New Firmware for New Zealand users - Uniden R7 - Beta testing

[Mithheru]

So here is a video of my final testing of the new R7forNZ firmware. I've now sent versions to @DEMON5 @dudeinnz and @KiwiClaire for independent beta testing. Assuming they're happy with it, I'll be releasing it in the near future.

 

[Mithheru]

@Zakk @DEMON5

For us in Wellington I would recommend have muting above 24.060 turned ON.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I have seen in recent years, we only have three redflex vans in our area. A red hyundai van, a dark blue hyundai van and a silver VW van. In my experience, all of these three vans seem to be operating below 24.03.

Even if there are in fact only three of them here in Wellington, I feel redflex detection is very important. As shown in my previous testing videos these vans are often found hiding behind fences, or hidden from view from oncoming traffic (e.g. in Mana, where they probably pick up your speed before you can even see them). I have also seen them parked amoungst parked vehicles in Whitby. So looking forward to seeing testing of the new firmware against these same vans. I feel with people more inclined to use the K band feature the tables have turned more in our favour.

 

[Zakk]

@Zakk @DEMON5
For us in Wellington I would recommend have muting above 24.060 turned ON.
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but as far as I have seen in recent years, we only have three redflex vans in our area. A red hyundai van, a dark blue hyundai van and a silver VW van. In my experience, all of these three vans seem to be operating below 24.03.

I agree with your assessment of the 3 vans, those are all I have seen too in Wgtn. Unfortunately I cannot see the frequencies (as they are hidden due to my remote setup) but would probably start with your recommendation as it should eliminate falses and make most if not all detections valid.

 

[KiwiClaire]

So here is a video of my final testing of the new R7forNZ firmware. I've now sent versions to @DEMON5 @dudeinnz and @KiwiClaire for independent beta testing. Assuming they're happy with it, I'll be releasing it in the near future.

Well I finally went for a trip around this morning and everything seems to working perfectly. It's the first time I've run K band in ages as I really dislike pointless flashing a beeping. Well none of those issues with @Mithheru 's excellent new firmware! Was definitely detecting plenty of K band, but all greyed out and muted. I am yet to actually have a K band detection actually trigger an alert all of the junk K band signals were out of the K Quiet range, which is awesome. Just need to find a redflex camera now, but not many around my parts but hopefully on my next trip to Auckland. I'm spending the weekend in Tauranga so no Ka detentions yet, but I'm sure I'll fix that after 10 minutes of driving around Rotorua when I return tomorrow lol.
But to sum up, everything is working perfectly so far, and I feel like I own one a handful of the best Uniden R7s in the world now!
Thanks @Mithheru !

 

[LouG]

Just need to find a redflex camera now, but not many around my parts but hopefully on my next trip to Auckland.

Take a detour over SH29 on the way home. Mr Redflex is waiting. Be careful though, it got a friend of ours back in March while trying out her hyper SUV. She's now a waze user.

 

[Mithheru]

@dudeinnz thanks for your question about what the settings do.

I do plan to write a release note for it but haven't done that yet. I also figured I'd let you guys try it and see how you get on. I also asked @DEMON5 to note down anything on the menus etc if you think it could be made more intuitive.

So basically at present you have:

K Wide / K Quiet - This tells the DSP to scan wide regardless, just that K quiet has active K muting, K Wide does not.

K Mute 24.060-24.110. If ON this mutes in this range also (only if K Quiet is selected).

Hide Mutes On / Off (only if K Quiet selected): If set ON then the mutes will be greyed out on the display. If OFF the mute frequencies will not be displayed (just muted). So if used in combination with dark mode, the muted frequencies will also keep the display Dark, otherwise the frequencies would be greyed out as usual.

With Auto GPS lock outs you can use these by double pressing the mute button as normal. GPS lockouts can be applied with K Wide or K Quiet. If K Quiet is selected and the frequency is in the mute range, this will only really make sense if you intend also to use K Wide (and no muting). Otherwise you can still use gps lock outs to mute low K alerts within the alert frequency range.

Quiet ride should work independently, so I would suggest setting it to 40km. So if there is a false alert say at 24.030 this will be muted by Quiet ride if below that speed limit (i.e. in town), otherwise those in frequency alerts will not be muted.

Hope that helps.

Post automatically merged: Jun 6, 2020

If you prefer, instead of the menu having "K Wide" or "K Quiet" it could be made to say: "Auto K Mute: On" / "Auto K Mute: Off" would that make things clearer?

 

[DEMON5]

All makes sense @Mithheru, except the hide mutes option. I would have thought of hide mutes was ON then nothing would be displayed and if hide mutes was OFF then they would be greyed out on the screen.

 

[winterbrew]

All makes sense @Mithheru, except the hide mutes option. I would have thought of hide mutes was ON then nothing would be displayed and if hide mutes was OFF then they would be greyed out on the screen.

