9500ci Wish List

[djrams80]

Originally Posted by djrams80

These are the things I wish my 9500ci had or did better:

1. Rampup - Needs to be improved. Discussed here.

2. Arrows - Probably a violation of a K40 patent, but hey, it doesn't hurt to ask, right? If I could buy an updated control box and install a rear radar antenna to have this feature, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

3. Spexpert Display - Why do I have to choose between Expert and Spec display? Why can't I have both somehow? Maybe the display could switch back and forth between Spec display and Expert display, every couple of seconds or so.

4. RLC and Speed Camera Alerts - Anyone that drives with a 9500 knows that you get RLC alerts on the freeway, where of course there are no RLCs. It would be nice if Escort's RLC and speed camera alerts were more like those of the Cheetah units, directional and road specific. This is probably not going to happen, since I'm guessing that it would require a pretty significant hardware upgrade, but I'm just letting you guys know that it would be nice.

5. Better Laser, Um, Shifters - Anyone that tests these laser defense setups on a regular basis like I do, knows that the ZR4s perform at the bottom of the barrel when compared to other laser defense systems. They also false alert alot! I used to run my ZR4s and Laser Inteceptors at the same time, but I got tired of the ZR4s false alets, so I just disabled my ZR4s.

6. Quick Trigger - The 9500ci requires alot longer signal than say a V1, to qualify a radar alert as legitimate. This leaves the 9500ci user vulnerable to the admittedly rare, but certainly existent, quick trigger radar shooting LEO out there.

7. RLC Alert Announcements - The RLC alert wording of the 9500ix is better than the alert wording on the 9500ci. When approaching a RLC location, the 9500ix will announce "Red Light Camera Ahead", while the 9500ci will announce "Approaching your marked location". I'd love to have the 9500ix's alerts on the 9500ci. They're more informative and I know what to look out for, without having to take my eyes off the road to look at the display.

8. A way to deal with Ka band false alerts - I have three places around town and have seen a few other places that have Ka band false alerts at 35.9XX on my spec display. There is about a 10 mile stretch on I-10 outside of Blythe, Ca, where my 9500ci will alert constantly on 35.9XX. There is no police radar threat in the US anywhere near that frequency. The reason that Escort does not allow lockouts in the Ka band is obvious. If I could shut this segment off, like what is possible on an STi-R, that would solve this problem. Or maybe some sort of firmware change that would allow limited Ka band lockouts. I'm totally open for suggestions on this one, since there are many ways to tackle this problem. I could make a video of this if Escort would like to see it.

That's all I can think of for now.

Thanks, DJ.

Well, I just got my 9500ci control module back from Escort and #7 is definitely fixed. Thanks Escort! I haven't had a chance to test #4 yet.

[beemer]

I have installed the latest firmware update but it still says you are approaching a marked location and not the type such as RLC. I thought this was going to be fixed on the next somfware update we just received. The previous post said he just got his unit back and it does have that feature. Is it still to come or do I have a problem

[pinoyem1]

Originally Posted by beemer

I have installed the latest firmware update but it still says you are approaching a marked location and not the type such as RLC. I thought this was going to be fixed on the next somfware update we just received. The previous post said he just got his unit back and it does have that feature. Is it still to come or do I have a problem

You have to send in your 9500ci interface module to Escort for that. Escort Radar has mentioned that they can only modify the voice files using the interface and not through a firmware update.

[djrams80]

Originally Posted by djrams80

These are the things I wish my 9500ci had or did better:

1. Rampup - Needs to be improved. Discussed here.

2. Arrows - Probably a violation of a K40 patent, but hey, it doesn't hurt to ask, right? If I could buy an updated control box and install a rear radar antenna to have this feature, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

3. Spexpert Display - Why do I have to choose between Expert and Spec display? Why can't I have both somehow? Maybe the display could switch back and forth between Spec display and Expert display, every couple of seconds or so.

4. RLC and Speed Camera Alerts - Anyone that drives with a 9500 knows that you get RLC alerts on the freeway, where of course there are no RLCs. It would be nice if Escort's RLC and speed camera alerts were more like those of the Cheetah units, directional and road specific. This is probably not going to happen, since I'm guessing that it would require a pretty significant hardware upgrade, but I'm just letting you guys know that it would be nice.

