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Prank: Set off radar detectors

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I would think such a device would be illegal, since it would also interfere with law enforcement's radar guns, giving false readings. Otherwise, the police would be using them, much cheaper than manned patrol. Slamming on the brakes? Get real, everyone should know that brake lights are a tip off that you know you are speeding, and using a radar detector, to avoid a ticket, and won't get any sympathy. You'll get 'rear-ended' alright, in traffic court...
 
ohhh.....quite the topic I brought up...lol. Yeah, I dont think it woudl set off the polices radar guns, just the radar detectors that people have in their cars. Someone was telling me they used part of a garage door opener?!
 
Most garage door openers work in the 300 to 400 MHz range, and I don't think that frequency will set off any radar detector.

On the subject of triggering police radar, don't the police use all Laser technology these days, not microwave?
 
A British city (I think it was Swansea?) has just become the first to dump fixed 'safety' camera's - their statistics show they have caused an INCREASE in road accidents, rather than a decrease.

Also, and something I didn't know, the local council have to pay for, maintain, and administer the cameras, yet the fines from them go solely to the government. Swansea say they can better use the money it costs elsewhere, to actually improve road safety.

Its swindon, not swansea - oh how i wish it was!!!!, Swansea is what the 'S' in my username is for.
 
No, that's Hemel Hempstead. I used to live near there.

Check it out
hemel hempstead - Google Maps

The trick is to treat each mini roundabout as a totally separate junction - and watch out for people that just feak out and panick! Should be on everyone's top 10 UK attractions list along with the concrete cows in Milton Keynes.
 
No, that's Hemel Hempstead. I used to live near there.

Check it out
hemel hempstead - Google Maps

The trick is to treat each mini roundabout as a totally separate junction - and watch out for people that just feak out and panick! Should be on everyone's top 10 UK attractions list along with the concrete cows in Milton Keynes.

Didn't know about that one, this is the one I was referring to:

Google Maps
 
The speeder's radar detector goes off by your device, he slams on his brakes and causes a huge traffic accident with people being maimed and killed.
Please grow up.

Oh cmon, speeding is not causing any problems? I have been passed by others on the highway that are doing well over 160 -180 km/h!! Then you see them diagonally change lanes without signalling, and zig-zagging in and out of the lanes cutting off everyone in their way.

Where I live (Canada), if you get caught speeding (I think over 50Km/h) they impound your vehicle and your driver's license on the spot. The law is very strict.

I think it would be a great idea. Maybe scaring the speeder would cause him/her to rethink how they drive!!

I don't see it being illegal since you can buy a sports radar gun for a few hundred dollars.
Maybe I am wrong?
 
No, that's Hemel Hempstead. I used to live near there.

Check it out
hemel hempstead - Google Maps

The trick is to treat each mini roundabout as a totally separate junction - and watch out for people that just feak out and panick! Should be on everyone's top 10 UK attractions list along with the concrete cows in Milton Keynes.

I done some work in the past for 'British Holidays' who are based in Hemel Hempstead, which occasioned me being down there every so often, and that roundabout is awsome, the look on my collegues face was amazing!!
 
In my city, speeding fines are doubled in populated areas. Dangerously causing a speeder to slam on the brakes when his radar detector alarms.

I saw a speeder with a hamburger in one hand and his cell phone in his other hand.
Ladies applying makeup with both hands and looking at themselves in the mirror while speeding.
 
Oh cmon, speeding is not causing any problems? I have been passed by others on the highway that are doing well over 160 -180 km/h!! Then you see them diagonally change lanes without signalling, and zig-zagging in and out of the lanes cutting off everyone in their way.

Where I live (Canada), if you get caught speeding (I think over 50Km/h) they impound your vehicle and your driver's license on the spot. The law is very strict.

I think it would be a great idea. Maybe scaring the speeder would cause him/her to rethink how they drive!!

I don't see it being illegal since you can buy a sports radar gun for a few hundred dollars.
Maybe I am wrong?

I live in Ontario, Canada where the "speeding over the posted limit by 50km/hr" results in an immediate 7 day roadside suspension, impound of vehicle (a bit of a problem when it's a rental car, your mothers car etc) and a $10,000 fine. As far as the use of a 10.525ghz transmitter, while the device might be legal, if the power is kept below certain limits, any device that is used for the purposes of a nusance can result in criminal and/or civil prosecution. If you took a Radio Sh*ck 65$ speed gun onto the highway and started to disrupt traffic by pointing it at vehicles who may have radar detectors on board, regardless of whether these detectors are legal or not, you would likely be prosecuted. Whether you got off or not is really n ot the question. The cost in in defense of the action.

