New Radar Detector

Well, after almost a year with the C4S, I was finally stopped a couple of weeks back 73 in a 50 zone. You can't drive these cars at 50 on a divided highway. The officer was moving opposite to me on the other side of a divided highway, which was a good trick I need to read up on. I didn't know their processing in the radars had progressed to do a moving sensor solution, but he had my speed right on. So I picked up a Valentine One Generation Two from Amazon. I haven't owned a radar detector since back in my BMW days when I had an early Escort, which kept me out of court for about 5 years. The detection technology has really advanced. So, the guy who stopped me was a nice kid, local town officer. He ran my license and saw I was clean and he let me off on "Porsche Privilege'. Last thing he said to me was "Nice car...". So far I couldn't be happier with the Valentine. The best thing is it is tiny and light as a bird in your hand. The display is user friendly and the manuals are very good. For now I have it mounted on the passenger side visor and plugged into the cig lighter port. But I will be looking for a hard wired feed from up around the mirror and courtesy lights on the Porsche.That is where I had the Escort mounted on my BMers. I offered to install a Valentine in my wife's Boxster but she declined. Said she "...doesn't drive that fast...". Ha! Famous last words. She'll change her mind after the first ticket. So the last few days I have been driving around town in my Maxima with the Valentine sniffing around for various "threats". So far I haven't found a speed trap yet to practice on but when I do I plan to drive by a few times to check the various threat settings on the performance. I'll report back when I have some data. Rick

Nice choice. I have a V1 gen2 as well - and Mike Valentine (founder of the company) is a Porsche enthusiast and comes out to all the PCA events here in Cincinnati. His collection is pretty awe inspiring and at one time or another has brought multiple GT3 RS, 918 Spyder, and others. Regarding the moving radar read - yes, this is a thing. In fact, just about EVERY ticket I've received has been due to this. Radar detectors won't help on the highway if the officer is using LIDAR/laser, but with that they have to be stationary. If they're using radar, the detector is worth it's weight in gold. A couple recommendations - first I would look into Blend Mount. They are very slim, high quality, mounts that go on the rearview mirror. I have one in my Tesla and I love it. You could run the power cable up from there, around the interior windshield trim, down the a-pillar trim, and into the driver's footwell to tap into a switchable 12v source. The second (and this I consider a MUST have for a V1gen2) is an app called V1Driver. It connects to your V1 via bluetooth and has an array of settings. The most useful are the ability to set a mute speed (for example if you're driving under 10mph it will automatically mute) and the second is GPS mapping. So as you drive, it will learn where the false alerts are and start auto muting them. This was the biggest "wow" moment coming from a V1 gen 1 to the gen 2. Despite having the savvy OBD speed mute on my original V1 it would still squawk a lot for automatic doors. With the new one paired with V1Driver it is silent 99% of the time. A false alert is very very rare. Cheers charlie

I have front and rear mounted concealed K40 units in both of my 911s and have put on over 60k miles without incident. I drive quite fast and if I ever got pulled over for ONLY going 73 in a 50 I'd be laughing while they wrote the ticket. I 100% trust the K40 units and never drive without them operational. I can see them long before they can see me.

I got the V1 Gen 2 about 3 months ago. I did the wiring to the courtesy light up top. There are instructions in this group. It was a pain in the butt dealing with the tiny wires and it took me several tries to get it to not disconnect when I put the courtesy light assembly back together. I haven't messed with the app much but I have it. Too bad it doesn't work with CarPlay. I haven't found a speed trap with it yet. One or two cops driving around with the radar on but usually they have it off. I get alarms from the signs around here that display your speed. It's funny. The false alarm detection is much better but the sounds are exactly the same as the Maxon detectors I used in the 80'. And then 2 weeks later I got nailed on the way to work doing 52 in a 35 in my Outback. I just got done with traffic school yesterday.

