The purpose of multiple detectors

Speed Trap Hunter · #6 (**permalink**) 2009-06-28

I suspect that is a bit of a stretch to worry. If your ci is mounted under the hood there should be so much metal in the way between the two antennae. Plus I believe the V1 is a pretty good (ie; clean) emitting detector. I also believe the majors have figured out how to get along with each other provided they are too close together.

Given the distance that may exists between both antennae, if this were really a problem, I suspect then you would have to worry about surrounding traffic (that also employ other detectors in close proximity). Obviously some older leaky cheap detectors could be a potential concern, but a $400 titan, like the Valentine One? I tend to doubt it.

STH

TSi+WRX · #7 (**permalink**) 2009-06-28

^ Certainly, I think that the pre/post firewall combo - the remote detector plus an in-cabin - should pose no problem.

But I just can't help but think that a side-by-side ( in anything less wide than, say, a H1

) of two detectors in-cabin....I don't know?

A STi-Driver should not interfere with a nearby V1. But the other way around?

Experience from many others would suggest that it shouldn't be a problem - but to the best of my recall, no-one has yet tried to test this, in a manner that's even remotely quantitative.....

Michael B, do you think that this might be an interesting project?

Veil Guy · #8 (**permalink**) 2009-06-28

For sure, I have observed at certain times varying degrees of interference between certain detectors.

I believe CP had a V1 and 9500i tested in chamber and it was determined that no measurable interference could be observed in any event.

I believe Mike B. too has conducted such tests (while I wouldn't necessarily expect him to publish or announce his results).

I have spoken to a number of manufacturers about this very issue and quietly and privately they have signed-off in certain placement circumstances and with certain models.

That being said, I have always gotten to intimately know the individual performance/behavior of each before trying multiple (again with careful placement). Remember I have been driving and using radar detectors for more than 30 years! Bottom Line: Some get along, some don't.

I will share one story that I actually experienced with Steve (Happya$$) in the town of Sheffield Village, Ohio. I believe we had one STi Driver and two Valentines carefully placed across our windshield.

We had a quick 34.7 IO frontal moving encounter and one of my V1s (an older analogue temp compensation circuitry model) stayed quiet. I mean it completely missed a point-blank IO shot at our front.

Later that week I visited our friends at Valentine Research and lo-and-behold, the older V1 was in need of a tune-up. To their credit, they didn't blast our setup. They stepped-up and simply tuned the V1 back into its top form. Had I not had another detector running at the same time, I simply wouldn't have known that one of my V1s was in need of service. I have always admired the engineering integrity of Valentine Research and its carry-through to their customer service.

Of course, today, both the STi-R and the 9500ci serve as a mutual check-and-balance system. Granted, it ain't a cheap setup, but then again, at the speeds I travel, neither would be the tickets that I would otherwise be subjected to had I not had the privilege of their ownership.

Veil Guy

jaminc · #9 (**permalink**) 2009-06-28

So if you ran a 9500ix on one side of the front window and an X50 on the other side, would you or could you expect interference.

Also, if I had a semi-controlled environment, say against a long straight away that had a very strong K band speed sign (which we do have on the causeway), and I performed baseline runs against the sign with each detector running by itself to determine an average distance of each, and then turned the detectors on together and the distances were the same on average could you surmise that the two RD were not interfering with each other?

Last question. If I determined that against this particular sign the RD were not interfering with one another on the K band, should I or could I assume the same against a KA band...or are we talking about a whole different animal because of the wide frequencies?

I would never run these two detectors together as a norm, I just want to experiment a little. If I can determine they are not interfering with one another, then I can periodically check them when I think one may be not up to par and need a tune up.

Thoughts?

Veil Guy · #10 (**permalink**) 2009-06-29

Inter-detector "cross-talk" is a funny and inconsistent thing, due to the nature of the rapid sweeping (and/or "parking") that these devices do.

Just because one doesn't necessarily observe any performance variation in one instance at any given time, doesn't necessarily mean that there couldn't be one at another.

As a rough guideline, I would try for about a three foot spread or thereabouts. Keep in mind, however, that minute differences will exist merely on the different placement on the windscreen themselves (often due to outward curvature to the left and to the right at the extremes).

I tend to believe that the newer products from the majors tend to do a better job with controlling their LO emissions relative to some other cheaper companies' products and/or older models.

I'll be honest, when done carefully and with the full-understanding of the possible dynamics created, I believe it can potentially be done. And your experiences wouldn't necessarily be worthless either as some may suggest. The worst thing that would likely happen with today's top-quality detectors is a slight variation of performance or response timing, but given the proper understanding of what could be going on, I would expect you should be generally OK.

Perhaps Michael B. could comment on this subject, I think he knows a thing or two about this topic.

Veil Guy

PS: With respect to your 8500 X50, keep an eye out for either weak X-band* (or possibly K-band alerts from the 9500ix), then again that may have been with the older S7 platform and not necessarily applicable to the newer M4 version that I believe appears in the latest iterations of the X50. If you ever experience them, that may suggest some noticeable cross-talk issues.

*It's been awhile since I have looked at the X50 so my memory on this one is a little fuzzy, at this point.