One of the most common questions we get from dealers is, “What’s the difference between a TX and regular ALP sensor, and when should I use one?” It’s true – completely understanding where and when to use a TX sensor can be a bit confusing sometimes. But once you wrap your mind around it, you will be able to use one of the most effective laser-fighting tools in several years!
Before we take a deep dive into the ALP TX sensor, it is important to understand how a regular ALP sensor is constructed. Laser jammer sensors are fairly simple devices, with each sensor having one transmit and one receive diode in them. The job of the transmit and receive diodes is exactly what it sounds like – to receive the laser pulses from the police laser gun, and then to transmit back jamming laser pulses to confuse the gun.
In a normal ALP sensor, the transmit diode is oriented horizontally – this means you will get more protection left to right than you will up and down. This is because cars are generally wider than they are tall.
Now that we understand what is inside a sensor, let’s take a look at how they function as a system. The AL Priority is an incredibly smart laser jamming system. Instead of reacting the same way to every type of gun, the ALP is actually capable of knowing what police LIDAR gun is targeting it and adjusting its jamming method on the fly.
When the user has three regular ALP sensors installed and is targeted by a variable pulse rate (VPR) gun like the DragonEye, here is how the ALP functions:
This is easily the most advanced laser jamming functionality on the market. Other companies have been trying to reverse engineer it for years, and some have managed to copy the functionality that disables the center sensor when shot by DragonEye – but none have been able to implement the automatic sensitivity adjustment that makes the ALP perform so well.
Just as AL Priority invented advanced jamming techniques for guns like the DragonEye, they once again deliver another world first with the concept of the TX sensor. In this case, TX stands for “Transmit” – and this is a completely new type of sensor.
A TX sensor is a sensor that has three transmit diodes, but no receive diodes. This means that the TX sensor CANNOT be used without at least one regular sensor, as it would not be able to see any laser pulses being shot at it.
When a user has a TX sensor installed, the ALP’s jamming logic works the opposite way that it does when there are three regular sensors installed.
There are several benefits to using a TX sensor with two regular sensors:
While the TX sensor can be a great tool on certain installations, there are two things to be aware of when it comes to real-world usage:
The TX sensor is stocked in two SKUs by Radenso – a front TX kit and a rear TX kit. The kits differ in the included cabling. The front TX sensor comes with a standard cable, while the rear TX sensor kit includes an optional splitter.
This splitter can be used uniquely with a TX sensor (do NOT use it with a regular head, damage may occur) to add additional TX heads beyond the physical port number limitation on the ALP CPU. This is extremely useful to add a third head to the rear install, where there are only two RJ11 ports present. When using a TX sensor in the front installation, it is recommended for all vehicles to use two regular sensors with one TX sensor in the middle.
When using a TX sensor in the rear installation, on larger vehicles it is recommended to use the splitter to duplicate the front install (two regular sensors, 1 TX sensor). On smaller vehicles, it is possible to get Jam to Gun performance using just one regular sensor and one TX sensor.
On all front installations, it is essential that the TX sensor be plugged into the Middle F2 port of the ALP CPU. For all rear installations, it is essential that the TX sensor be plugged into the R2 port of the ALP CPU. If the TX sensor is plugged into the wrong port, jamming will not occur.
The TX sensor delivers yet another world-first from the undisputed king of laser jamming performance. Used properly, the TX sensor guarantees futureproof performance for years to come and is another tool in the fight for driving freedom.
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