Interesting subject. When I bought my car it had a V1 stealth install with a display in the rearview mirror. The unit was mounted behind the rear seats. There is a sensor glued onto the windshield lower left. I was told by the original owner that it was a $5000 installation in 2000. I replaced the V1 with an updated version a couple of years ago but it only lasted slightly more than a year before it failed completely. I replaced it with a Version 2 model but when the previously unit failed it apparently took out a lot of stuff with it. I couldn't get the mirror display to work with the new unit. I don't think the new unit is working with the windshield sensor because it is much more sensitive to signals from behind than in front. I'm considering relocating the V1 to the front of the car using the Blend Mount. I'd appreciate any feedback from users of that system.

I assume my Valentine is a Gen 1 because I bought it in 2008. When I first bought it, I took it EVERYWHERE, even the shower and then it was just for road trips and now it�s never. I rely on street smarts and cunning now. All kidding aside, I've tried to send mine in for an update and Valentine has been blaming "supply chain" issues for why it can't be done for a couple of years now. Around here, it's only occasionally the CHP checking speed and they use LIDAR so there isn't really any reason to use the Valentine. If I can ever get my unit updated, I would go back to using on road trips. I always liked this V1 rear view mirror integration. ​​​​​​​

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Thanks for the tip on the wiring SS. I've been staring at that pod up there thinking I need to pop it off to see the inside. For now I picked up an interface plug for the cig lighter that accommodates the V1 and charger cords.

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I really like that mirror display. Right now I'm running with the Valentine on the passenger sun visor and that seems to work well, and it gives me the option of stashing it under the seat when the car is parked. Is that display on the mirror a reflection? If so, do you have the V2 mounted in reverse? On the LIDAR , the Valentine literature says the V2 detects LIDAR but I think I read somewhere the detection range is close. Update: I now have the companion Ap for V2 and it pretty much scratches this itch on the mirror. I can now see the V2 display on my phone!

Bill you send your old unit to be rebuilt by valentine I haven’t done it I’ve read a few sites of people who have with very positive results

V1 and Escort Redline are the best technology. However, with today's digital Radar (very narrow beam vs the old stuff) and LIDAR as well as officer training that teaches them to NOT keep radar running all the time - only identifying a threat (i.e. standby mode), then I strongly recommend running Waze along side your detector. Waze is not 100% nor is a detector, but it's the best defense if you believe in situation awareness and counter measurement. Nothing worse than driving down an unfamiliar road that changes speed from like 65 to a 45 and the cop is sitting just beyond the speed change. I think it's pretty much law across all states that require them to stay at least 1000 ft from a speed change, but still that's not enough reaction time IMHO. That's why I prefer Escort. Those units use a nation database that's uploaded to the unit as well as being linked to your phone via BlueTooth. If you're running over, it alerts you and if the speed limit changes, it will also alert you. If you're running slower than the speed limit and a cop is running radar, it will beep once, but not bother you again. Waze will alert you in similar fashion. Happy motoring folks!

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I did the same thing for a month or so to see how I liked it. Then I worked on the mount. I swear you need to be a neurosurgeon to work on those tiny wires. I used the aux cable that came with the Gen 2 to wire to the power up there. The first problem I had is that I assumed the cable was wired straight through but it was crossover. So I got no power out of it at first. Once I figured that out and reversed the wires I got power. Then the tiny wires would be fine until I started buttoning up the assembly & they would come loose. It took me several tries to get that right. I know if I ever have to take it apart again it's going to be a PITA to get it back together with the wires intact.

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Thanks for the tip SS. Not sure what you meant by "crossover". Did you use the V1 aux cable with the junction box at the end? That looks pretty straight red and black. Or did you use the V1 cable with coils built in? Or the long telephone type cable? I don't see how they could be crossed over?? Or do you mean the car wiring? Thanks Rick

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No, it's inside the mirror. Check out this website: https://www.radar-mirror.com/v1/ Maybe I'm misunderstanding you and you're aware of it, but there's a hard wire kit for the Valentine. I dug out my Valentine because it's been over a year since I last checked on upgrading it. Still no go. I was wrong though, it's not just a "supply chain" issue, it's also a "chip shortage". These issues are going on 3 years now. I call BS, they just want to sell new units and not screw around with upgrading old units. That's fine but I just wish they would stop with the BS reasons.

