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Radar detectors

I just heard from the mobile service tech out to service my car that he understood that there was no longer a cutout at all, that they had changed the way the entire windshield is manufactured to avoid electromagnetic interference. If true, this would explain
  • the lack of visible cutout
  • the ability of radar detectors to operate in the center of the windshield.
@Charley -- does your windshield have the faintly visible cutout (more or less over the speaker at the bottom far right)?

I successfully used my flex toll responder over the weekend, but I had it in the spot that other windshields have cutouts so no real data.
 
BuddhaDada13 said:
I saw this video--


and then I found this on Amazon--


I plan on using the Amazon product with the same Anker PowerCore portable charger to power up my Esccort radar dectector
Click to expand...
Yeah I bought one of those and used it with my Valentine Gen 2. It did work fine for providing 12V power to the Valentine. However, the windshield did interfere with the radar detector's ability to function properly. I do have the windshield with the visible cutout in the lower right corner but it was very difficult to mount the detector there and it still didn't work properly. Perhaps the Escort will work or maybe the person who posted it worked properly has the newer non magnetic coated windshield??
 
@BuddhaDada13 couldn't you just plug the USB-A to 12v plug cord directly into the car's USB-A port and not need the battery pack at all? I just bought the IGreely 4' cord version of that cable and am planning to use it with our AGT (once I get confirmation from Lucid on this windshield change and the AGT production is allowed to move forward).
 
njg-agt said:
@BuddhaDada13 couldn't you just plug the USB-A to 12v plug cord directly into the car's USB-A port and not need the battery pack at all? I just bought the IGreely 4' cord version of that cable and am planning to use it with our AGT (once I get confirmation from Lucid on this windshield change and the AGT production is allowed to move forward).
Click to expand...
Yes there is no need for the battery pack and voltage converter. Just get the $9 cig lighter socket to USB and it will power the unit just fine.
 
Not Sam said:
I just heard from the mobile service tech out to service my car that he understood that there was no longer a cutout at all, that they had changed the way the entire windshield is manufactured to avoid electromagnetic interference. If true, this would explain
  • the lack of visible cutout
  • the ability of radar detectors to operate in the center of the windshield.
@Charley -- does your windshield have the faintly visible cutout (more or less over the speaker at the bottom far right)?

I successfully used my flex toll responder over the weekend, but I had it in the spot that other windshields have cutouts so no real data.
Click to expand...
My delivery specialist was very clear that there was a cutout in bottom right - just that they redesigned it to be invisible.
 
SaratogaLefty said:
Yes there is no need for the battery pack and voltage converter. Just get the $9 cig lighter socket to USB and it will power the unit just fine.
Click to expand...
That won't work as the USB puts out 5V and most radar detectors need 12V. Also I was advised by the service team that they were advised from engineering to never alter the voltage from the USB outlets in the car. I know that this warning was out of an abundance of caution, but I'd rather be safe and power from an external battery and not risk the car.

As a quick cautionary tale, my 6 year old daughter took her USB-C to USB-C charging cable for her iPad and plugged one end to one port in the back seat and the other end into the other port next to it. It may have been just coincidence, but when I tried to lock the car, the car would not lock. I had to take out one of the USB-C terminals to enable to the car to lock.
 
@BuddhaDada13 The cord you bought converts 5v from the USB to 12v to the "lighter plug"... the battery pack you are talking about puts out that same 5v (this is standard USB).
 
njg-agt said:
@BuddhaDada13 The cord you bought converts 5v from the USB to 12v to the "lighter plug"... the battery pack you are talking about puts out that same 5v (this is standard USB).
Click to expand...
I know that it's the same, but if it's going to mess anything up I'd rather it be my replaceable battery rather than my $150k LGA.
 
