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Spurious Laser Indications on Escort 8500

10K views 22 replies 18 participants last post by  rebeltown 
#1 ·
This just started last week. Once every couple of days, my 8500 would go bonkers and indicate laser repeatedly when there is no laser (I have yet to see a real laser hit in south florida). This has happended on the highway, local streets, and in the middle of traffic. The next day, everything is normal. Anybody else have this problem? If so, is there anything that can be done or is this the first sign of failure? The unit is almost 4 years old.

Thanks, Yuan
 
#3 ·
Mine did this as well, so I turned off the laser detection. 9 times out of 10, if your laser warning goes off, you've already been snagged (DAMHIK).
 
#4 ·
Just a thought, alot of new vehicles have a backup sensor to warn the driver. What type of signal are they emitting? Could be one source of false alerts.
I have had some laser alerts in FL, some seemingly random, some consistant when going through certain toll booths on the turnpike, I think they use it for the license plate cameras.
 
#5 ·
Laser detection.....

bcg said:
This just started last week. Once every couple of days, my 8500 would go bonkers and indicate laser repeatedly when there is no laser (I have yet to see a real laser hit in south florida). This has happended on the highway, local streets, and in the middle of traffic. The next day, everything is normal. Anybody else have this problem? If so, is there anything that can be done or is this the first sign of failure? The unit is almost 4 years old.

Thanks, Yuan
May I ask? Are you near any type of "airport" when this happens?. Lasers are used as a help in guidance systems for approaches to airports, mine goes off in certain spots near my local large airport. The "back-up" type systems on the SUV's, etc.... , are of a "radar" type I believe, they send out a wide swath of a signal which returns to the unit. and ultimately sets it off. "Lidar" (laser speed enforcement) uses a small beam of light which is aimed at your car. As the beam becomes shorter, the unit measures this change and calculates your speed. Radar sends out a wide width ?beam that bounces off your vehicle, then bounces back to the radar unit. Usually this "beam" (or whatever) has to bounce off your vehicle twice and be sent back to the policeman's radar unit to get an accurate reading. I may stand corrected by some of our fellow BMW riders who are cops, but that is why if you "stomp" the brakes on just as the unit hits you, sometimes it produces a bad reading. Of course, if one of your buddies is right on your tail, this is not a wise idea.
 
#6 ·
I've disabled the laser on my older Passport 8500 - here is what I posted last year:

I've had my 8500 for over two years and have been happy with it. A few weeks ago while out riding I hit the horn on my bike and got a Laser hit. I didn't think much of it, but now every time I hit the horn the Laser alert goes off - even while using it in my car.

I just talked to passport and they said they've heard of this happening in a some units - something about the electrical system of the car/bike. They wanted $50 to install some kind of filter and there are no upgrades to the new X50 available.
 
#7 ·
Beware in Texas

Here in Texas, the F-16 and F-18 pilots use motorcycles as target. It happens in the open country when they like to play.
A pilot told me they enjoy the sportsbikes more but don't worry its practice for them.
West of Abilene, Tx, the B-1s do the same thing but not as much.
 
#9 ·
I have a Garmin 2610 on the dash of my car and a V1 mounted up higher on the windshield next to the rear view mirror. Occasionally when I point the remote control at the 2610, it triggers the laser detector on the V1.
 
#10 ·
The horn setting it off by an above post correlates to my own experience. I found a bad connection with the power and when the power fluctuated, my laser mode detector went off. I suppose the horn can also tax the amount of power to do the same thing. I, too, have the new escort.
 
#11 ·
All these electronic devices have sensitive circuitry. On poor designs the sensitivity is also affected by temperature and battery voltage fluctuations. Units usually have adjustments set by the manufacturer and these may be set too sensitive. The cause of false alerts is either within the bike and usually the power source, interference from other bike equipment, or outside the bike from genuine laser sources other than the one you are interested in. Laser detectors unlike radar, pick up laser light scatter so there should be no false alerts caused by electronic interference. If there are, it is due to the installation or their circuits picking up outside interference. Most of these units come in plastic boxes, not good to prevent pickup either.