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I used the instructions in the attached PDF which I found somewhere on this forum. I thought it was the most straightforward way to do it. Just strip a few cables and connect it to power & ground in the upper console. A crossover cable is where the wires are crossed over to different pins at the other end rather than landing on the same pin as a straight through cable would. I used the long telephone type cable. It turns out that cable connects like devices so it needs to cross the send wire to the receive pin on the other end, etc. You can tell by holding both ends of the cable next to each other in the same orientation. On a normal straight through cable the colors of the wires inside the plastic RJ11 (phone) connectors will be the same color left to right on both connectors. On a crossover, they won't. EDIT - The PDF never attached. Maybe I need to be an RL member? Either that or it tries to turn PDFs into pictures and it was too long.

Sorry gotta disagree with you on the chip shortage/supply chain thing. For example, I skydive and Dekunu One makes a great altimeter that tracks your jumps and then sends the info to their servers. You log in online and can track your jumps in 3d with lots of cool features such as exit tracking through the sky etc. They have not been able to make any new units for 2 years now due to chip shortages. They keep the online tracking open but I am sure that will go away if they cannot manufacture it anytime soon! Look at car manufacturers even Porsche is having issues with being able to sell cars fully functional. i.e. steering wheel issues, PCM issues, etc. I am sure these small electronics companies like Valentine are having real issues!

V1 Driver app compared to V1connection, the app (Valentine ! 's own app), vs. V1 companion. Anyone done a real comparison?

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Actually it is truthful. I listened to like an hour long interview with Mike Valentine about the new model, continuing to support old models, etc. I'll see if I can dig it up if you're interested in the nitty gritty details but in a nutshell they are an incredibly small company in terms of purchasing power. They rely on massive companies like samsung, etc, to keep demand up for specific technology and parts. They were informed by one of their suppliers that Samsung (or similar) is no longer going to be using some kind of sensor array on their products so they're shutting down production. Mike bought as much as he could at that time and it forced them to start redesigning the entire product around new and different components. Even though they're a leader in radar detectors, they're an extremely small fish in terms of sourcing and having components manufacturers and essentially have to be scavengers and use what is available. I think this is the interview: You Tube

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I tried the V1connection app initially but for me it didn't seem to automatically connect to the detector at startup. I would have to launch the app each time, which to me was too much of an inconvenience. It could have been a setting, or maybe I wasn't waiting long enough, etc. But when I tried V1Driver it connected immediately so I just stuck with that. Sometimes (very rarely) it doesn't connect right away. It will eventually connect but if I unlock my phone it connects. Moderate inconvenience but well worth it.

I just did a Long Island to Atlantic City round trip. I have the V1 Gen 2 with V1Driver app. For the most part, Waze alerts were earlier than the V1. Having both is good protection. I probably need to configure the V1Driver app because it's way too talkative. There was a lot of police activity on the way back (Friday).

I do a 90-mile commute on the NYS thruway 2 times a week and my waze app is amazing for pointing out smokies!!

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Thanks for your help and instructions. I installed it this morning with your instructions and all went well. The biggest problem was the ground wire. I used the install kit that came with the V1. I was very aware of backing out the bolt too far on the roof motor so it was tricky getting the ground wire in place. But it all went well and I am pleased that it runs off switched power so the V1 is only powered when the ignition key is on. Thanks again Rick

I'm running uniden R7's in the Porsche and S8 and am amazed at what the new technology is capable of with radar. After not running with one for prob 10yrs it's pretty cool to see the warning start going off up to 2-3 miles away on the hgwy. Laser will go off but only when you're right on top of it. There's a laser co that specializes in motorcycles that just released an auto product that's reasonably priced and pretty effective that I'm thinking of putting on the S8. Got to believe the technology is going to keep getting better and better ​​​

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I will certainty give them the benefit of the doubt. It just seemed a little weird that the supply chain/chip shortages only affected upgrades to older units when there was no problem with production of Gen 2 units.