As a former radar electrical engineer, I offer the following. The metalized windshield film acts as an RF filter, but not a no-Pass filter. My guess is that it is a low pass filter. mobile phone frequencies are not very affected. I have noticed a slight degradation in GPS signals. As frequencies go up, there is more and more attenuation. X-band (10GHz), Ku-Band (14 GHz), K-Band (22GHz) to Ka-Band (35GHz). So, depending upon what frequency your detector is seeing, you will see different performance. In my area, everything is KA-band, so I’m not expecting much sensitivity in the detector. I will do an online search to see if I can find a loss versus frequency curve for metallic window coatings. Data is always good.
 
Pete44 said:
My delivery specialist was very clear that there was a cutout in bottom right - just that they redesigned it to be invisible.
Click to expand...
That is in fact what I had heard a couple of weeks ago from a service advisor too. But consider that for this to be true, one of two things had to happen:
  • They have a new tint coating that covers only the "cutout" region, in such a way that it is is undetectable to the human eye, OR
  • They have a new covering for the entire window, and a new invisible metalized layer that covers all but the "cutout" region.
Both of these sound challenging, and thus less likely to me than what I heard today, that they have a different film that isn't metallized at all (or much less so) and covers the entire window. But this is just speculation. Someone with a new window and a radar detector could run the experiment (I have the window but not the detector).
 
Though hard data on RF attenuation is hard to find, I did find some. In the radar bands, 26dB of attenuation is expected. That results in a 78% loss in detection range for the detector. Advantage goes to police radar!
 
I just drove 30 miles to try a charge station. Had to pay with credit card but charging at 102kw. On the highway I jumped up to about 105mph for a few seconds. Then cruising at about 90. My Escort 360 Max started telling me kA band coming from behind. Finally after about 10 minutes of following me at 74 mph in a 70 he passed me. I continued to get his KA signal up ahead and he was over a half mile ahead. My detector works perfectly in the middle of the dash.
 
Charley said:
I just drove 30 miles to try a charge station. Had to pay with credit card but charging at 102kw. On the highway I jumped up to about 105mph for a few seconds. Then cruising at about 90. My Escort 360 Max started telling me kA band coming from behind. Finally after about 10 minutes of following me at 74 mph in a 70 he passed me. I continued to get his KA signal up ahead and he was over a half mile ahead. My detector works perfectly in the middle of the dash.
Click to expand...
Cool. How is your detector connected to the 12v in the trunk, did you just run cable? I don’t think the windshield blocks things. I used EZ pass the other day just fine by just holding it up to the windshield when through a toll.
 
Not Sam said:
There's an opening in the coating (not normally visible, but Lucid has confirmed this) at the bottom right of the windshield (passenger side). Not sure if you could put both a toll transponder and a detector there; I'm not sure how big it is.
Click to expand...
It’s visible.
 
My detector does not need the opening they are talking about. I put it right in the middle of the windshield just above the dash. It dttected the highway patrol before he was even in sight. Works perfect. I bought one of the USB to lighter adapters mentioned on this site from Amazon. I got two for about 12 bucks. Converts volts from 5 to 12. Then plugs into the console.
 
Charley said:
I just drove 30 miles to try a charge station. Had to pay with credit card but charging at 102kw. On the highway I jumped up to about 105mph for a few seconds. Then cruising at about 90. My Escort 360 Max started telling me kA band coming from behind. Finally after about 10 minutes of following me at 74 mph in a 70 he passed me. I continued to get his KA signal up ahead and he was over a half mile ahead. My detector works perfectly in the middle of the dash.
Click to expand...
Wait you paid at an EA station? You don't have to, if plug and charge doesn't work, initiate the charge through the Lucid app
 
hydbob said:
Wait you paid at an EA station? You don't have to, if plug and charge doesn't work, initiate the charge through the Lucid app
Click to expand...
Hadn't thought of doing it thru the app. Just really wanted to try charging somewhere other than home.
 
Charley said:
Hadn't thought of doing it thru the app. Just really wanted to try charging somewhere other than home.
Click to expand...
You should be able to just plug in and it will start charging for you. If it asks for billing, inside the Lucid app, under the charging tab, it'll say "Electrify America" and then you just pick the station your car is plugged into to initiate the free charging.
 
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