To eliminate the latter, temporarily stick some black tape over the sensor. If you still get Laser alerts, then it's local to the bike or strong interference pickup - radio stations, power lines etc.

To minimise interference from the bike electrics, the power wiring to the unit should be in thick wire taken straight off the battery which is fully charged. If a battery is on its way out, its voltage may change more when you hit the horn or starter and electronics with poor regulation may give false alarms.

I built an interface to light a cockpit led when my audible alarm went off (my unit's not the same as yours, but everything apart from the front mounted pickup sensor, is inside my locked top box) Although I don't know if the alert is Radar/Laser or gps camera, I get a bright visual which is not too distractive and have a very discrete secure installation. However, due to the sensitivity of my circuit which had to work down to the lowest volume the unit would put out, my alert flashes when I first start the bike and stops after a couple of minutes when the battery voltage comes up. That pleased me because I have both a battery condition and alarm indicator on the same led!



 
#12 ·
I also have had my Escort 8500 give me a false laser warning twice in the middle of two different rural areas. No SUV, etc was nearby that I recall. I thought that perhaps the locals had their fill of speeders and set up some false laser traps to slow us down! I recently upgraded to the 9500i, and will report back if the false alerts continue.
 
#13 ·
Hey ya'll...I have a 9500i escort mounted on the clutch housing mount from pirate.

i left all the default settings as-is for reference.

Middle of nowhere is right...laser goes nutz.

I finally figured it out...when i hit the gas on my K1200S (06), the daym thing indicates laser!! It was driving me nutz. And it is repeatable, now that I know what is doing it.

I'd like to keep it on just for grins but if this keeps up, the laser is going to get turned off.

how weird...
 
#14 ·
Old thread, same issue

I have an Escort 8500 x50 direct wired in the cage which works great. On the GT it is direct wired to a PC-8 fuse block. With the bike idling or at high revs sitting still the detector is fine, as soon as I get out of first gear the Laser alerts continuously. I've been checking some radar forums and it sounds common place. Not sure if it is induction, EMF or over voltage. Any thoughts would be appreciated! (I cant afford to run out and buy a V1).

I did find this from Escort: "The noise filter may work, and is worth a try, but it is doubtful.

The reason that hard acceleration is setting off the laser circuit is that the laser circuitry uses a high-gain amplifier. Any strong electrical interference, electrical noise, will trigger a laser alert. Your vehicle is equipped with a variable valve timing system which, due to the electro-magnetic clutch of the system, emits a large amount of noise which the detector is picking up when the valve timing is being adjusted during hard acceleration. Some horns are also as noisy electrically as they are audibly.

It is possible that a capacitor in the laser circuit has degraded out of spec or that some shielding has worked loose. We have equipment tuned to replicate strong EM noise so that we can diagnose and adjust this circuitry to reduce this interference.

FYI we are not the only detector manufacturer effected by this phenomenon, using a high-gain amplifier is common in laser detection circuitry."

Any feedback would be appreciated.

-Dennis
 
#15 ·
Well, can you turn the laser part off? Seriously, if there's a laser hit from a cop, you're already toast. That alert just tells you you've already been measured.

Radar uses the doppler principle, where the frequency shift can determine your speed. The radar emission is pretty broad such that in traffic, no telling who's providing the return to the cop and you generally get warned before your up close enough to be counted. Now, if you're all alone on a road and the cop fires it up when he sees you, song is over. Some have it running all the time, so you get notified before the return gives him a chance to see what speed you're doing.

