Escort 8500 reverting to default settings.

[markgoodrich]

I've put my Escort 8500 up under the fairing, to the left of the right mirror, and have programmed it to have laser and X band off, along with turning off the display, and a couple of other custom functions. The laser had been giving me fits, "falsing" frequently, until I figured out how to program it to Off. Worked great for several thousand miles. But last time I rode the bike the false laser alerts were back, as were false X band alerts. Took the fairing bits off yesterday to find the unit had gone back to the default settings. I've reprogrammed the unit to the way I want it, but I wonder if there's something else I should do? It's a major pain to get at it to program it, and the laser and X alerts are real annoyances (through the Autocom).

 

The bike has NOT lost battery power.

 

I've asked this same question of Escort, but predict their answer will be "send it to us." Nuh uh.

[CoarsegoldKid]

Mark, is this happening after the bike sits for a week or so? Does the unit have an internal battery than can be changed? Guess is after a period of time a capacitor or internal battery for the memory has lost electrons to keep memory active. Then it reverts to defaults. If you were to power up the unit every now and then it might stay up.

[bobbybob]

There's no internal battery but perhaps turning it on periodically might help. Mine has never done this, and I also have it programed to NO-X and Laser-Off. The bike losing battery power wouldn't have anything to do with this.

 

Mark, is it located where something could press against the control buttons from time to time? Could it have gotten wet?

[markgoodrich]

Bob, I've considered that, but the answer is no, unless someone puts a trained kangaroo rat up in there. To enter the programming mode, both top buttons must be pressed at once...and even then, the only way to reset to factory defaults is to go through each program. There IS a sequence which returns everything to factory default, but it requires holding THREE buttons down simultaneously.

 

Escort, as predicted, said "send it to us for service." No.

 

I can't divine how the unit being off for an extended period might reset to default, so the occasional starting idea doesn't make sense to me. Having said that, the bike was not ridden for perhaps ten days, then the issue cropped up.

[bobbybob]

unless someone puts a trained kangaroo rat up in there...it requires holding THREE buttons down simultaneously.

Don't leave the owners manual where the kangaroo rats can find it.

 

Escort, as predicted, said "send it to us for service." No.

Is it still under warranty? I think they're kinda like Garmin, will probably send you a new unit.

 

I can't divine how the unit being off for an extended period might reset to default, so the occasional starting idea doesn't make sense to me.

Some gizmos rely on a very small amount of current stored in a capacitor-like doohickey to preserve volatile memory settings/etc. Maybe your doohickey is defective.