Valentine One Concealed Display

[Frodo]

Quote:

"I've got a concealed display for my V1 and find it only to be useful at night...The main unit needs to be high up enough on the glass to get a good reading from behind with an unobstructed view or the directional arrows for the sides and rear will not work well."

Posted by RandallNeighbour.

Please excuse my ignorance, but doesn't the second statement mean that the detector is not really "concealed" at all?

Just wunderin'.

[RandallNeighbour]

You cannot really "conceal" the V1 main unit. The secondary display you can buy can be concealed though.

It's good for night driving so people don't ride your butt attempting to read your detector going off. It's also good for not notifying police that you're using a detector while driving at night.

Spend some time on the V1 web site and you'll see what I'm talking about.

If you want a truly concealed system, then head to a Porsche dealership and plunk down your $1200-1800 and they'll install a K40 system in your front and rear license plate frames and put some LED's in your cluster.

[hqduong]

Originally Posted by RandallNeighbour

You cannot really "conceal" the V1 main unit. The secondary display you can buy can be concealed though.

It's good for night driving so people don't ride your butt attempting to read your detector going off. It's also good for not notifying police that you're using a detector while driving at night.

Spend some time on the V1 web site and you'll see what I'm talking about.

If you want a truly concealed system, then head to a Porsche dealership and plunk down your $1200-1800 and they'll install a K40 system in your front and rear license plate frames and put some LED's in your cluster.

Has anyone had any experience with the k40? is it just as good as the Valentine One?

[Frodo]

I know essentially nothing about the k40 units, but my first thought was that they wouldn't be as sensitive, if they are mounted in the license plate frames. From everything I've read, the higher the better when it comes to reception of signals.

Plus...I'd have to get a front tag!

Thanks, Randall, on the "concealment issue"...as typically happens, I figured that out more or less immediately after hitting the "Submit Reply" button. (Too lazy to delete!)

[Cloudsurfer]

The V1 is worth its weight in gold to me. I do not, however, have the concealed display (have mine mounted just below the rearview mirror, with the wiring tucked up inside the pillar). I'd like the concealed display, just not entirely sure where to mount it for a clean install.

There is a guy in the UK who will etch the markings into your rearview mirror glass and install the module there. I think this is very slick, though pricey.

Patrick

[OldBlevins]

I'm too cheap to pay the cost of the concealed units and - though I may be wrong - I'm under the impression they have less range.

I have an Escort and glued non-slip material to the bottom of it. I laid a flat, black non-slip pad on the far left end of my dash and the RD sticks to it very nicely. Were I to get pulled over, it's easy to lift off and slide under my seat. It leaves no marks on the windshield for anyone (thief or cop) to see, and it's legal in California.

All that said, I didn't get it to speed. Mostly. I got it because if I'm not paying close attention to my speed and going along with the flow of traffic, I think my speed yellow Box is more likely to get pulled over than others. So I like to have a little warning.

[70Sixter]

Not sure how big the V1 remote is. But, that said I bought a blank batwing ($7) and mounted my RX-65's remote in it after some Dremel hole cutting.

I can hit the mute button by my right knee easily. With the visor mounted main unit in stealth mode (no lights) I still get audio and flashing light by my knee.

[RandallNeighbour]

Originally Posted by bmwm750

There is a guy in the UK who will etch the markings into your rearview mirror glass and install the module there. I think this is very slick, though pricey.

Patrick

There's a guy on this forum from the US who makes them too. I decided not to get one because it's only 4 inches away from the main unit and defeats the purpose of having a concealed display as the arrows can be seen at night from behind.

I have heard that the K40 system is great, but doesn't have the arrows so you know you're getting hit, but not from which direction... which means you can't single it out and get back up to speed right away when you visually rule out the threat. This is one of two major functions of the arrows... they help you visually determine whether you can ignore the sound you're hearing and hammer down. With all other detectors, you keep the speed down until the beeping stops and then ramp back up to speed.

The other function of the arrows is to show multiple threats, which has happened to me twice (Kband and laser in front with stationary vehicles and Ka band from a cruiser crawling along the service road allowing traffic to pass, thinking they'd moved past the threat). That saved my arse big time. The cop in the unmarked vehicle shooting laser at me looked very surprised when I rolled past him going 54 mph.

The first front arrow said Ka, the second front arrow said K and the laser warning went off and then the rear arrow showed Ka again and I knew what I was getting into.

I know the newer detectors would have sounded off with these various threats, but they would not have shown me where they were located.

in my opinion, the remote display on the V1 should be near the top of the dash (but out of sight from cars behind you) and not buried down by your shifter.

[8 Ball]

I feel the radar detector is a must. I am in Oregon and we have a lot of open road and the cops are either hiding in a bush along the road or they are driving at you in the other lane. I like the driving toward you because the detector sees them about 15 seconds before I do and I can sense them coming. I slow down and then I see them drive by and then I get back to my normal. The sitting at the side of the road cops are harder to detect because they sometimes turn off their guns between cars and then pull the trigger when they see you and then it is too late. Most cops are lazy and will just sit there with the trigger pulled and they are easy to detect.

Whatever detector you get you want the ability to pull it out of site, even if a cop is driving along side of you and don't get pulled over with one on your dash! one reason why I like the battery powered one...easy to stash.