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I have Waze now and as I understand it,the locations of the police are reported on Waze from Waze users who upload the locations, correct? The display also shows the locations of Waze users. I was surprised to see the other Waze users on the display so the app must be constantly updating the "mothership" on it's own location. Do you know if there is an audible alert from Waze? I'm running the V1 app also and I'm running out of display space on my little phone.

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Great! So you used the red/black cable with the two phone jack type ports at the end or another cable? That's the install kit that comes with the V2 and didn't seem to be a good choice to connect into the upper console. Though the wires would have been a LOT easier to work with. I'm also going to switch back to Waze. I figured out how to turn off the "stopped vehicle on side of highway" notifications I seem to get every 5 minutes. I haven't been on enough long trips with the V2 yet to get a good idea of what kind of radar the CHP is using. I know these sense LIDAR but it sounds like once it alarms it's usually too late.

I originally hardwired my V1 to the fuse box, but’s later replaced it with a SAAVY. (OBD connector that allows speed mute. My V1 uses a Blend Mount. I was not too happy with the fit with the Porsche 996 mount. I made a hybrid mount using my old BMW 135i Blend mount and the Porsche 996 Blend mount and it fits MUCH better. I use the stealth display which is mounted in front of the gauges below the tach.

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Yes I hooked it up as you described. And it does result in the two telephone jack plug dangling out the side of the overhead. But I used it because I liked the fact that it is fuzed in line. Now I'm looking for a shorter cable to run from the two plug jack to the unit. The one I am using now is a coiled cable that is way too long. I am also running Waze and learning the buttonology on that app. I made a 300 mile round trip with it yesterday and didn't see a cop the entire trip. I did see several "car stopped ahead" alerts, and there actually was a car stopped in one instance. I really like the idea of running the V1 in dark mode and using my phone as the control for the V1. That makes the V1 is invisible from behind the car. Stealthy. I need a bigger phone though. Thanks Rick

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Of course they can read speed when moving in opposite direction. For may be 20 years now, for sure, I had ticket for that in 2003... What's worse, they don't even need any technology to do it! Two eyes and officer's estimation of your speed is enough. Had a ticket like that too, fought it in court and lost of course. Because 20 y.o. cop's sense of speed can't be wrong And speed traps in our area always use lidar nowdays... So best defense against tickets is driving smart and being aware of your surroundings when driving local, and Waze for highway driving

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I've been trying out the app. I'm not sure if it's useful enough for me yet. I mostly drive the car in the daytime so I'm not too concerned with the display lighting up. At first the app would flip the phone audio from my CarPlay stereo to the phone itself. I found a setting that fixed that. Waze is kind of cool but it tries to do a lot of things at once and it's hard to read the busy display. Even on a CarPlay screen. You can't beat the crowdsourced police alerts though. I was finally able to turn off the "car on the side of the road" alerts that look like the police alerts and become white noise

I've used an Escort Redline for about 5 years now. It's one of the best. Unfortunately newer versions have added "features" and app connections, GPS, etc, which I don't really want. Refer here. This guy runs and tests tons of detectors against real radar guns. https://www.vortexradar.com/ I've also used Waze since it was brand new. There are a lot of settings to turn off alerts that you don't want. It's definitely saved me many times as well. Sometimes the info is stale (police not exactly in same location because they've moved or pulled someone over) but it's more than proven its worth to me.

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Yes I saw Vortex before I decided on the V1. Very helpful. I am trying to use Waze but I'm also trying to use the V1 app for display on my phone. And then drive the car on top of all that. I've gone from no information to information, or data, overload. I'm likely to get a damn ticket because I'm busy fiddling with the apps and not driving the car. I need to develop what they all a "concept of operations" for my car and gizmos.