Vehicle Timing Applications

Currently our most requested use, traffic speed data is of great concern to public and private entities. Speed safety and pattern data monitoring can assist in both study projects to help with department funding and in regulation of laws in parking garages, parking lots, highways and private avenues. Also is useful for safety in manufacturing plants that utilize motorized warehouse transit.

General Use

Vehicle timing requires 3 main criteria in the radar equipment. First being the speeds of the vehicles timed. Many radar units do not pickup low speeds, below 20 MPH. School zone and like applications where the speed is low will require below 20 MPH capabilities. Second, will you be inside or outside of your vehicle when timing. Most of our units can plug directly into your lighter socket or have portable battery operation. Third, though most radar guns can pick up vehicles, units that are not configured to do so may not be accurate or consistent. With today's radar units, Digital Signal Processing means that a radar has "chip smarts" in what it's designed to read. To best time vehicles you should use a unit that can select a vehicle mode which sets the unit up for specifically that application

Roadside setup

Timing general street or highway traffic does have it's complications. The best read would be a vehicle coming directly at you in as straight a line as possible. Of course the straightest line being standing in the middle of the road. However, since we'd like our equipment returned in one piece, that's not an option. Most vehicle units have at least a 3000 foot range to work with so try setting up on the roadside timing the vehicle as far down the road as possible. This will give you a straighter read, the closer the vehicle gets the more angle you create which may give you a slower speed. However, on busy highways with tightly positioned traffic, it will be hard to lock on the vehicle you intend to time. Timing the cars a bit closer will be the best option. Also try and use the units trigger mode to lock on a specific vehicle. Most units come with 2 modes, continuous and trigger. Continuous mode has the radar signal transmitting at all times so over a period of a few seconds it will update speeds. The trigger mode transmits only when the trigger is pressed and locks the first speed read. This should help keep reads from other external sources out of the equation.

Slow Speed Applications

Vehicles or motorized transit that travel at slow speeds can be a little pesky to read. If the radar unit does not have a quick target acquisition time then the unit can be apt to pickup other background movement. Target acquisition is how many times per second the radar signal reflects off the object back to the unit. As the unit moves toward or near the gun the radar can extrapolate the speed. A higher rate of reflection allows the unit to more easily lock in an accurate read. In warehouse applications for fork lifts and like transit it may require a unit that has speeds timing capabilities as low as 1 MPH. So be sure to let us know what speed you will be testing. Units range in low speed capabilities from 20 MPH, 5 MPH or 1 MPH

High Speed Racing

For racing please go to the High Speed Racing Page