Yes, I'm pretty sure that's what I thought on mine as well.

One thing I noticed today, is that I use the signal strength #2 option (the circular dial style rather than straight bar graph). With hide K mutes off, the frequency reading was greyed with audio muted but the circular signal strength dial was still in colour - should this (or can this) be grey as well. I didn't try this on the #1 straight bar graph signal strength. This might have been something that Uniden fixed on the 129 change log for mute memory frequencies ?

Seems to detect MRCT fine, and does alert within usual expected Uniden limits to poliscan and S350 laser. I'm pretty sure it was muting one of the MRCT channels around 24.129, so that may slightly affect detection in some cases.

All good, just needs the muting frequencies tweaked for WA, so the Raptor RP-1 on K around 24.125 doesn't get muted on K quiet.

Great work !

 

[KiwiClaire]

All makes sense @Mithheru, except the hide mutes option. I would have thought of hide mutes was ON then nothing would be displayed and if hide mutes was OFF then they would be greyed out on the screen.

That's definitely a fair call, and I guess it depends on how you view the what the options menu represents. I imagine that a user would approach it as a set of options to switch on or off, eg switch "hide mutes" to on to hide the mutes. Whereas someone who built the code, which underlies that functionality, would perhaps perceive that menu module in terms of the its operation, where the "hide mutes" section contains two settings, muted signal display on or off - naturally selecting off would mean the mutes were hidden.

Overall though, I think the average user would probably assume that switching "hide mutes" to on would hide muted signals.

Anyway, a tiny consideration in the scheme of things. Once again, thanks @Mithheru , your new firmware is bloody awesome

 

[Mithheru]

I think what I said above was a typo. If hide if mutes is ON then they should NOT be displayed / greyed out. So conversely if Hide Mutes is OFF, you can see what your R7 is detecting by seeing what is greyed out. If you want to check the alerts are working then you can turn K quiet OFF by setting to K Wide. I think the firmware settings are probably correct.

Post automatically merged: Jun 7, 2020

One thing I noticed today, is that I use the signal strength #2 option (the circular dial style rather than straight bar graph). With hide K mutes off, the frequency reading was greyed with audio muted but the circular signal strength dial was still in colour - should this (or can this) be grey as well. I didn't try this on the #1 straight bar graph signal strength. This might have been something that Uniden fixed on the 129 change log for mute memory frequencies ?

I haven't tried that, I only tested the other display option #1. However, with Hide mutes ON, those should not be displayed at all. Correct?

 

[winterbrew]

I haven't tried that, I only tested the other display option #1. However, with Hide mutes ON, those should not be displayed at all. Correct?

Correct, only when Hide Mutes is off, display option #2. When On, the entire alert is not displayed as intended.

Just checked, it was indeed a fix in the 1.29 changelog ;

8. Display Signal strength level in grey color for Mute Memory in Alert Display #2 mode

Uniden R7 1.29 Firmware can be shared now (See attached)

Enhancing MRCD detection range Rear Antenna Sensitivity Attenuation Narrow down the frequency range of Mute Memory function - X Band: 25MHz-> 10MHz, K Band: 30MHz -> 10MHz, Ka Band : 100MHz- > 20MHz If the main alert is locked out, the secondary alert becomes the main alert so users can lockout...

www.rdforum.org

 

[DEMON5]

Correct, only when Hide Mutes is off, display option #2. When On, the entire alert is not displayed as intended.

Just checked, it was indeed a fix in the 1.29 changelog ;

Uniden R7 1.29 Firmware can be shared now (See attached)

Enhancing MRCD detection range Rear Antenna Sensitivity Attenuation Narrow down the frequency range of Mute Memory function - X Band: 25MHz-> 10MHz, K Band: 30MHz -> 10MHz, Ka Band : 100MHz- > 20MHz If the main alert is locked out, the secondary alert becomes the main alert so users can lockout...

www.rdforum.org

@Mithheru, possible to find this code in 129 and implement the fix in this new firmware? Would be handy as I also run signal strength display option #2

 

[Mithheru]

@Mithheru, possible to find this code in 129 and implement the fix in this new firmware? Would be handy as I also run signal strength display option #2

It may be possible to find and fix. However, I'm also waiting to see what new firmware Uniden releases after the expiry of the Escort patent this month. If there was an unintended bug in the 129 that stopped low scanning then this would likely be fixed as several of the US members were concerned and revered back to 124. So may be better to redevelop new firmware than trying to refix a bug in the older version.

I also consider most people would be running with hide mutes ON. Today I drove to Wellington, and had a total of two K band alerts. One was already gps locked out (the one in Mana in my video), and the other was a really interesting low K false at 24.000 near where I parked the car. So personally I'm loving testing the new firmware.

