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New to electronics - home-made radar detector

alexr

Feb 5, 2010
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Hello, I'm really new to electronics (very VERY little experience). I took a class once in high school and have taken some physics in college but that's about it. I've been looking into building a radar detector from scratch and would really like some help. I want to put four sensors on each corner of my car, and then have some sort of arrow display system near my dashboard. Anyone have suggestions as to where to begin? I don't have the faintest clue.
 

Mitchekj

Jan 24, 2010
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I would look into the laws regarding such a thing, first. :) Even then, don't most police departments use Ladar or something these days?

For a very first step, you'd need to research what kind of signals you will be detecting. Frequencies, bands, etc.
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
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Jan 21, 2010
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Electronics Australia (I think) in the 1970's (I think) had a project describing how to make one of these.

The most important part is the receiver and the feed horn/antenna. If you can't find 1 (or 4) of these at a reasonable price then it would be almost impossible to go further. Be aware that mounting them on the outside of the car is probably not a good idea.

Amplification of gigahertz frequencies is an almost black art, and almost certainly needs to be done with surface mount components on a quite special type of printed circuit board. The electronics are quite likely to be complex and certainly well beyond my limited experience to design.

If you can find a reasonable circuit, and the parts are available, then it could be a really interesting project.
 
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