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Some questions for our law-enforcement friends, from your experience using LIDAR guns

1) is there any significance to aiming the crosshairs at a vehicle's front/rear license plate vs. body? for example: range.

2) maximum distance you've gotten a reading from a vehicle with a front license plate vs. vehicle without?

3) maximum distance for a motorcycle, type of motorcycle? did the colour of the motorcycle affect the range?

4) maximum distance using a tripod, vehicle-mount and just plain hand-held

5) any particulars or formulas as to how wide the beam is at different distances?

I have attached a picture of the LIDAR gun in question, can anyone shed light on it's particular model?

iFly55 wrote:1) is there any significance to aiming the crosshairs at a vehicle's front/rear license plate vs. body? for example: range.

aim for a reflective surface of the vehicle, as the beam has to be reflected back to the unit

2) maximum distance you've gotten a reading from a vehicle with a front license plate vs. vehicle without?

3) maximum distance for a motorcycle, type of motorcycle? did the colour of the motorcycle affect the range?

group this together......

- colour: what it does is "absorb" light and take longer for some colours to "reflect" back. (longer = milliseconds) Take a flashlight and shine it on a white piece of paper, then again on a black piece, you will see that the white "reflects" brighter as the black absorbed more light, however the black is still reflecting back

- plate/body etc... lidar needs a surface (be it a plate, body, fairing, headlight, etc..) to reflect the beam back to the unit

4) maximum distance using a tripod, vehicle-mount and just plain hand-held

no such thing as "vehicle mount" for a lidar. I have obtained distances in excess of 2km on both tripod and hand-held. Having said that I prefer the 600-700m area as it gives me ample time to set the unit down, and either get cruiser ready to go or walk out onto the hwy and wave the vehicle in.

5) any particulars or formulas as to how wide the beam is at different distances?

30cm wide per 100m distance, so 1km beam is only 3m wide, width of a lane of most highways is 3.75m

also in 1 second the unit will make between 60-240 speed calculations (pending on type of unit used)

and looks like a Laser Atlanta Speed Laser = awesome tool!!

i found, what i believe to be a Laser Speed Atlanta Manual: http://www.laseratlanta.com/files/Advantage.pdf

on Page 52, what does 'Reflectorless' mean?

APPENDIX C

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Distance Measurement

Reflectorless: 10-2,000 ft. (2-610 m)

Reflector: 10-330,000 ft. (2-9,188 m)

I believe that's simply a reference to the material you're trying to obtain a reading from. I know in surveying, the measuring devices have different ranges depending on if you're trying to obtain a reading from a reflector (the guy holding the reflective sign) versus a non reflective surface (a concrete wall). I'm sure LIDAR is the same, better range if you're hitting something reflective like a plate or headlight versus something non-reflective like a wooden box on the back of a truck.

iFly55 wrote:i found, what i believe to be a Laser Speed Atlanta Manual: http://www.laseratlanta.com/files/Advantage.pdf

clearly that is NOT a Laser Atlanta Speed Laser manual, can tell that my looking at the unit itself which says "advantage" on it and the colour Then the earlier photo provided is the Laser Atlanta Speed Laser