 

[winterbrew]

I also consider most people would be running with hide mutes ON

I think that will be the case, once you are personally happy its locking out the intended range, by running OFF for a week or so. I ran my R7 K wide for the first week or so to see what it was picking up. That's fortunately when I came across a very low RP-1 at 24.089, when they usually are around 24.125, and don't usually go below 24.110.

Ran it again today, all good - great work

 

[Mithheru]

@Mithheru, possible to find this code in 129 and implement the fix in this new firmware? Would be handy as I also run signal strength display option #2

I'm looking into this to see if there is an easy solution.

Post automatically merged: Jun 9, 2020

I'm looking into this to see if there is an easy solution.

I have found the fix, however, looks like there are several new blocks of code needed to draw all the alert blocks in grey etc. This would require more spare code than I currently have to play with.

 

[DEMON5]

I'm looking into this to see if there is an easy solution.

Post automatically merged: Jun 9, 2020

I have found the fix, however, looks like there are several new blocks of code needed to draw all the alert blocks in grey etc. This would require more spare code than I currently have to play with.

@Mithheru, would removing MRCD detection free up enough code as we don't require that feature here?

 

[dudeinnz]

@Mithheru Drove to Dunedin this morning. Loving the new firmware.
Running:
K Quiet
K Mute OFF
Hide Mutes Off
Quiet ride 50km/h - I will probably increase this to 70, as my driving with a RD is mostly highway.

Works wonderfully to block 99% of K falses. You get the occasional false slipping in below 24.110 (in towns) - which I am sure will be taken of by increasing my Quiet ride to 70.

Here is a video of it detecting the redflex camera in Temuka (Recorded via a separate Gopro I mounted - need to fix it to get proper view of R7).

I got two very decent Ka detections and one point blank I/O (lucky as I was about 105) - no video as unfortunately I must have hit the mute button on the dashcam! DOH!

 

[Mithheru]

I'm running mine with 26.060-24.110 muted. Hide mutes ON. So with this setting I'm obviously finding the pole mount redflex cameras are also muted (thereby relying upon GPS warning for those). Still not seen a redflex van. So far, in this setting, I only know two false locations around Wellington region that are within this really narrow K range.

 

[dudeinnz]

I'm running mine with 26.060-24.110 muted. Hide mutes ON. So with this setting I'm obviously finding the pole mount redflex cameras are also muted (thereby relying upon GPS warning for those). Still not seen a redflex van. So far, in this setting, I only know two false locations around Wellington region that are within this really narrow K range.

I guess if you use the R7 on a daily basis for commuting you would get an idea of what K falses you get, and which settings would work best for you. The ones which pushed through were actually below the 24.060. Saying that, the flexibility you have added is perfect for R7 users in NZ!

 

[Mithheru]

So I just had dinner with my Wife and some friends in Wellington CBD. I was driving my Wife's car but took the R7 on its standard horizontal mount. It was dark, and passed a redflex van on opposite side of dual carriageway on the way in. Got full alert with decent range running 24.060-24.110 Muted, Hide K Mutes ON, and running in Dark Mode (night time driving).

On the way back van was still there. The van was completely hidden from view until right at the last minute. However, R7 alerted before we could see it. Still less range than ideal, but just enough to slow down even if I wasn't expecting it, and driving at a more customary speed. This is also on horixzontal orientation so less than ideal. Sorry no dash cam footage.

In Wellington CBD I found a few more low K band falses in some places I hadn't taken the R7 before. However several of these were quiet rided due to traffic lights traffic etc.. Also easy enough to gps lockout if I'd thought about it.

We also got sniff of Ka alert on the approach back to Porirua. After Porirua, this Ka alert went rear and gradually reached full strength once we reached Mana. So after turning onto our side road, I slowed down and confirmed two cars back we were indeed being followed by a police car. Nice!

Therefore, for me I'm really excited about the new R7 firmware. I've therefore claimed my brand new spare R7 unit as my main one. I will therefore plan to sell off my original one assuming I can get the radar capability fixed properly first.

I also spoke to my contact in the US. Looks as though Uniden is clamping down on unauthorised sellers particularly on Amazon etc. However, I can still import them as usual. I just have to accept the current state of carnage in the US which is significantly prolonging the time it takes me to get in my new stock. Looks like some of the main courier companies in the US are currently just stockpiling items for international delivery!

Post automatically merged: Jun 10, 2020

I also have a guy in Auckland who was running one of my DFR9forNZs. That unit couldn't find the van, so I've lent him a DFR7 NZ to run wider to see what frequency its putting out. Therefore, I'm also going to await confirmation on that one as it could yet be below 23.970 or above 24.110. I'm also going to update the DFR9forNZ firmware so it can scan a little bit wider.