My Escort 8500 X50 has been giving “Requires Service” messages for a couple of weeks since I installed it using my home made InvisiCord to the mirror power. So after many resets, I called Escort today, their answer disturbs me and may you as well.
The first thing the tech asked was “ Is your Escort connected to an always ON source or to a source that turns on and off with the key ?” When I told her that mine was ON all the time, her response was “well that is why you are getting the “Requires Service” messages. You see your Escort does a Self Calibration every 6-10 minutes that it is on and if during Self Calib it gets less than 12 volts it sees this as a fault and will send a “Requires Service” message. If this happens several times the Escort circuits will become damaged and will require repair and recalibration by Escort. Just ship it to us with a check for $59.95.”
I told her I have owned Escort and Passport products since the original model and that this information is not in any of the manuals I have read. She says the manual clearly states this……….I just looked and I do not see anything about requiring a switched source, and I have run many models both ways in the past…….was never a problem as far as I could tell. Since they ship the product with a lighter socket power adapter thus seems odd as many lighter sockets are hot all the time………only some are switched.

So if you’re using an Invisicord Mirror Power………..might want to reconsider.

Thoughts?

Jim

 

It sounds like bull to me. I would call them on it. Have the CSR point you to the page where they say this.

 

So I Searched Google for "Problems with Escort Radar Detectors"

look what popped up on Amazon.com

Beware!, August 3, 2006
Reviewer: Erik V "Design Engineer" (Kinnelon, NJ)

After having my detector on for ten minutes (right out of the box), it did three "SELF CAL"s, then said "SERVICE REQUIRED". I called Escort Radar and was told "If you let the car power up the unit when you start the car, the voltage can be all over the place and the unit gets confused. You must first start the car, and then use the thumbwheel to turn on the detector." It makes some sense, but if this is really the case, why don't they put those instructions in their manual? After trying this many times, the unit was "still confused", so I returned it for a replacement.

My second detector worked for maybe thirty minutes before the same thing happened. This time Escort Radar told me "if you leave it plugged into the cigarette lighter over night, this has been found to cause problems." Well my lighter power goes off when I turn off the ignition, so this doesn't apply. Escort Radar also told me that "excessive heat" has been causing them problems. Now we have had a few days of 100° heat, and I'm sure the car gets hotter parked in the sun, but the design engineers should have accounted for these conditions plus some margin when you design something that is supposed to work in a car. It gets a lot hotter in other parts of the country. There are no warnings in the manual about not using it above 90° or leaving it off in a hot car. You wouldn't design a ski that doesn't work below 35°, would you???

 

Interesting, I, like many others on this board use an Invisicord with our Escort's but this is the first time I've heard of this. I've been using this setup on my C6 for nearly a year now and have never had this problem.

 

It makes me happy that I have a V1... One cannot design such delicate electronics for the car... it's asking for problems.

 

In all honesty if this is how they designed that unit thats a load of ****. I have the solo s2 the wireless one and I run it hardwired in two of my cars and it shuts off with the car but I have to manuall turn it on and ive done this for almost 2 yrs now

 

I'm a V1 fan myself but in defense of the Passport there has got to be several 100,000 of them out there. This is the first I've heard of this problem. If what you describes she said to you is true by Passport, that totally sucks. Like you said, some cig lighters have power all the time and some don't. There would be a whole lot of upset Passport owners out there because of that. I would get a replacement or get you money back. Best wishes and let us know how it turns out

 

I have the 8500x50 and made my own connection to the mirror wiring harness and it turns on only when car turns on and I have it display the supply voltage constantly along with the mode ( Auto, Highway, City). The supply is always around 14VDC and never observed it dropping below 13.5V. Does the invisicord only allow constant power?

 

The Invisicord is no different than your homemade cord; simple phone cord, cut to a specific length with pins at one end that fit the factory power mirror connector (RJ11 connector at the other end that plugs into the detector).

I've been using an Invisicord in two different vehicles each with an 8500 X50 without any issues (2.5 years now).

In both of my vehicles, the detector functions exactly as yours

Larry

 

also the invisi cord is hooked to a switched power source it is only on when the car is turned on Ihave had mine hooked in this way for a year without problems