Hello guys, as soon as I mount the Valentine 1 for the first time after I purchased it, it immediately went off with a X Band alert, Bogey 1, Strength 3. It remains beeping even I drive for a few miles. Is there something wrong with the alarm? I have no tint on the windshield and the unit is mounted on the windshield of the driver's side next to the rearview mirror. Please help!

As a temporary fix, I have disabled the X-band alert through the programming feature.

Thanks!

 

Sounds screwy, unlees you're near a lots of strong radar sources - hospitals, shopping centers, airports. Driving a distance should silence the alert. I'd suggest calling Valentine tech support.

 

X band is everywhere...garage doors... store sliders etc...Maybe it is still used in very small towns for radar but it is KU you must beware of (K band too).

Also BEWARE of smart troopers that PULSE their radar on and off....one sniff of KU and I double check to make sure I am not over the limit AT ALL!

And yes, I know there are Troopers on the NAM boards with their own Minis..No offense to anyone! Being Mini drivers...I am sure they know how hard it is to keep your foot out of it! (especially when passing Hummers)

However since it seems to stay with you...I would also call Valentine One. We actually have a hwy spot with a permanent X band signal...been there for years but not radar!...Possibly something in your Mini is making it unhappy...(Damn little creatures do some odd things! (look closely at that little warning sticker in the drivers side of your windshield)

Of course if I were a sneaky officer, I would have an x band radar unit in my patrol car since most people pay an X band alert no mind these days

I think it is also used for those roadside signs that tell you how fast you are going.

I have a Passport 8500 (about the same league as the Valentine (had one of those too)..I see X band alert and hit mute.

 

Thanks guys. I will give V1 tech support a shot. The beep stays with me in the garage, my driveway, and when I'm travelling on the road. The UP arrow is in bold with a bogey of 1. Occasionally, it will pick up a signal from the side. Thanks!

 

I have only seen x band actually being used once when I was on vacation, it was on I-75 between chatanooga and knoxville in a town called Cleveland. Youd come under that overpass and there he would be sitting and bam X band like crazy.

 

FWIW, I've seen NJ state troopers using X band. Kinda suprised me when I got my V1 and first came across that as I also assumed K and Ka were the only bands used in speed enforcement. For those out there contemplating disabling X band due to too many false bogeys consider yourself warned...

 

NJ troopers do use X band extensively.

 

I've been using V1 technology for nearly a decade. In that time I've seen X-band usage go from slight to practically non-existant as far as law enforcement is concerned. Use of X-band in other applications has been on the increase though. It seems that almost all big box stores use it in some form (I get false alarms around Sam's Club, Costco, etc.

Try using your V1 in a different setting to see if the problem persists. If it does, you probably have some sort of defect in the circuitry (hopefully internal to the unit and not something from your vehicle). The folks at the factory are top notch, and should repair or replace it if indeed that is what ails your V1.

 

That is wierd that NJ still uses X band...Nevada is not exactly Hi tech and we even have mostly KU with some K band thrown in.


From what I remember, X band required too much calibration and was beaten many times in court for not being accurate....well thanks for the warning...Now I will have to watch for X too! One famous case back east had a defense attorney using the "gun" to clock a tree doing 50 mph or so

Then they are also testing POP radar...best bet is not to speed

 

X-Band is used in NJ and Ohio

30% of the rest is K band
70% is KU Band

 

Thanks Chow....Luckily X band's range will not permit readings as far away as we are!!!

 

NP. It's kind of funny but I remember when X-Band was the ONLY band K band existed but was so rare ...

Things change

 

If I used my radar detector every day, I'd turn off the X-band here in Texas. I've never seen a real X in Texas, but the falses serve as a nice reminder to check your speed...

 

In fact when I first moved to Nevada...there were NO speed limits on the Highways!!!
That was in the early 70's! If you have never been here...there are lots of spots where the Highway just goes on and on...in a straight line and there was hardly any traffic...things DO change! AND GAS WAS 37 CENTS A GALLON!

Oh to have had the MINI THEN!

