From what I saw on the drive down and back up the 5 in Cali, most CHP are using standard radar. I might have been lucky, but didn't get a single laser warning the whole time.

 

Around here, I've only seen laser twice (ever). Once I was cresting a hill, on a street with heavy enforcement, doing 28 in a 25 zone. The other time got me a ticket. Both were local police departments. Not even a second time from both jurisdictions. My mid-priced BEL picked it up.

 

most cops in southern cali use Ka frequency. but i have gotten laser 2-3 times, X-band from a cop once and no K-band from a cop so far.

 

Interesting to see what people's experiences are with the different bands and laser v. no laser.

In Washington every State Patrol speed trap I've driven through has been a laser - and my deflectors always go off (much to my glee). When the State Patrol are driving and have their radar on it's always Ka band.

The local city/county police all seem to use K band around here - in fact yesterday there was a King County cop sitting 2 blocks from my house with his K band gun blazing away when I was coming home from the store.

I have yet to have anything but automatic doors and other false alarms on the X band.

My single biggest worry at this point when driving on the freeway is cops in unmarked cars plodding along with the rest of traffic waiting for a speeder to go by. WSP seems to fancy using this tactic a lot in the more urban areas.

 

I got my radar detector back from Escort yesterday!

My car was at the dealership for a week getting some work done so I figured it would be a good time to see if I could solve this navigation + radar detector "issue" I was having.
Whe I contacted Escort, they were very good about listening to my concerns, asking questions about my specific vehicle, and I had a UPS shipping label emailed to me within an hour.

Upon arriving at Escort it was inspected and the laser sensitivity was manually adjusted all within the same day.

I glad to report that my 9500i no longer gives a LASER alert when I open my OEM navigation.

 

FYI: the 2006 RX-8 GT model needs the .9 inch (23mm) radar bracket mount

 

i just DIY my 9500 into my car ....i cant seem to DIY it properly coz the black wire isnt drawing current...i connected to the blue/red stripe wire and its drawing current constantly ..even when the car is turned off and the key is taken out .... i turn the device off when i get out of the car ...the only worry is : would it keep drawing current and draining my battery even when its OFF ? anyone know if its ok ? if not , i'll change it ~

i dont seem to understand all the KA?/X/K band ...i dont know which one is false and which one is actually da cops ... i read above but it seems wrong ...K seem to be going off when i pass buildings ....im confused ~ can someone help ?

 

Whooohooo! Passport 9500i installed! Now I gotta go pay off the ticket I got last Sunday and hopefully I be a little better off. Pisses me off that I was just about to get past the ticket from 3 years ago that bumped up my insurance rate.

Thanks guys for the DIY info and to val for his phone help. Seems the most difficult thing was figuring out which wire to tap into for the switched connection. For anyone wanting the quick reference... it's the black wire dead in the center of the head unit. It has foam wrapped around the upper part of the wire group. I have a sun roof so I don't know if that wiring cluster is for that only or if it is in all models.

THANKS!

 

silver: glad to hear you got yourself a new little toy! Let us know how you like it...

 

Drove to the mall today. My son and I enjoyed seeing us get popped and the 9500i reports the speed you got hit at. I lack it! It's kind of a novelty right now. I will be glad when I get it all figured out. Right now, it's all new to me.

 

yeah, it's pretty cool that it shows you the speed you're going at. Pretty damn accurate too!

I haven't messed with mine a whole lot, I leave it in Auto mode and just mark false signals as I encounter them.

 

How do you know it's false?

 

K bands are almost always false around here. We also have a lot of those Speed monitors that are on the light posts. They throw a radar signal out and display how fast you're going. None of them here take pictures so I block them out since I'll pick them up a mile out.

You'll also start to notice that you'll get a reading every time you go past a certain intersection. there might be a gas station or a large grocery store there. those are almost always false. (their auto-open doors)

You'll know them when you see them.

 

I was looking to get the 9500i.. it looks promising. I often visit http://www.radarbusters.com/ to check back on new things.

Not trying to hijack the thread at all, but does anybody have any experience with the Blinder M-series laser jammers? I figured since we're discussing effective radar detectors, jammers are just as important!!

 

If my car doesn't have the Homelink feature, would I still be able to conect it this way?

 

u might have a little problem ...coz i dont have it too and the black wire isnt drawing current ....so i had to used another wire ....i kinda clipped all da wires to find it ~ took me a while coz i dont wanna mess up my wires ~

 

So, any updates? Any tickets?

 

Yea, got a ticket about a mile from my house, 67 in a 45. Unit turned off!

 

nope, not one.
Saved my *** a few weeks ago on the 241 Northbound. There's a big bend when you're coming from the 133. I was about 3/4 of a mile out when all of a sudden I got a Ka bank. I was doing 85mph.
I slowed down, came around the bend and sure enough.... CHP! By then I was cruising at 65mph.
Off??? Why? Mine is NEVER off.

 

Cuzzz-im-a-dumbass!

 

hardwire it, that way it comes on automatically when you turn on the car.

 

until Jedi get's the 9500ci he is no longer cool

 

Just finished installing Passport 9500i. The instruction listed here for connetion at homelink power are good. However, the black wire on my 2007 RX8 appears to be ground. The pink wire on the opposite side of the connector from the black wire is at 12 VDC only when the car is on. Recommend checking wire volatges with digital volt meter before attaching vampire connector.

 

any updates we should know about?

 

sssshhhh, FastRX8, you're ruining the surprise!!
Once I get my car up and running again, there will be new updates. (with pics and video hopefully)