I recently upgraded my Valentine 1 to include POP protection. Since then, on two occasions, I viewed a letter "J" on the LED readout during a radar warning.
Is this related to POP? Does anyone know what the "J" means??

 

i saw the same thing.

ken,
did u see that after a short ''Ka''?

 

I just sent my V1 to get upgraded with POP. BTW, what the HELL is POP. I just saw it on the V1 site and once I typed my V1 serial number in....................it read that I needed the upgrade.

 

So we don't know what the "J" is???????????

Come on!! Somebody??? Mike?

Orli,
POP, as I understand it, is a very short, uncontolled, unregulated radar burst that is erroneously being relied upon by the law enforcement agencies. If you read on Valentine One's site, they explain.

 

yea, i just got home from a long drive, and I noticed the "J" after the short Ka burst. Whats up with that?

 

J is a new V1 feature. I recently picked up another one and this is what the manual says......

"when the signal-identification system determines that a current warning is not, in fact, a radar threat, it notifies you with a "dee-dah-doo"sound and terminates the warning. At the same time, the letter "j" will flash briefly in the bogey counter"

 

From your Instruction Manual Addendum sheet:

"A New Warning

V1 has a new feature. When the signal identification system determines that a current warning is not, in fact, a radar threat, it notifies you with a "dee-dah-doo" sound and terminates the warning. At the same time, the letter "J" will flash briefly in the Bogey Counter."


"J" stands for "J"unk signal.

OK, why did we add this new feature? Because it was the best way to give beyond-line-of-sight warning capability for POP-radar signals while not burdening the user with an excess of unresolved alerts (false alarms).

POP signals (click me) are short bursts of radar that last only some tens of milliseconds. They are made short in an effort to escape the notice of radar detectors. Simply speeding up the search process of a detector allows high probability-of-intercept for the POP transmissions but introduces another nasty problem -- microwave interference generated by radar detectors in other vehicles causing false alarms.

There are many hundreds of thousands of certain model BEL, Cobra, Radio Shack, and Uniden detectors that manage to transmit radar-like signals that mimic POP bursts to an infuriating degree. They litter the airwaves with interference bursts on the same, exact frequency as, and similar duration to, a real POP-radar signal. Without some way of fending off these "J"unk signals, a detector would constantly nag its user with false alarms from these poorly designed "poluters" in other cars.

The common method of reducing the number of false POP alarms used by our competition is to reduce the sensitivity to POP signals (and their Junk kin) while leaving longer-lasting (over half a second) signals unmolested. This method requires reducing POP-radar range to line-of-sight-only distances in order to give enough relief from detector-generated false alarms to be worthwhile. I wasn't satisfied with only line-of-sight range for POP radar reception, so we pushed for a better solution.

I did nearly 10,000 miles of development driving, dodging speed traps and logging false alarm situations, while our engineers reorganised and optimised the false alarm rejection methods we finally chose. After lengthy deliberations, we realized that it was almost impossible to prevent every POP-like false alarm without taking too large a hit in POP-radar over-the-hill range. I decided that letting in a few POP-junk false alarms initially that were later announced to be "J"unk was less of a problem than not finding out about a POP radar until too late. I hope you'll agree.

 

Mike,

Is there an update (or will there be) for LED brake lights that set off the laser mode (e.g., Trailblazers)? Some may argue that you need to be very close behind in order for it to set off the Laser alarm, however on several occassions these cars have been a decent distance ahead and have still set off my laser mode with no signs of any cops.

About a month ago, I was behind a trailblazer on the highway averaging about 70mph. Another car was merging on the highway and the trailblazer tapped his brakes to let the car merge ahead. Well, my laser alarm went off and I ignored it (b/c of my many encounters with trailblazers) and that's when the state tropper literally pulled out of the bushes and pulled me over. This was sheer dumb luck as it was dark outside and my only explanation could be that he saw the HIDs and decided to target me. In any event, im sure many other V1 owners would have reacted the same way I did with issues mentioned above.

Keep us posted.

Thanks!

 

BCS996TT,

The Trailblazer/Envoy thing is caused by neon in the CHMSL. It's a tough nut to crack. The ignition repetition rate is in the many kHz range, which is far outside the normal laser gun rate. However, there is a "squegging" of the neon plasma that occurs at a hundreds-per-second rate that fools the laser detection circuits, since these events repeat in the expected time range for police laser pulses. We're working on this (and have been for years), but there's nothing to report as yet.

A growing-bigger problem now seems to be laser assisted "Intelligent" cruise controls on Infinity FX35, FX45, and QX56 SUVs. What a PItA. They perfectly replicate laser speed-gun signals. We're working on that one, too!

 

Good point -- I was wondering if the "Trailblazer" LED syndrome was going to be addressed as well.

 

Mike,

Your POP upgrade and customer service is getting a heavy bashing on the Corvette forums. Would you care to comment?

 

I don't think any of you would like me to discuss private details of your transactions with my company. I don't consider it appropriate to make any comments.

If you're interested, please ask anybody who's had direct contact with our company and our customer service for details of their experiences when you evaluate the credibility of apparent bashers. I welcome the comparison.

 

I think we should stick to technical questions, which really should be looked up in the manual ... this is a Porsche forum and asking what I consider a personal question, while skipping the whole customer service division of a company, is disrespectful and out of hand plus it doesn't belong on this forum .... It prevents people like Mike and other business men from coming out of the wood works and expressing opinions on other things, expecially Porsches ...

Dario

 

good info mike, looks like it's time for another uprgrade




and I :bow: to you for making my drive cross country fine safe

 

Mike,

I understand. I actually wanted to stop all the bashing since I think it might be bad for you. I personally have had great experiences. It is just that most people on these forums are quick to jump to conclusions and without your side of the story, people assume whatever they want. Just a heads up for you, I'm on your side!