COBRA POLICE SCANNER DRIVERS
COBRA POLICE SCANNER UPDATE
COBRA POLICE SCANNER DRIVER
COBRA POLICE SCANNER ANDROID
COBRA POLICE SCANNER BLUETOOTH

Or more accurately, the metallic waveguide of the detector. With the Cobra’s case open the largest and most obvious component is, as you might have guessed, the radar detector itself. So let’s crack it open and take a look at what goes on inside a radar detector that’s only a few years away from being old enough to get its own driver’s license. Detecting laser and multi-band radars might sound like something pulled from the spec sheet of a stealth fighter jet, but this is still a piece of consumer electronics from more than a decade in the past. If you were getting some kind of interference that convinced the detector it was being bombarded with IR lasers, you could just turn that function off without having to pull the plug entirely.īut it’s important to remember that this device was built back when people were still unironically carrying around flip phones.

But false positives were always a problem, so the device allows the user to select which signals it should be on the lookout for. Though looking like some kind of Cardassian warship was apparently just an added bonus.Īs the name implies these devices are primarily for detecting radar activity, but by this point they’d also been expanded to pick up infrared lasers and the strobe beacons on emergency vehicles. Over a decade ago, having an alphanumeric display, voice alerts, and a digital compass were all things worth shouting about on the box the thing was sold in.

Manufactured back in 2007, the Cobra XRS 9740 would have been a fairly mid-range entry offering the sort of features that would have been desirable at the time. The subject of today’s teardown is a perfect example of “Peak Radar Detector”. That’s not to say the gadgets are completely unused today, but between their relatively high cost (one of the top rated models on Amazon as of this writing costs over $300) and the inevitable false positives from so many vehicles on the road having their own radar and LIDAR systems, they’ve certainly become a less common sight over the years

COBRA POLICE SCANNER DRIVER

Back before the smartphone revolution, that same driver would have had a radar detector on their dashboard. But avoiding a speeding ticket used to involve a lot more hardware than software.

COBRA POLICE SCANNER DRIVERS

Having tools to keep you from getting nailed for absent-mindedly going 5 miles over the limit is one thing - having them so you can blast around at 95 on a busy freeway is totally different (and totally terrible.) Be safe, folks.Drivers with a lead foot more often than not have Waze open on their phone so they can see if other drivers have spotted cops up ahead. * With that said, people who drive like jerks are, well, jerks. If folks start thinking that Trapster and the like can provide much of what a radar detector would but for a small fraction of the cost, the radar makers might start feeling the burn by taking on some of the strengths of these applications and integrating’em while also providing an actual real-time radar detection system, they’ve got one more thing to keep sales up.Ĭobra doesn’t mention an official price anywhere, but a quick glance around pins it at around $129 on Amazon. Indeed - and I’d assume that Trapster, and other apps like it, are exactly the reason Cobra is moving in this direction.

COBRA POLICE SCANNER UPDATE

Want to update the radars Red Light Camera warning database? You can do it through the phone.Īt CES next month, Cobra will also be announcing a new feature: crowdsourced speed trap alerts. The detector keeps firing off false alarms in a certain spot? You can mark that area as prone to misfires.

COBRA POLICE SCANNER ANDROID

Once paired, the iRadar ties into a free companion iPhone app (the company also promises an Android app “Soon”), which enables the handful of clever tricks this thing packs up its sleeve.

COBRA POLICE SCANNER BLUETOOTH

Though I’ve got a feeling that Apple’s probably not going to grant this thing a “Made for iPhone” badge any time soon, the Cobra iRadar works in unison with an iPhone by way of the magic that is the Bluetooth protocol. With that said, check this thing out: it’s a police radar/red light camera detector that works with help from the iPhone (or, soon, an Android handset.) We’re going to ahead and skip the moral babble on whether or not radar detectors are good or bad * if you want to wage that war, the comment section is all yours.

Cobra police scanner