 

Gizzer, although I'm on the East Coast, I've been to Nevada so many time I can't count. At least a dozen times to Vegas (although not the last few years).

Once got a flat outside of Searchlight Took 5 hours for a towtruck to come from Kingsman, AZ.... NOT FUN

My DREAM as kid was to drive NV when the speed limit was R&P (like you said). FINALLY ... in the late 80s my wife and I helped drive my Brother to California when he was moving there. We were in his FULLY LADEN with stuff Honda Accord

We got to drive I70 across the state ... Nothing but tumbleweed, dirt devils, and a railroad track paralleling the highway. I thought it would be SO COOL ....

In fact, it was SO BORING. As you say, the road was totally flat, stretched out for miles, NOBODY else on the road ... speed had NO sensation at all. To hot to NOT have the AC on .... No discussion of illegal speeds here but the 55 mph limit had been lifted and that Honda couldn't go very fast anyway ... it was nothing like driving on "the twisties"

Yeah, I LOVE Nevada. Seriously thinking of moving somewhere out there for retirement someday.

 

Don't they also put up X-band with your speed over overpasses just to warn you or warn of something? I know somewhere out west I was traveling on Interstates .... X band went off and sure enough, a mile down the road was your speed on a huge sign. No cops ... just to slow you down.

 

Yep we have those.

They also mount radar of different types in UNMANNED patrol cars by the road sides...

As you said depending on which freeway you are on...it is either 55 -70 mph speed limit....Some roads are so deserted they have little cessana planes flying patrol to snare the speeders!

I lived in NY 30 yrs ago and escaped out here...Now it is crowded here too!

I am in the Reno Area and we use I-80 extensively...under construction 12 months a year...FOREVER! Also it is the way to get from Reno to the "local" Mini dealer in SACRAMENTO! LAND OF MANY BROKEN MINI WINDSHIELDS!

WE ARE NOW KNOWN AS A SUBURB OF CALIF!impatient

 

Yeah, once you enter Utah on I70 from CO, its several hundred miles of flat interstate patrolled by plane. First time I saw that sign I couldn't believe it. We saw a plane ONCE ... passing down the Interstate so it had to be patrolling. Cessenas aren't that fast. ... probably can't catch a Ferrari

We passed through Reno into Lake Tahoe ... Yosemite. Beautiful in the mountains.

You got a long drive to a MINI dealer.

 

I remember passing thru NV on Woodstock Weekend in 1969 in my '63 Corvair Monza, with the needle 'pegged' at 100. I passed a NV Trooper who had someone pulled over, he didn't come after me, probably figured he scrape me off the next curve.

I was stationed in Montana at that time where the speed limit on the Interstate was R & P during the day and 75 at night.

 

Nevada had no speed limit in 1969, I believe ... R&P. That kind of makes you wonder why the NV State Trooper had the other car pulled over

 

Wow, a lot of responses with lotsa good info! Thanks guys! :D

I called V1 Tech Support this morning and they recommended me to use the V1 on another vehicle to see if the problem persists. Sure enough, on my BMW, the problem persists. I'm pretty sure it's an internal circuirtry problem. Now i'm gonna have to go on ebay and harass the seller to get me a full refund.

 

dragonwang, if the alerts you were getting were laser, I would definitely blame the amber interior lights - I've seen mine trip off my laser alert when I was moving the V1 around in the cabin (with it powered on). However, radar alerts (X, K, Ka) definitely shouldn't be triggered by anything in the car.

 

I had to return my 9 month old unit to Valentine about 6 weeks ago because it suddenly started exhibiting the very same continuous false X band alert one morning on the way to work.

When I got home that evening, I checked the receiver with an alternative power source (gelcell) with the same problem regardless of location.

I called customer service and they suggested that I return it as defective. They fixed and returned it under warranty and normal service has been restored.

 

Sounds like your problem is solved.....and just when I was going to ask if you had the rain sensing windshield wipers. (it was just a wild guess)

 

Get comfortable with X Band and see what happens...Dont you think that the PD's know that most ignore "X" Band".....