The fact that my wife's Infinity has a radar proximity detector built into her car cruise control to apply the brake when the car gets within a certain distance from the vehicle ahead would also trigger a radar detector and might 'trigger' a driver to apply his/her brakes in a way that could result in a car accident doesn't present any legal liability for her. The driver who applied the brakes could be exposed to liability by virtue of using an illegal detector that ultimately resulted in an accident, if he/she was crazy enough to admit this but she's fine because she is using her vehicle, as designed.

When I was in university, I had one of those "radar detector testers", about the size of a garage door opener and consisting of a small, microwave oscillator powered by a 9volt battery. I remember 'using' a Porsche that had a radar detector as MY virtual radar detector by keeping his car within sight as we drove across New York State. When ever he detected a radar threat, his tail lights would come on and I'd slow down. WHen he started getting cocky, he'd speed up and as he moved out of sight, I'd reel him back in with the Radar Zapper (tester as it was officially sold). Not something I'd do now, knowing what I do about liability and risk but was something I did do many years ago!

Most jurisdictions still use X and K or Ka band radar on their moving vehicles and virtually all are equiped with "radar detector detectors" which would react negatively to the "Radar Tester" since it emits microwave radiation that the police would detect. If powerful enough to interfer with their system, even if below the FCC or DOC limits for unlicenced transmitters, they'd still be illegal since they must never interfer with other legal users of the band. You can introduce dopper shifts in the 10.525ghz signal sent out by the police radar gun that would overpower the police unit and force the device to display the speed (as derived by the doppler shift given to the external radar source) to the desired speed. These devices typically have a 30mph and 55mph doppler settings (or if metric, kph) to choose from. The police know that something is wrong when a clearly speeding vehicle registers 30mph! Always important to make sure the device was set to the 'correct' speed! :)

Oh, back to the days of recreational electronics!

Doug
 
My car has a governor (set to the rating of the tires). When I am passing on a two-lane road and a big truck is coming headon then the governor causes the engine to stop! For my "safety". I don't dare exceed the speed limit by much or I might be rear-ended.
 
Illegal..

is the use of any radar speed detectors in Oz, you will be fined if you are found to have one onboard. You will be also fined if you had a "jamming" device, you are obviously not licensed to use it as Nigel said - it is after all, a transmitting device - just as those used to clear your "personal space" and others with mobile phones as dknguyen had said. But as far as causing accidents as audioguru suggested - the illegal use of them by an accidental maniak, would represent only an insignificant portion, if compared to those (if any) caused by their use by police. The laser is mostly in use these days at random spots. All permanent spots are preprogrammed to your GPS to warn you up front - and act as a deterrant.

Anyway, why would you want to speed if you want to get to the place you are going?

xanadunow

PS. On the other hand, how much of the "spectrum" is under control? Would we be also fined one day for turning a lamp light on? After all, it is also transmitting, and - we do not have the license in our hands :)
 
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My car has a governor (set to the rating of the tires).

AG, That govenor should allow short time overspeed for those situations when going "too fast" can get you out of trouble.

The "speed rating" of a tyre is related to the weight load on the tyre & tyre pressure + RPM of the wheel all resulting in heat.
So a tyre should be able to be overspeeded for short durations, assuming pessure is at max & weight load is not max. Having said that, a tyre blowout while overtaking at high speed is not a situation I would like to experience.

"S" rated (180kmh) tyres should be the minimum that is fitted to a passenger vehicle, my car would struggle to get that fast.

Tonigau
 
I had a car (my wife's car, she loved it) with a turbo boosted engine. It didn't have a governor. It kept accellerating faster and faster and faster and faster and ...
The speedometer went to 240km/hr but I had it pinned and the car was still accellerating then I chickened out. (The speed limit here is 100km/hr).

I got caught one time, luckily only a couple of seconds after I floored it.
"Good morning officer. This is my wife's car. The turbo suddenly started working when it warmed up. It warmed up a moment ago."
He never heard that one before so he let me go without a ticket.:D:D
 
Uncle $crooge:
Seems a shame to have all that power and not be able to use it :)
doug
I had many good fast drives with the turbo car. It would leave a stop light like a rocket with everybody else far behind.:D

But on snow and ice it spinned the wheels like any other car. It was even difficult to avoid spinning the wheels on warm dry pavement.
 
Speed limits can often be daft, as there are times and places where doing 30 mph in a 30 mph zone is dangerous, such as in icy conditions, or around a school at kicking out time (particularly around where I live, as the kids have no road sense what so ever!), and, other times, such as late at night on an empty motorway, personally, I have see no issue in travelling at whatever speed you feel safe doing - there are no other vehicles around, so if you do have an accident, your only putting yourself at risk. Think you have to use your own common sense and judgement a lot of the time to avoid getting yourself in an accident, rather than following the letter of the law. Also, as others have said, there are occasions when having the extra power there can pull you out of situations, but in doing so, it often means you have to break the speed limit for a short period of time.
 
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