(OT) Traffic Speed Detecting Signs

[Charles Bishop]

Mine too, but maybe 4 mph. I've wondered if the mfg sets the speedometer low for some reason. It's roughly 4 or 5 mph on many of these "speed signs".

[Paintedcow]

I know this cop and he's a decent guy. I think I caught him off guard with this question, but he was having a little fun with it, as well as I was. But it really is a question which has an answer (somewhere). I assume those signs have user manuals, and there must be a mention of using them for speeds over 99. Normal drivers wont experience that speed, but if those same signs were used at a race track, they would not work, since many race cars exceed 99mph. Since truck and tractor pulls uses these signs, I would think that race tracks would use a similar device, but obviously need one that allows for 3 digits. (I assume they make a 3 digit one for such uses).

I wish I knew the manufacturer of the sign, so i could see if there is a user manual online.....

Till then, I'll go along with the "roll over to 00" !!!

[Paintedcow]

What do you consider to be "very rude gestures"?

[cowabunga dude]

I haven't used a detector for around twenty years. When I did have one I was driving 30 miles to work. One morning I was late and was doing 125 mph. The detector beeped once, I knew the cop was a long way off. I kept speeding. As I got closer it would beep faster. When I got to the state line I slowed down to 55, I could tell the cop was a few miles away. I merged into traffic. When I saw the cop he was coming fast and he was looking down the road past the group of cars I was in, like he expected the speeder to be coming.

Sorry Charlie.

[James Wilkinson]

I spotted a cop recently, flying towards me in an unmarked BMW. But the way he kept speeding up and slowing down, I knew he was speed matching the cars. I was doing about 90 as he approached me, so I dropped a gear and went to 70 quite rapidly without using the brake lights. The cop appeared alongside me and made very rude gestures.

[T]

We got one of them things. Ours works on Ka band radar. They are great for checking your calibration on your speed-o-meter. I have called the town and asked where they have parked the thing to check on several occasions. It also light up my radar detector, which gives me the hint to check my cruise control.

My guess is the the display is set by a BCD (binary coded decimal) counter and that it would just roll over at 100 to 0.

[T]

Dudes! This is not a stupid question. This is a fun question. When did you guys lose your sense of curiosity?

My guess is that the display is driven by a BCD (binary coded decimal) counter and that it just rolls over to 00.

[cowabunga dude]

One time when I left Fort Smith, AR, for Oklahoma City, I got caught caught up in some fast moving traffic. We were all speeding. It took an hour and a half to get from Fort Smith to OK city.

[T]

Love it.

Rush Limbaugh's law on sexual harassment: She will either

1) sue you, or 2) hit you, or 3) marry you

And I might add, if she marries you and you STOP harassing her, you will die a slow, protracted, NOISY death.

[James Wilkinson]

He clenched his fist in a way you do when you lose a game. Then I'm pretty sure he made a wanker motion.

[Roger Blake]

Only if you have a car with gps and computers.

[T]

It is a good sign that your felt you could approach him. It is a sign of a healthy police department. Community policing is the way it is suppose to work.

:-)

[Neill Massello]

Why not fire an RPG at one and see what it says? (Too bad Mythbusters is no more.)

[FromTheRafters]

Two and a 'half' digits would be good enough for displaying speeds up to 199 MPH. It cuts down on the circuitry needed in the display.

I would think of it as a two and a half digit display with the 'half' being left to the reader. It could well be that a log could be kept which logged speeds well above 100 MPH rather than a rolling over, leaving only the display limited to two digits.

[FromTheRafters]

James Wilkinson used his keyboard to write :

Motorcycling with some friends one day, they decided to see how fast they could go. I let them, I knew they would eventually get stopped at the lights in the next town and I would catch up to them. I got stopped by a cop who insisted that I was speeding trying to catch up to them.

Sometimes, you just can't win.

[DerbyDad03]

I can win...

I've been stopped for speeding 3 times.

The first time I was doing 70 in 55 in a rented car. I told the officer that I didn't know how to use the cruise control. He gave me a ticket for a noisy muffler. (Brand new car, less than 3000 miles on it).

The next time I was doing 70 in a 55. The cop told me to keep it under 65 and gave me a ticket for an obstructed license plate. (I had clear plexiglass over the plate)

The last time I was doing 75 in a 55, after midnight, on a highway that gets very little traffic even during the day. There wasn't another car in sight, other than the cop, of course. After briefly looking at my documents, the cop said "I'm sure you know that we give drivers a little leeway on this road. Try to keep it under 70. Have a nice night and get home safe."

[Ed Pawlowski]

K-band single directional radar unit Latest generation AlInGaP high intensity LED?s

12? or 18? Full Matrix (rounded) Characters for quick recognition Minimum Speed Display, High Speed Blanking & Flashing Digit Violator Alert Automatic intensity adjustment to ambient light conditions 12 VDC operation, 12 VDC or 100-277 VAC, 50/60 Hz input Power consumption: 5.76W Nominal, 14.88W Peak Keyed On/O switch Single cycle ON/OFF clock Sign defaults to last settings upon power up Built in on-screen diagnostics On-board Options & Diagnostics Radar sensitivity LED Operation Diagnostics LED Intensity Diagnostics MPH / KPH operation Battery test And more...

[T]

I feel your pain :'(

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

I would expect some kind of overflow indication, perhaps a flashing display. Maybe "00" which doesn't happen normally.

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

I used to have digital thermometer that had 2.5 digits, which was enough since the thermometer couldn't handle temperatures above 140 degrees.

100+ could be indicated by the display flashing. Flashing "00" if anyone managed to drive 200.