asg

What kind of radar detectors work with the Distronic plus and the new parktronic?

Everytime I get close to my garage door my V1 radar detector goes off.

Has anyone tried the K40 Caliber system on one of these cars?

IluvS500

thats weird, my mom got me a radar detector 2 years ago from radioshack (no V1 or anything like that) and whenever I open or close my garage from the car it goes off

cmcjo

My dealer told me that the distronic plus is not compatible with some of the new detectors and will interfere with its operation. The dealer refunded my money for the radar detector since it was included in the sale price.

clk22

The calibre system will not work. I am an authorized k40 dealer and if you take a look at k40's website they have a notice about the systems not working with the new distronic. http://k40.com/images/pdf/DISTRONIC.pdf

Even if you plug in a dash mount detector it is going to make it go crazy reading K band.

If you have any other questions let me know and ill see if i can answer them for you.

asg

So which radar detector will work?

Will any of the laser diffusers work?

cmcjo

Good question.
Just wondering what others are doing for radar that have Distronic plus..

clk22

You can use the k40 laser defusers thats not a problem at all. You can not use any radar that detects K band which is pretty much all of them unless you can turn it off. I have heard a couple of things where a customer actually returned there new 07 s600 because they could not use the k40 system in it because of the distronic interference. If i hear any thing from k40 i will let you know.

magwheel

I've got Valentine 1s in both my SL550 and S550. The S550 has Distronic while the SL550 does not. The Distronic in the S550 has not been disturbed once by the Valentine 1. I even had it out today and used the Distronic and not one false alarm.

Just for your own info, garage door openers and various security alarm systems in buildings will set off almost all radar detectors. That's why they have city, highway and maybe some other mode on their settings menu. I have an Escort 8500 (Blue display) that I use in both my Toyota FJ and Tacoma and it is set off when I sometimes use my garage opener and something else I do in the car which I can't remember what it is right now. But when I do use it, it sets off the laser alarm mode.

Unless I got a unique car, the Valentine 1s would seem to be your answer. Plus I like them the best anyway because of their arrows indicating radar source direction and they seem to go off at a longer distance than the Escort. Good luck, Michael

PA55AMG

Does this interference only happen when the distronic is on, or all the time?

clk22

When the distronic is on.

mmereos

I have a fairly new Valentine 1 and I have Distronic Plus and it's constantly going off showing K band. Where do you have the Radar Detector placed on the windshield? According to the manual the only location that does not have any infrared coating is the bottom center of the Windshield (6 O'clock if the windshield was a clock)
Placing it anywhere else will result in 95% of signals which makes the radar detector useless. I also called Valentine and they also stated that cars with the Infrared windshield reduce the effectiveness of the Radar Detector by 95%.

Regards
M

magwheel

Hi mmereos, How new is 'fairly new'? One of my V1s was sent in for their update program. Another one of my V1s qualified for their exchange program because of its age. (I got a brand new one for $199 plus my old detector)

As far as the location of my detectors, they ARE right in the lower center of the windshield on all my cars that have V1s. To be honest, I never knew about the 'infrared coating' on Mercedes windshields! I've gone all around town and some short freeway trips , and my V1s have always given me plenty of warning time from Laser and K band radar signals. I just don't know what to tell you about your particular V1 problem. Sorry, Michael

mmereos

It's less then 6 months old. Also the Infrared coating is on this S550, I don't know if it was on older ones, and it certainly was not on my 2004 E500.

But to clarify. Are you saying your radar detector is not constantly beeping? Mine beeps almost all the time, especially when there are other cars in front of me. I've tried turning off the Pre-SAFE breaking, and also Disabling the Radar Sensor under one of the command menus (which disables Distronic Plus) and it still does not seem to work.

mcdelaug

There are 2 seaparate issues here...

As for the original poster, most likely the new Distronic system emits a signal in or near the K band to determine the distance to the car in front of you. Your V1 probably can detect this signal, especially when reflected off your garage door or other nearby objects, and will correctly warn you of a K band source.

As for the infrared windshield, well, not only does the coating on the windshield block infrared, but it also blocks much of the radar signals the detector is looking for. Hence the need to palce the detector in the non-coated part of the windshield.

One other thing, some cars (like the Infiniti FX) use a signal in the same frequency as police laser to perform their version of adaptive cruise control. Try having one of those FX things tail you while your V1 is on...the laser alarm will go off non-stop.

mcdelaug

asg

I have been using my V1 mounted to the left of the rear view mirror. It always goes off near my garage door and when I get close to other vehicles, especially in around town driving. On the highway it seems to be working ok, even with the distronic plus on.

magwheel

mmereos, I've got an idea! You've gotta have a friend with a Valentine 1. Have him go for a ride in your car with you and hook up his V1. If his unit goes off, then you know it's the Mercedes Distronic somehow. If not, then you know it's the Valentine 1.