FIXED! Thank You Escort!

5. Better Laser, Um, Shifters - Anyone that tests these laser defense setups on a regular basis like I do, knows that the ZR4s perform at the bottom of the barrel when compared to other laser defense systems. They also false alert alot! I used to run my ZR4s and Laser Inteceptors at the same time, but I got tired of the ZR4s false alets, so I just disabled my ZR4s.

6. Quick Trigger - The 9500ci requires alot longer signal than say a V1, to qualify a radar alert as legitimate. This leaves the 9500ci user vulnerable to the admittedly rare, but certainly existent, quick trigger radar shooting LEO out there.

7. RLC Alert Announcements - The RLC alert wording of the 9500ix is better than the alert wording on the 9500ci. When approaching a RLC location, the 9500ix will announce "Red Light Camera Ahead", while the 9500ci will announce "Approaching your marked location". I'd love to have the 9500ix's alerts on the 9500ci. They're more informative and I know what to look out for, without having to take my eyes off the road to look at the display.

FIXED! Thank you Escort!

8. A way to deal with Ka band false alerts - I have three places around town and have seen a few other places that have Ka band false alerts at 35.9XX on my spec display. There is about a 10 mile stretch on I-10 outside of Blythe, Ca, where my 9500ci will alert constantly on 35.9XX. There is no police radar threat in the US anywhere near that frequency. The reason that Escort does not allow lockouts in the Ka band is obvious. If I could shut this segment off, like what is possible on an STi-R, that would solve this problem. Or maybe some sort of firmware change that would allow limited Ka band lockouts. I'm totally open for suggestions on this one, since there are many ways to tackle this problem. I could make a video of this if Escort would like to see it.

That's all I can think of for now.

Thanks, DJ.

Another update. #4 on my list is also fixed. Below is a map of a RLC location that gives tickets for those that run red lights going north and south through a red light on Bellflower Blvd. This intersection was very annoying because I would always get false RLC alerts going east and west on the 405 freeway. But even more annoying than that, I would get false RLC alerts going northeast and southwest on Los Coyotes Diagonal. Depending on how many of the intersections on Los Coyotes I would get stopped at, I could get up to three seperate RLC alerts while stopping and moving again, for the RLC on a completely different street.

Anyhow, this problem is fixed now, so thanks. I must admit, it was kind of strange driving on Los Coyotes today through that intersection without a single RLC alert. It's been alerting there for a very long time.

[EscortRadar]

Glad to hear that your 9500ci is camera falsing much less for you now dj

[djrams80]

Originally Posted by EscortRadar

Glad to hear that your 9500ci is camera falsing much less for you now dj

We've made some progress on my list. Now, if you can just get them to work on #1. The Ka band rampup is so bad. Also, I think #6 and #8 could both be fixed with current Belscort technology, just by adding RDR on/off and segmentation to the 9500ci.

[pliesj]

Originally Posted by djrams80

We've made some progress on my list. Now, if you can just get them to work on #1. The Ka band rampup is so bad. Also, I think #6 and #8 could both be fixed with current Belscort technology, just by adding RDR on/off and segmentation to the 9500ci.

Hello ESCORT,

Can you PLEASE do something about implementing #8 and allowing us to de-select Ka sub-bands? I live in Austin, Texas and get so much Ka falsing that I'm seriously thinking about just turning off the whole band. Whereas APD uses 34.7 guns, ALL of my falsing is in the 35.5 band.

Falsing in the 35.5 band is principally caused by leaky DBS LNB's (DirectTV, Dish). The LNB's receive satellites signals at 18.3-18.8 GHz. The local oscillators for the mixers operate at 18.05 GHz, generating IF frequencies at 250-750 MHz.

As a result, there are image spurs at the second harmonic of the local oscillator frequency minus the IF frequency.

18.05 GHz * 2 - (750 to 250 MHz) = 35.35 - 35.85 GHz

Indeed, 90% of my falses are in the 35.624-35.627 range.

How hard can it be to implement a select/de-select for each Ka sub-band like the Bel's have? Seems like it would take just a few dozen lines of code. Otherwise, I really like my 9500ci.