beaker

That's why I put the rear unit in center front - so I'd have full protection from the front, which is where most cops will target you. Well, in this area anyway.

Most of them will go for the front license plate, which is great for me since the unit is right underneath it. Works great.

beaker

Whoops. I couldn't have been more wrong.

According to Escort's web site, the transceivers in my jammers "...detect the presence of LIDAR, and respond with a pulsed laser signal in order to "Shift" or confuse the targeting LIDAR gun".

LIDAR, however, is a series of pulses instead of a steady beam. The first pulse may return back to the gun before the jammer starts working, however the gun uses several pulses and doesn't measure speed from just one pulse.

beaker

Here you go!

Road Runner

Ok... so,

1. Do you have a pic of your center head? I can't see it in your pics.

2. With a LED based jammer, if you don't also have a center front head hooked up, then your heads are too far apart. You are exposed in the center. Just a friendly bit of advice that with close range shots you will be vulnerable (unless of course you do have a 3rd head mounted in the center front). The license plate is the most IR reflective thing on your car (by design).

3. Perhaps you are using a license plate frame version for center head. If I recall correctly, that's what Escort uses for the rear protection component.

4. Nice concealment of your heads. Very discrete. It will reduce the performance to some extent, but most likely not enough to matter (again presuming you have 3 heads total up front that is).

5. Looks like your passenger side head is not level. Could be the angle of the pic, but I am pretty sure it is not based on the relative position to your tire's shape. You may want to fix that.

6. Notice the size of the LED heads versus laser diode heads. This is why I went with laser diode. Much smaller. Yes, they are more expensive but I'm more concerned about the benefits of the laser diode type versus LED (i.e. lasers are much better at close range and very long range, heads are smaller, some such as LPP use a real lens for reception instead of IR receiving diodes, etc.). Hands down the laser diode products just plain perform better.

Anyway, my $0.02. As I said the install itself looks nice and discrete on the outside. How do you have the interior controls setup??

Road Runner

Yes, LIDAR guns require multiple pulses in order to confirm the speed. LIDAR guns are nothing more than range finders with a computer that stores multiple distance readings, a clock, and another process which compares the time difference between the pulses. Remember the ol' junior high math.... Speed = Distance / Time.

In order to perform adequate error checking, multiple readings are required. This of course does not prevent operator error, and depending on the device you may still get certain technical error types (most notably a phenomenon called "slip error"), even with multiple pulse readings.

It's kind of basic and complex at the same time if that makes any sense. Basic concept, but the real-world implementation is more complex.

beaker

1. The SRX has a rear unit, but I mounted it in the front for full coverage. Didn't post pics because, well, it's just a black bar under the license plate.
4. I was considering cutting the grill away around the heads... still undecided on this.
5. I thought the same thing when I looked at the pictures, but from what I remember, when I look at the car it looks OK. Too lazy to go downstairs to look at it right now - I'll check when I leave tomorrow morning.
6. I was thinking about getting a LI as well, but thought I may be going off the deep end.

I have the control panel installed just in front of the center console, with the mute button mounted to the right of the steering wheel. I'll post a couple more pictures soon.

Road Runner

Well, I would not use both a ZR3/4 AND a LI (or other laser diode jammer). That's overkill. Honestly, you should be good with what you have with all 3 heads (counting the plate frame as a head) up front. It's not as powerful as a laser diode based version, but you should still be in good shape.

I don't know how much the LED units have their effectiveness reduced by being behind the grille. Obviously, it looks much nicer that way and is stealthier / more discrete.

I would be inclined to leave it the way it is. I know that I would like to mount my LPP heads behind the grille. I have a new grille on order just for this purpose. Basically, I kinda figure the first time you do something on a car you are learning and you will prolly not be thrilled with the result no matter how careful you are. That is what happened to me on this install. As you can see, I moved the heads around and then realized I never needed to make the holes in the grille. No biggie though... $30 grille + some of my time. In the end I'll get it the way that I want it.

I'm also going to swap out the Hamann grille for the new vinyl wrapped one that I've got now (which I'm hoping will hold up much better to road debris / daily driving).

Anyway, in your case I'd personally leave it as is (other than verifying that passenger side head is level).

skylolow

I've still never seen an article (not published by one of these makers) that say they work. I know a few years back I read a test in either an auto mag or something along the lines Popular Science/Mech. and they tested like 5 different units and none of them worked.

I went to school to become a cop (back about 14 to 15 years ago) and laser was basically pretty new at that time. I've personally used a laser radar gun and they're pretty slick. At that time there was some laser jammers on the market and the teacher conducting the class said he personally sat in on a test conducted at some national convention and they tested the jammers that were available at that time and it none worked. His speech about why they don't work kind of goes back to how some of you were talking about the physics of the whole thing doesn't really add up. He said they tested some other jammers(analog) for KA band (which most departments were using at the time) and they were very inconsistent. One would work but then next time it won't. Basically in the end he said the analog jammers were about effctive 20% of the time.

But who knows maybe things have changed and these little buggers work. The police officers I still know use digital KA laser guns and they can show if the singal has being interrupted. Though things outside of a jammer can cause it to interupt so they rarely pull anyone over if they notice a singal being interrupted. My understanding was any decent lawyer could get you out of it. In Wisconsin radar dectors are legal but not jammers. Love to see a link if anyone has anything on any tests done that show these new ones work.

beaker

Pictures as promised.

Control panel on dash:





Mute button to right of steering wheel:

AlexFW

Still wondering if these devices work in Europe