protection. :eek:Quote:
Originally Posted by Davis
That particular X50 did go self cal soon after, but it was also an S7 model. I have not heard reports of the M4 X50's freezing.
Hmmm, well, I have the M4, so I should be ok. My X50 doesn't like it if I turn it on and then turn the car on. It self cal'd three times and then did service required. I learned that the voltage fluctuation confuses it. I was really suprised the first time I saw it. I'd heard about the reliability issues but didn't think it'd happen to me. I guess I'll be on the lookout for the freeze then, just in case.
that happened to me exactly!:eek: i started to freak when i heard self cal was the kiss of death.. but then i just learned to turn car on first then plug in .. i guess it did freeze on me a few times since then but it stopped doing that ... i thinkQuote:
Originally Posted by Davis
DJ rams has a very good point on the scanning dot. That is a neat feature to figure out how your 8500/X50 is running. Oh I forgot, the 9500i series and the Redline also have that too. Up here in the cold weather, the voltage meter seems to be a great feature for monitoring our vehicle batteries.
On the 9500's you can also run the detector in Speed Display mode which acts as a speedometer. That has the dual benefit of letting you know the detector is not frozen AND that GPS is working. :DQuote:
Originally Posted by proudNMAmember
When I need a backup speedometer, I break out my K band radar and shoot it at trees and rocks n things. :P
I've used to voltage display on my X50 to watch the voltage supply from the alternator cary as I add gas and let up. It's a fun thing to see.