Laser is two quick measurements. It's a range finder, and so it calculates your speed based on two measurements of how far away you are. Those two measurements take place faster than you can notice the detector turned on the "LASER!" alert. The beam is pretty focused, such that they aim the viewfinder at who they're suspecting is speeding and then pull the trigger. Beam is appx. 4 feet in diameter at 1000 yards. Pretty narrow. Some of the signal could possibly stray past the target and alert you if you were close to the vehicle under observation, but you weren't the initial target then. If you were the initial vehicle under observation, you get a notification that the cop may be coming by for a chat.



 
#17 ·
Ray, Thanks. Yeah, I knew the spread on the laser was about 3-4 ft. at 1,000 feet. I've got a lot of miles under my belt and know too well about Laser and Instant On. You are absolutely correct. The only thing you have going for you on a bike is the small return it provides in comparison to other vehicles, but as stated if your alone and at medal winning speed you're cooked. I've had a detector since the very first Escorts came out, so I like to know when I've been targeted regardless of whether I win something or not. There is always a small chance you will pick up some laser scatter, but in my experience that is very unlikely.

I did put a ferrite core around the feed to my fuse block and then looped the power supply to the Escort through a ferrite core a couple of times and this stopped the constant Laser false alarm, but it still intermittently hits. So this is definitely electrical interference. I could replace the direct wire cord from Escort with one made of Category 6 Ethernet Cable that is shielded, but finding it in black and re-running the wires I just don't think is worth it. I have subsequently disabled Laser and X band.

Consider this a heads up to those not already in the know.

Thanks for all the input previous to my post and to those that responded. Ride safe.

-Dennis
 
#18 ·
I get the Laser alert around one section of the airport for some reason and another on one stretch of mountain road almost always in the same spot at the same time of day near dusk. Some of it may be atmospheric. Some car taillights tend to trip the Laser Alert too.

Fwiw, I also get a X-band on some rural road but I'm beginning to think it is some gate opener or something like that. When it occurs over and over in the same sport there is something tripping it up.

On my 9500ix, it has managed to block out the sporadic X-band alerts after the third pass in the area. I like it when I see "Stored" and the alert is quenched.


Mack
 
#20 ·
GMack, you will receive a laser alert around most any major airport. Perhaps a pilot or electrical or RF engineer could elaborate. I suspect Radar or RF causing the false. The same may be true on the mountain you encounter, a common place fro RF antennas. Your're close enough to cause the false. That's a nice feature of the 9500 remembering those locations utilizing it's GPS.

Erik, I've encountered that as well. You will also get clocked at EZ-Pass lanes that measure speed by laser.

-Dennis
 
#21 ·
I have a Bel Radar/Laser detector and used to get spurious Laser alerts all the time, even out in the middle of nowhere with nothing around me but trees... Had to turn the Laser detector off to save my sanity. I believe most signals are electrically connected to the bike's ignition system somehow. Laser is worthless...
 
#22 ·
Solution to spurious laser falses

As useless as Laser detection is being an engineer I had to figure this out and have a viable solution. The interference is from the bikes electrical and does not require a modification to the radar detector itself, but rather to the power supply cable.

I took a USB cable that had a ferrite core at each end and was shielded (most are) and cut the ends off, thus leaving me with a 4 conductor shielded cable with ferrite cores at both ends. Having an Escort 8500, it uses an RJ-11/RJ-12 connector using the center two of the 6 pin positions. I attached an RJ-11 to one end of the cable and the other to my fuse block. I re-enabled laser and no longer have false laser alerts as a result of the bikes electronics. Sure I still get false Laser alerts from other sources, but the problem for me is solved.

Lets face it with Troopers aim a laser at a car's license plate and a beam spread of about 4 feet 1,000 feet out the car being shot is blocking all the signal. If you pick up laser it is just confirmation your speed at that moment was clocked. If you don't see any lights in your mirrors and no one ahead signals you to the shoulder then you know how fast they let you get away with, at least for that trooper. You get clocked with laser your cooked, I just had to solve this problem for my situation and radar/laser detector.

-Dennis
 
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