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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

 

Mine is connected to the mirror wiring , and it is switched power.

 

Seems it depends on the year and mirror type. My 99 has a standard mirror, the power is NOT switched and the Escort cycles off and back on everytime a door is opened

 

I have emailed Escort with my concerns and that if Escort products require a switched 12 volt source or damage will occur to the unit, this needs to be boldly and clearly stated in the install instructions.
I do not believe it is.
Therefore I would expect Escort to repair my 8500 at no cost since the "damage" occurred because the instructions provided by Escort say nothing about possible damage if not using a "switched" source.

I will post their reply..........if I even get one

 

I hard wired my V1 to the inside fuse box and no problems.
SC5

 

Which connectors did you use for switched 12v and ground ?

 

I have a Valentine in my truck pluged into cig lighter.It,s been on for months at a time.If I turn it off I,m afraid the time I might forget to turn it on could be costly.No probs.

 

As I recall the phone wire comes with a red and green wire (2 wire one)
The red I believe is the hot wire and the green is ground. So I connected speaker wire to the phone wire to make the length to the fuse box. The speaker wire came with a black wire and a white wire. I connected the blk wire to the green wire and used it as ground and white to the red wire and used it as the hot wire. Tapped into a fuse that allowed on and off with the ignition. So far no problems. Use a tester to make sure you are connected properly. Good luck

 

so... they went to the trouble to do routine calibrations every 6-10 minutes.

but they didn't bother to include a low voltage shutdown - to protect the circuitry

 

BTW, if you are using power from the rear view mirror, it will shut off after a period of time (10 or 20 minutes).

 

This is exactly what I thought as well..........But I sat in my 99 for over 30 min with the doors closed and the key off......the lights on the Escort did go off after a time, but several times it began to emit soft clicking/buzzing sounds for short bursts. Not sure what causes this.


All I am reporting is what Escort Tech Support claims is why the 8500 is displaying "service Required".

 

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???

 

Please don't think I'm trying to be crass, but why not just turn off your detector when you park the car? Thats what I do, and mine is trouble free.

It takes 1 second to turn it off, and when I get into the car, I just turn it back on. It's hanging right in my field of vision, so it's hard to forget about it.

 

what did the Escort company do... fire all the long time proven engineers - and replace them with recent college grads that

still live in their parents basement ?

 

Sure a user could do that, but at this point Escort says the unit has been damaged by voltage fluctuations and wants me to pay for damages and shipping for an injury that was caused due to their lack of instruction in their own manual.
If the user needs to manually power it on and off every use to keep the dectector "Safe" WHY THE F don't they CLEARY state this in their instruction ?

 

I wired mine into the mirror circuit, but I also turn it off using the detector on-off switch when I'm not using it.

Charlie

 

Charlie,

Your surrounds will go out Monday FedEX
I sent you the tracking info.

Thanks,

Jim

 

Please don't think I'm trying to be crass but...

We all know that voltage drops way down when you shut the car off. If you leave the detector on all the time, it will be exposed to these voltage spikes.

Requesting that the manual has a clause saying, "turn off detector when not in use" is kinda like sueing Mcdonalds because thier coffee is too hot, or thinking that cruise control is like autopilot.

me---> this thread.

 

I never use them, they are too expensive and never look like the ad.

 

Priceless it took me 10 long seconds to figure out what you were talking about.