GA Testing Group/RALETC LIDAR Testing - 11/9

[Yellowcab]

For those interested in the testing results and are concerned especially those on the other forums that were not even apart of the test let me clarify what testing is for. Testing is done to put installs against the worst possible situations against the hardest guns out there. If you want to see green across the board we could have brought the regular old guns that everyone tests with and even if your setup was not optimal the results would have been all green. What does doing that help anyone?

I could have brought a different SX like some members possess and results would have been much better also but we are not trying to hide anything, We are pushing the installs to their max to find holes and patch them up. Not only were the tests done several degrees off axis but this course has different elevations with some hills, dips and bumps and was roughly 2400FT. When shooting a very fast gun like the SX which runs at close to 4000 pulses per second its very easy when hitting a dip if your heads are not aligned perfectly to get out of the beam area and get a fast PT. If your heads are aligned perfectly you will have some give to accommodate these road conditions and still hold the view back to the gun but if you are off these road changes could very well put the beam back to the gun out of the range and cause a PT.

This course is by far the toughest course I have ever seen in person or on video. The hills, being off axis, the bumps in the road and position of the sun all played huge factors in helping to exploit deficiencies in some of the installations. Heads being a few or sometimes much more degrees not level and misaligned heads lead to many PTs. I have seen this not only at this event, but at many others. I am almost to the point that I want to have two day events. Day one just to inspect, adjust and align sensors prior to testing. When installing my cars, it takes an hour or two just to level and align the heads.

With the newer guns alignment and being level is very important compared to the older LIDARs. This statement applies to both Laser Interceptor and ALP (When Blinder finally releases a firmware to jam these LIDARs I would expect this to apply to them too).

The proof of the alignment issue can be shown by the rear installation of Nick from CarTunes. He had a very minor misalignment on his rear install. By slightly adjusting the alignment and leveling the sensors he went from PT city to JFG. He got to see how, what many would think to be small insignificant misalignment, can allow PTs to happen. He also knows how important it is to be accuratley leveled and aligned. I highly recommend Nick to be involved in any jammer installation.