The SEMA show, held each November in Las Vegas, is one of my favorite annual automotive events as companies that specialize in speed countermeasure equipment show off their new gadgets designed to outsmart law enforcement speed enforcement technology.

Another plus is that Las Vegas is only an hour and a half flight in my Cessna 182 from our home in Arizona. So on Tuesday, opening day, my wife and I jumped into our bird and headed out.

We lifted off at 7:30 am and with the one hour time change landed at the Henderson Executive Airport at 8:00 am. We tied down the plane, got a rental car and I was at the Las Vegas Convention Center just before the nine o’clock opening.

Blinder Laser Jammers

Outside the convention center I met with Leon Gruner and his wife Bonnie of Blinder USA. Blinder manufactures a device designed to jam police laser.
For those of you not familiar with police laser enforcement let me explain the technology.

Police laser is a very narrow beam of light that of course travels at the speed of light, it is INSTANT!

At 500 feet the beams width is only 18” and when police shoot your car with laser, they normally aim for a reflective area of your car like your front license plate or your headlights.

So if you only have a radar detector mounted on your dash, chances are that your detector will never activate unless it picks up “scatter” and if it does, it’s too late, the officer already has your speed.

I explain laser jamming this way, “Let’s say someone shoots your car with a 5 watt flashlight, you respond by shinning a 50 watt flashlight at them, your flashlight is more powerful and would over power the other flashlight if it had a receiver to calculate speed”

Earlier this year Blinder released their new laser jammers the M-27 and M-47. Modifications included using brighter LED lights and also an interface where you can download the latest software for any new laser guns.

Coyote Interactive Photo Enforcement Detector

A comment I heard at the SEMA show this year was that new photo enforcement cameras are spreading faster than the H1N1 virus, as many cities and states have found a quick way a new to generate money without increasing taxes.

Several years ago the stand alone GPS photo enforcement camera devices hit the market place and then two years ago radar detector manufactures included this technology into their radar detectors. These devices would warn you as you approached a fixed photo enforcement camera such as photo radar or red light cameras with an audible and visual alert.

The one major drawback with these devices was the mobile photo radar vans that are moved, sometimes on a daily or even hourly basis.

Trapster then emerged on the scene, building a social network of users that would notify each other via their iPhone or Blackberry of photo enforcement locations or other high enforcement locations.

Coyote is NOW coming on the scene, merging these two technologies into one device, an interactive GPS photo enforcement detector. Coyote’s system is due to launch February of 2010.

Escort Redline Radar Detector

This summer I had the opportunity to take the Redline for a 8,000 mile cross country review testing the unit against the New Jersey X band radar guns, to Sturgis South Dakota mounted on my “Stealth Hog” Harley Davidson motorcycle, and in my RV across the southwest.

The Redline was developed to take over the long range category that has been dominated by Valentine One.

During a Speed Measurement Laboratories long range test that was held this past summer the Redline outperformed every radar detector in this class.

The one thing I liked about the Redline was the units ability to sniff out the mobile Redflex Ka band mobile photo radar vans that have overtaken Arizona and a few other states.

Passport SC55 GPS Photo Enforcement Detector

Do you have a Valentine One, Escort 8500, Whistler Pro 78 or any other radar detector that you would want to integrate a GPS photo enforcement database into? If so the new Passport SC55 will allow just that.

Designed to integrate into virtually any radar detector on the market today, you simply plug the two units into each other, turning your Escort 8500 X50 into an Escort 9500i or your RX65 into a GX65.

You instantly give your detector a brain so it can now alert to these deadly photo radar and red light cameras.

Passport QI45 Remote Mounted Radar Detector

The Escort Passport QI 45 is a new remote mounted radar detector based upon the design of the Escort 8500 X50.

Unlike more complex remote mounted radar detectors, the QI45 is very simple in its design in that it only has three modules, the antenna that is mounted in the grill, the controller that is mounted under the dash and the display that mounts on the dash.

There is only one wire that you need to feed through the firewall and install can take as little as 30 to 45 minutes!

If you want to install their laser jammer; no problem, the laser heads plug into the rear of the antenna and each head could be installed in under 5 minutes.

As a motorcyclist, I thought of how simple this set up could be to set up a remote mounted radar detector and laser jammer to your motorcycle.

Rocky Mountain Radar

What would a SEMA show be without me poking a little fun at Rocky Mountain Radar?

Well after being successful at getting Michael Churchman kicked out of Best Buy I made a promise to myself that I would lay low.

When I arrived at the SEMA show I was approached by several of the other manufacture reps that Michael Churchman was present at this year’s show and that he was asking if I was going to show up.

