VeilGuy's Valentine One Review & Tribute

steagall1000 · #6 (**permalink**) 2007-09-20

Veil Guy,

Awesome! Awesome! article on the V1. Everything you said is so true. Thats why time and time again, after 15 years its still the KING Baby!!! Long live the V1.

Georgia boy

WaltBurkett · #7 (**permalink**) 2007-09-20

Hi Veil Guy,

There is actually more to the story. You are correct in that it was a customer service person that stated the ramp-up issue was by design. I told her it did not make sense and she started to argue with me about how long Escort had been in the radar detector business and that they certainly knew what they were doing and I obviously did not. I also asked her if it was WAAS enabled for higher accuracy resolution and she said WHAT?

I asked to have a tech call me and she said she would forward that request on. I never received a call. I also sent two e-mails about my concerns but did not get a response to them either.

As far as accepting her response I did not, however it really did not matter. In my mind the ramp-up was a problem and a show stopper regardless of what answer they came up with. I could simply not deal with a weak signal alert followed shortly by a full alert with no increasing ramp up.

Looking at the many threads posted about this problem and numerous folks that stated they called Escort only to be rebuffed essentially told me Escort was either denying the problem so it did not affect sales or honestly felt nothing was wrong. Their customer service was seriously lacking also. Either way I lost trust in them so prior to the 30 day free period I returned it.

In a perfect world the V1 would incorporate some of the GPS features like speed sensitive alerts and the ability to block certain signals at certain locations. In the meantime however I am happy with my two V1’s and with the exception of a few minor design changes I would like to see, I have not real issues with it.

Walt

Veil Guy · #8 (**permalink**) 2007-09-20

Walt,

Points taken; circling back...Trust me, your comments about your experiences will be reviewed... Good QA feedback.

With respect to the your GPS comments, I believe there will be shortly coming to our shores, a novel solution which not only provides the GPS-like capabilities of the 9500i (for the V1 and others), but also provides a very up-to-date, user updateable, and accurate GPS-internal "map" of automated enforcement camera (ie; red-light camera, photo lidar speed camera, photo radar speed camera, etc.) systems:

That solution appears to already be provided by Cheetah. We are fortunate to have Al and Stu from Cheetah UK already participating on this nascent forum and these kinds of discussions would be well-suited to their company's particular expertise and capabilities. Realize that the U.K has about a 10 year lead on us with this enforcement technology [and its citizens aren't protected by the U.S. Constitution].

Al has already has made some related posts: Radar Detector Interfaces for the GPSmirror

It appears that both the Cheetah GPSmirror and the Passport 9500i both utilize the SiRFstar III chipset GPS receiver which supports WAAS/EGNOS.

Obviously that question about WAAS will go over most people's heads...WAAS is a "GPS-thing" not a RADAR thing. This is obviously new territory for Escort. I suspect if you had posed that question to either Garmin or Cheetah (who've been in this space for quite some time), you would have gotten an answer, not a question.

According to published reports, position accuracy provided by WAAS is < 3 meters. If I am not mistaken, I believe the newer cell phones can also be "triangulated" to that resolution (or better) as well. (Keep an eye out for that incoming AGM-114 Hellfire

)

Another resource perhaps worth referencing:
SiRFstar III - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

If I recall, when I first reviewed/previewed the Beltronics STi Driver it had some "features" that had subsequently excised out in about a year's time, give or take a month or two. The Passport 9500i, in my opinion, is a bold radar detector and the complexities of the design may be a order of magnitude greater than any conventional radar detector they have ever produced prior. It may be fair to say that they are proceeding on the same development/refinement track that other large organizations do when they release big new initiatives. Apple's recent iPhone comes to mind, as do a myriad of other high-tech/complex products like MS Windows (pick your favorite version). Generally they're not perfect out of the gate.

While I am not discounting your negative experience in any way shape or form, knowing the folks at Escort, they're probably well aware of these "issues" with the 9500i and are working at pace to perfect/refine its performance. I also suspect that part of this issue may be the underlying desire to control their own development schedule.

I will do my part to bring your experiences to light and hopefully something positive will come of it...

All the best, sir.

Veil Guy