Escorts 9500ci tools for USB

[CJR238]

Escort just released their new “Radar Detector Tools” program. The program allows you to download the latest firmware and camera/speed trap database on your 9500ci.
You will need to register your 9500ci first at: https://secure.escortradar.com/iregister.asp then you can download the software.

see Roy's blog for a preview: Radar Detector Tools – Escort 9500ci

Very cool stuff!

I have herd the 9500I's version of this should be ready by the end of the summer.

[ProSpeeder]

Very cool indeed!

[CJR238]

I wonder when you update the 9500ci with software updates off there sight if it can also update the laser Jammers, maybe to enhance week JTG performance?
At the very least the radar receiving unit can be updated.

[TSi+WRX]

^ I'm hopeful of jammer-capability upgrade as well. If that turns out to be true, I might invest in a ZR4 to replace my ZR3.

Milan has said that the Escort engineer he spoke with claimed that jammer capabilities can indeed be upgraded in such a manner.

Although I can easily see how the RADAR firmware could be updated, I am somewhat skeptical, currently, of such a claim, based solely on what we know of the ZR3.

It is currently known that to upgrade from the ZR4 to the ZR3, all one has to do is to obtain replacement heads. This would imply that all "thinking" hardware and coding is imprinted upon the individual chips that are physically located on the boards of each jammer HEAD, which is also what was supposed of the ZR3.

If this is the case, then unlike the AL/LPP or LI, "reflashing" the "control-box" (or, replacing it outright) will not at all affect the performance of the ZR4/3. [ Note, however, that there are specific threat-based upgrades, for example, for the LI, that requires BOTH head and control-box upgrades. ].

If the ZR4 is to be capable of such an end-user enabled upgrade, there must be "efferent" wiring going to each jammer head - from the control-box - that allows for such firmware re-coding. This needs to be confirmed via independent sources - in as much as any claim of "bettering" the ZR4's capability would need to be verified, too.

[CJR238]

I’m seriously thinking of getting a ZR4, just for the fun of it. I might get the 9500ci but its a big chunk of change when i already have my 9500I's.

My guess is as long as you have a 9500I or 9500CI with the USB the Jammers can be updated, if indeed this is true.
I would doubt all the jamming thinking is being done at the heads, its got to be a combo, and the main brain would control the higher thinking or the ability for improvements.
If I recall Escort didn’t recommend, or have available to only buy heads. The hole thing needed to be replaced if you wanted a ZR4/9500CI.

[TSi+WRX]

Originally Posted by CJR238

My guess is as long as you have a 9500I or 9500CI with the USB the Jammers can be updated, if indeed this is true.
I would doubt all the jamming thinking is being done at the heads, its got to be a combo, and the main brain would control the higher thinking or the ability for improvements.

^ I honestly hope so - that they had the foresight to take the ZR4 to the next level......

If I recall Escort didn’t recommend, or have available to only buy heads. The hole thing needed to be replaced if you wanted a ZR4/9500CI.

^ Rumor is that heads are going to become available, but how solid those rumors are, I honestly don't know.

As for whether or not the whole thing needs to be replaced (i.e. heads, integration box, control box) to effect "ZR3-to-4 change-over," again, the same thread/information from RD.net seems to suggest that it's just the heads (which again is what brings up my worry/wonder regarding whether or not the ZR4 will truly be "upgradeable" in the aforementioned manner).

Again, as to the validity of this rumor....I dunno....

Guess we'll have to wait and see!

[CJR238]

My guess is that they can put ZR4 heads on the ZR3 but it can’t be updated, where if you replaced the whole ZR3 for the whole ZR4 it could.

We will see, Escort seems to be doing some long term thinking and may have a few tricks up there sleeve.

[TSi+WRX]

^ That seems very reasonable, your thoughts regarding the upgrade path.

And I, too, as an Escort user, hope for the latter.