Mike had missed the last two years at both SEMA and CES after I sat down with him at a bar at the Stratosphere three years ago and he made the comment that he didn’t care if his C-450 radar jammer worked or not and that he didn’t have the balls enough to take me up on my $50,000 challenge.

So this year I had only planned to take a quick peek at what new devices RMR was scamming the uninformed corporate buyers with and then follow-up with our online campaign to educate these potential new clients.

I noticed that the RMR booth was still missing the Plexiglas display with the police radar gun and the little car with their radar scrambler attached. This had gone missing after I approached Rual, their head engineer, a few years back with cash in hand in challenging them to my test with TV cameras from the UPN network rolling.

During their segment, they proved that Michael’s little display was misleading and potentially defrauding the public as the Plexiglas display did not allow anyone to move the scrambler more than a few inches from the feed horn of the radar gun. In other words the RMR radar jammers would not work against any police radar gun, unless the officer was literally sitting on the hood of your car, with the feed horn of the radar gun against your windshield and the detector within two to three inches from the gun.

With our economy appearing to being on track to recovery, I was pleased to see at this year’s SEMA show that the Speed Counter measurement Industry was strong and developing new products.

Flight Home

Margie and I spent the night catching “Jersey Boys” and flew out the following morning.

A cold front came beat us to our airpark with winds gusting to 25 knots, so we had to divert to Wickenburg Airport (E25) and called a friend to pick us up.

A few hours later I returned when the winds calmed down and flew our bird back to its nest here at our home:

Last week I met up with Aaron Zimmerman of Legal Speeding and we shot a few videos on his motorcycle radar detection system that he calls the HARD (Helmet Assisted Radar Detector) System.

I’ve been using Aaron’s system for a number of years on my Harley

 

Being an avid motorcyclist and speed counter measure geek I’ve outfitted my “Stealth Hog” with virtually every radar detector and laser jammer that was either designed for motorcycle use or could be customized with other accessories.

Packages such as the Escort/Beltronics units coupled with the H.A.R.D system worked great until it rained and the electronics became waterlogged. Units developed for use on motorcycles, such as the Whistler Cruisader and the Beltronics 946 units were designed by engineers whom I feel never took an “iron butt” cross country tour, thus failing in areas of usability.

Therefore I was ecstatic when I first learned about the new Adaptiv Technology TPX motorcycle radar detector system that was actually developed by motorcycle enthusiasts from the ground up.

Over the past two months I have been the recipient of several prototypes of their new radar detector system and one thing that really stands out to me is that they took constructive criticism seriously as they have implemented several of my suggestions to enhance their system for the motorcycle market.

Monday, after personally testing each of their final production units in New Jersey the owners/engineers Wayne and Adam, hopped on a flight to Arizona to personally meet with me and hand over one of their final production units for review.

Wasting no time, I installed it on my Harley Davidson Screamin’ Eagle Ultra Classic.

The TPX system has several mounting options and I chose the control mount system that allowed me to replace the two screws on my hand brake installing the mount/detector on the left side of my handlebars.

The power cord was tied off at the mount and ran under the fairing to the battery. I then connected the external LED display running this wire under my fairing to the bottom of the windscreen. The wireless helmet speaker was then attached to my helmet with supplied double sided tape.

The entire install was just under thirty minutes and it was by far the cleanest install of any radar detector system that I have ever seen on any bike! I fired up my V-Twin and headed north for a short 120 mile cruise through the “twisties” of the Bradshaw Mountains to Prescott then east to I-17 heading to Phoenix, returning home on the Carefree Highway.

I found that pressing the oversized buttons on top of the unit for programming was very easy, even with insulated leather gloves. Hearing the detector alerts with the wireless headset was not a problem, even while listening to tunes from my Ipod. The external LED light was also an eye catcher even in the Arizona sun. On the evening ride home the blue backlit buttons were easy to see and control.

The entire TPX system is water proof so having to carry zip lock baggies or a child size shower cap to wrap your detector during a rain storm is no longer required.

Performance wise the TPX system alerted to several Ka alerts and K band alerts in a timely basis, even while I was riding through the mountain curves and encountered an “off axis” ambush.

Downside during this ride and subsequent tests of the TPX was the overabundance of false alerts. The Adaptiv system presently has three sensitivity settings; highway, city and city no X. Being a “road warrior” I always keep my detector on the highway setting. But because this setting also allows the dirty X band signal through unfiltered, I was alerting to every supermarket and gas station along my route. I also found that the TPX also alerted Ka to any vehicle equipped with one of those leaky Cobra radar detectors within my vicinity.

Switching over to City no X band, the false alerts did subside however I found that the K and Ka sensitivity also dropped off by almost 50%.