You know, come to think of it though.... I had a BMW 645 Coupe when they first came out a couple years ago and I had bought a Escort 8500 with the Blue display. It went off almost all the time too. I called Cincinnati Microwave and they said on some cars a signal is broadcast from the cars electronics that causes this. I got a little heated and said they should have mentioned this (about certain cars) when I bought the detector. But instead of returning the unit, I just put it in a different car.

So maybe there is some truth to cars electronics setting off detectors. Mags

Dawson AMG

How do you like the K40 2000 unit with Laser Diff. do they work as good as other radar units? Is it better than Val 1? How do your clients feel it works for them? Thanks

clk22

Dawson AMG


99% of my clients are getting the calibre system installed. I had 2 customers one with a 96 993TT and Audi A6 S-Line recently that had the k40-1000's (single radar system) with laser defuser upgrade to the calibre DL(front and rear bluetooth radar). The 993TT got 2 laser defusers one front and rear The audi only wanted the front laser. They both have raved to me about the new systems performance compared to the older one. I also have the calibre DL in my clk55 and i think it works better than the k40-2000 system which i had in my previous car. Both those customers where so happy that i installed them in their other cars for them.

Personally i think it works just as good as any other unit out on the market, maybe even a little bit better. Plus the fact that it is completely stealth is the benefit. I had the the Valentine one and 8500 in my cars to test at the same time as the k40 system and they all went off nearly at the same time. The positive thing about the k40 is that it has sensors that are made to mount inside the bumper. The only time performance will be lost with the k40 is if its mounted behind metal or chrome. Most of the time the detectors that mount on the windows have a hard time catching rear signals and some tint will reduce its performance.

If you have any other questions dont hesitate to ask.

Thanks,
Matt

ukchris

Question... if it is K band that always gets set off how important is that band to you in your area? On a V1 you could disable K band using the diagnostics if you could like without it.

As an aside do you guys use the remote display? I've worked on a couple of BMW's installing remote displays and I'm interested to know if you use the remote and, if so, where you usually place it.

Chris.

mmereos

No offense to clk22, but Dawson AMG, you are asking someone that is an installer and a reseller if the K40 is better then the V1, of course he is going to tell you it's better. All research I've done shows that the V1 is one of the BEST if not the BEST radar detector on the market. The Escort 8500 and the Bel are also an excellent detector, the difference is the V1 has a full sensor on the front, and a full sensor on the back (the back sensor has saved my butt many times because sometimes cops sit on exit ramps and they try and get you from behind when you are passing them.) The K40 always comes at the bottom of most tests, and if you go to Radar Detector forums is not even spoken about.

I've noticed that even on the web, sites that give the V1 a negative rating are the ones that sell other radar detectors. Since you can only buy the v1 from Valentine, finding a truely unbiased review that doesn't lean more to what that site is selling is more difficult. Go to http://www.radartest.com, they seem to favor the Bel, but at least it's a top of the line detector that you can't go wrong with. Unfortunately the S550 blocks a lot of the signal because of the IR glass.

rdk

Since K band police radar begins at 24.15 mgz and distronic plus operates at 24.12, I am wondering if it is possible to lock out all K band alerts under 24.15. I know you can defeat K band completely but I have never heard if it is possible to defeat only certain frequencies within a band. Anyone checked into this as an option?

lee2375

i tried putting my V1 to the right of the rearview mirror at the top of the windshield, and on my way home it didn't go off even once (whereas in the 997 turbo it goes off around 3-4x in the same places, plus actual cops). I guess that is the coating blocking the signals.

So is the only place that works the bottom of the window in the center? Not very discrete unfortunately...

asg

To the top left of the mirror there is a space too. That is where I have mine, since I have the night view camera on the right side.

rob13572468

the valentine one is a great radar detector, i would even go so far as to say that it has better detection range than the calibre... but that does not always translate to a better experience for the user. i have gotten ALOT of complaints that the V1 tends to go off like crazy sometimes and this has to do with the range being cranked way up. alot of people like the k40 system because overall it tends to have less falsing even if detection is not as good as the v1 which in the end make people trust it more. once again, im not trying to get into a "one is better than the other" as i like both. i am just relaying what i have heard from a great many owners of both units.

now on to the K band issue. if you have a 211 with distronic and a V1 and its not going off like crazy its probably because the k-band reception has been set way down or disabled. valentine detectors have the same problem as every other detector. they detect on K band which distronic uses. there is no solution other than to disable K band. the problem with this is that the *majority* of radar guns in use are still K-band... something like 70 percent. so you end up unprotected.

the *only* solution that has worked thus far is building a controller module that connects into the distronic system and disconnects the front transciever unit when you want to use you radar detector.

Curlytoons

Best post on the advantages/disadvantages of the remote versus windshield units I have seen. Kudos.

C