So a few years ago I bought a refurb Escort Passport 8500 radar detector, and since then, I've become a total convert. Knowing where the police are clocking your speeds by radar is so awesome. I'm sure that mine has saved me a number of tickets, as most of the back roads po-po just cruise around with the radar blasting, letting you know their every where-about.
One little "issue" that had cropped up as the unit aged was I noticed that I was getting some really weird false laser alerts on the detector. Like I'd be cruising down the Kank at FJR nominal 20 over and round a corner in the woods and BEEEP!! For those of you familiar with the laser alarm on the passport, that can be abit unsettling as the laser alert starts at maximum volume and the rails off, under the assumption that, if it's detecting a real LIDAR gun, it's probably already too late.
But I'd look around and conclude that there was really no way that there was anything shooting LIDAR on that rural stretch of roadways and the RD was just goofin' me. I did some intarwebs searching and apparently this is a fairly common observation with this particular group of Escort models (not sure it it applies to the 95XX series but I'm guessing it may. So after lots of Googleage, I finally found a theory that makes the most sense. The theory is that the laser detector in these units is a very finicky and sensitive sensor. If you open your unit up and snoop around you'll see that it is shielded inside a little grounded shield box. But that box is only grounded by some bent and crimped tangs of the box, which may not be adequate.
Well, I've got me some little screwdrivers and tools, let's get a lookie-loo:
Cracking the case open is pretty intuitive. Here's the component side of the main circuit board
The large gray metal unit that takes most of the real estate is the super-hetero-dyne radar receiver sensor. You'll notice that on this model the horn receiver faces forward so it is only sensitive to radar from in front, or whatever bounces at you from in front. The silver cage with the R15 hand written annotation is the cover over the laser sensor.
Now here's the back side of the board:
The four philips head screws on this side hold the super-het on the other side. But the silver metal shield is on the back side of the laser sensor, supporting the idea that it may be hyper sensitive to outside interference. Also note that there are little tangs coming from the box shield on the component side pasing thru to the back and that they are just bent over to secrure that front side box shield. Only one of those tabs (on the far right) is actually soldered to the shield on this side to provide a good ground bond.
When I wiggled the box on the component side it was clear that it could move around a small amount. That movement, under the vibration of a motorcycle, might be just what is required to allow outside interference inside the Faraday shielding of these grounded boxes and plates.
Using a flat blade screw driver and holding the box tight to the component side, I firmly crimped each of the tangs on the back side, and then, after insuring the shield was now tightly captured, I soldered every one of the tangs to the back side shield plate, here:
I made this mod a couple of months ago, but since the false laser alerts were intermittent (though clearly were increasing in frequency and annoyance), I wanted to wait a good long while before declaring victory. I'm happy to report that I have not had a single false laser alert since the mod.
Hope that helps out some other Escort Passport users.
One little "issue" that had cropped up as the unit aged was I noticed that I was getting some really weird false laser alerts on the detector. Like I'd be cruising down the Kank at FJR nominal 20 over and round a corner in the woods and BEEEP!! For those of you familiar with the laser alarm on the passport, that can be abit unsettling as the laser alert starts at maximum volume and the rails off, under the assumption that, if it's detecting a real LIDAR gun, it's probably already too late.
But I'd look around and conclude that there was really no way that there was anything shooting LIDAR on that rural stretch of roadways and the RD was just goofin' me. I did some intarwebs searching and apparently this is a fairly common observation with this particular group of Escort models (not sure it it applies to the 95XX series but I'm guessing it may. So after lots of Googleage, I finally found a theory that makes the most sense. The theory is that the laser detector in these units is a very finicky and sensitive sensor. If you open your unit up and snoop around you'll see that it is shielded inside a little grounded shield box. But that box is only grounded by some bent and crimped tangs of the box, which may not be adequate.
Well, I've got me some little screwdrivers and tools, let's get a lookie-loo:
Cracking the case open is pretty intuitive. Here's the component side of the main circuit board
The large gray metal unit that takes most of the real estate is the super-hetero-dyne radar receiver sensor. You'll notice that on this model the horn receiver faces forward so it is only sensitive to radar from in front, or whatever bounces at you from in front. The silver cage with the R15 hand written annotation is the cover over the laser sensor.
Now here's the back side of the board:
The four philips head screws on this side hold the super-het on the other side. But the silver metal shield is on the back side of the laser sensor, supporting the idea that it may be hyper sensitive to outside interference. Also note that there are little tangs coming from the box shield on the component side pasing thru to the back and that they are just bent over to secrure that front side box shield. Only one of those tabs (on the far right) is actually soldered to the shield on this side to provide a good ground bond.
When I wiggled the box on the component side it was clear that it could move around a small amount. That movement, under the vibration of a motorcycle, might be just what is required to allow outside interference inside the Faraday shielding of these grounded boxes and plates.
Using a flat blade screw driver and holding the box tight to the component side, I firmly crimped each of the tangs on the back side, and then, after insuring the shield was now tightly captured, I soldered every one of the tangs to the back side shield plate, here:
I made this mod a couple of months ago, but since the false laser alerts were intermittent (though clearly were increasing in frequency and annoyance), I wanted to wait a good long while before declaring victory. I'm happy to report that I have not had a single false laser alert since the mod.
Hope that helps out some other Escort Passport users.