I suspect that after reading this review, that the engineers at Adaptiv will place “improved filtering capabilities” high on their priority list and work on a solution.

Overall I felt that the TPX system was on par with a higher ended Whistler system and able to outperform any Cobra on the market. But can it match up to the higher ended Escort/Beltronics units, sorry to say no. But remember to properly accessorize one of those detectors to your motorcycle will cost you hundreds of dollars more.

If you’re an “Easy Rider” wanting a reasonably priced detector for your motorcycle without going for broke, then this unit is definitely the right unit for you. However if you’re strapping on a BUSA, GSXR or any other high performance bike then hold on to those zip lock baggies, because you’ll be using them to cover up your Escort/Bel/Valentine 1 during the next rainstorm.

Look for the TPX system coming soon to www.RadarBusters.com

Radar Roy’s Rating – Four Stars

When on a motorcycle at full throttle or navigating the twisties, hearing or seeing a radar detector/laser jammer alert is very difficult without an external warning system.

Over the past several years there have been several manufactures that have developed wireless “Heads Up Display” units for motorcycles, but each have had their short comings.

The H.A.R.D. System was prone to water damage if you road in the rain. The SportVue was very difficult to install and was prone to product failure. And then the Whistler Cruisader’s performance and range was lackluster.

Last year I met with Don Norton, the Cheetah USA rep who showed me a prototype of a new HUD that they were working on, the VizAlert.

Their goal was to develop a HUD from the ground up, while getting input from both motorcycle and radar detector enthusiasts to see what features were important. Some features I felt were needed were making the unit water resistant and allowing the unit to interface with different radar detectors and laser jammers that were on the market.

Today I received one of the first prototypes of the VizAlert and I immediately went to the shop and installed the unit on my Harley.

As I test numerous radar detector and laser jammer products, I wanted to find a location on my motorcycle that was immediately accessible for the different interfaces that I would be installing, so I chose the lower fairing storage box on my bike.

First I installed the radar detector interface for the VizAlert. The Interface is approximately 5”x3’x2’ and has a 12 volt power input plug, a 12 volt power output plug, an interface wire for their laser node, and  a small memory card slot.

The radar detector interface comes with a device called a “power node” that you can connect directly to your battery, then connect to interface box. The Power Node senses the moment you power up your motorcycle to provide power to you devices and turns them off when you shut your bike off. However, I choose to install the interface directly to an accessory circuit, thus bypassing the need for the Power Node.

Plugging into the 12 volt output power plug is a three foot cable that at the end has a power cord for the radar detector and an earphone jack that plugs into the detector.

Using the chrome handle bar mount, I mounted the Escort 8500 X50, and then plugged in the two cables. As I was also installing the Blinder Laser Node interface, I plugged the interface cable from the radar detector interface into the laser node.

On the side of the radar detector interface is an interchangeable memory card. This allows the user to use different radar detectors or upgrade to a newer model, by just swapping out the card, without having to replace the entire VizAlert system.

Next up, installing the Blinder Laser Jammer.

Using a rear license plate mount, I installed the rear laser jammer.

I then installed the front laser jammer head under my front headlamp, using a mount that I had fabricated in the shop.

I then ran both cables to the Blinder interface and plugged them in.

Then I connected the Blinder interface into the Laser Node interface.

The Laser Node also comes supplied with the Power Node, however for my install I obtained power from my bikes accessory plug that allows me to turn the Blinder on and off while riding.

I then bundled up the three interface modules and secured them in the lower faring.

Total Motorcycle install time, two hours.

Next, installing the VizAlert receiver on my helmet.

The Vizalert is designed to be mounted on the outside of your helmet with the LED display just outside your peripheral vision. Using the supplied double sided tape, I secured the receiver. I then unscrewed the cover and installed the two supplied micro batteries.

Total helmet install time, 5 minutes

The VizAlert display has six different colored LED lights that light depending upon the frequency of the alert.

Yellow: X-band
White: K band
Green: Ka band
Red: Laser
Orange: Ku band
Blue: Future Use

The VizAlert display has an motion sensor that will disable power when the unit is not in use, thus conserving battery life.

The helmet receiver is also water resistant, so no need to remove the unit when it is raining.

We first tested the system, using several of our radar and laser guns and each time the VizAlert reported the correct alert from the radar detector and/or the laser jammer.

VizAlert is expecting to have their final versions ready for shipment in mid May of 2007.

There will be 10 different radar detector specific chips/models:

Beltronics STi Driver
Beltronics RX65
Beltronics Vecor LR
Beltronics 975R
Escort 9500i
Escort 8500 X50
Escort Solo
Escort SR7
Valentine 1

Look for the VizAlert soon on our main website, Radarbusters.com