Which police laser jammer performs best? Recently I went back out with all the top options and a bunch of police lidar guns to see which jammers could jam the best.
Laser Jammer Lineup:
- AntiLaser Priority Triple: 2 Regular Heads + 1 TX Black (fw 5.6.7 / 9.3)
- AntiLaser Priority Triple: 3 Regular Heads (fw 5.6.7 / 9.3)
- TMG Alpha-15 Triple: 2 Regular + 1 VPR (fw 8.14, Cntl 1.04)
- Escort ShifterMax Triple: (fw 1.10, shifters 2.12)
- Stinger Fiber Triple: 3 RX, 3 TX (fw 3.1.06)
- Adaptiv TPX Motorcycle Jammers Triple: (fw 2021/02)
K40 Defuser Optix weren’t tested this year since they performed so poorly before and K40 hasn’t released any updates since launch. This test focuses on only the best options.
Here’s a photo from when we did a quick and dirty Stinger fiber install, hehe, and you can also see where my ALP, Escort, and TMG heads are permanently installed too.
Police Laser Guns:
For laser guns, we had a mix of easy, medium, and difficult to jam guns.
- Kustom ProLaser IV
- LTI TruSpeed S
- LTI UltraLyte LR B
- Stalker RLR
- DragonEye SpeedLidar
- DragonEye Compact
- DragonEye Compact
This group is a trimmed down setup compared to the lineup we used from the rainy weather testing a few days prior.
AntiLaser Priority
First up we tested my ALP setup with 2 Reg + 1 TX Black.
It did great against the easy guns, but it really struggled against the various DE guns. Much to my surprise, it didn’t do as well as my setup did last time I tested in 2019, even though I had since upgraded from older TX Green/Blue heads to the new TX Black head. You can see multiple entries in some of those DE runs and those are from we did multiple runs to see how repeatable the results were. Part of the way through the test I reset my ALP’s and reloaded my settings, but we kept getting PT’s.
What was then even more confusing was what happened when I swapped out my TX Black head for a regular center head. Suddenly the ALP was solid.
Fully JTG against the DE’s. One surprising PT against the RLR, but it went JTG on the next pass. Otherwise zero PT’s with the ALP’s which is what I’ve come to expect. For this reason I’m going to switch back to running this setup and not use my TX for now.
We were thinking it was something with just my TX head, but after I left to go pick up my kids, @DC Fluid and @ferius kept doing more testing on their vehicles. Here’s @ferius‘ Q5 which is running 2 Reg + 1 TX Blue:
So I don’t know what the deal is, but our TX setups aren’t as solid as I would wish.
@ferius also has 2 regular heads in the rear. He went JFG against all the regular guns and IPT against the DE’s. I was talking to @BestRadarDetectors about this earlier and he was saying that against the DE, you can’t do 2 regular heads. You need 1 Reg / 1 TX, 2 Reg + 1 TX, or 3 regular, and so that behavior is to be expected. Good to know.
Oh quick note, his rears went JFG against DE’s in the rain previously and IPT in the dry, lol. So it was all thanks to the rain that his rear heads were fine last time… Wow.
Looking at lots of people’s test results online, some are going JTG with the TX head while others are having some PT’s. I suspect it may be firmware related since we started seeing more PT’s with some newer firmwares, including on setups that previously used to jam more consistently. (I’m testing with fw 5.6.7.)
BRD suspects that my TX head is slightly misaligned which would explain why I see some punchthroughs, particularly on the drivers side, but it was professionally mounted and aligned and I double and triple checked the alignment afterwards to be sure and it indeed measures straight and level. Nevertheless, it does look like TX head placement/alignment is becoming more critical with newer firmware versions, something that others have started noticing as well.
AntiLaser continues to recommend 2 Regular heads + 1 TX Black head (sometimes 2 TX Black’s) for optimal jamming against DragonEyes in use on the roads today.
You can order an AntiLaser Priority online here.
Escort ShifterMax
Next we tested my Escort ShifterMax triple connected to the Max Ci 360.
This was even worse, again struggling against the DE’s and even going IPT at times. Yikes! Surprisingly it even had repeated PT’s against the ancient LR B.
TMG
Next we wanted to test the TMG since I had upgraded to G2+ heads and a VPR head, but unfortunately once we started testing, I was getting IPT with no alert at all, similar to what @Run4donut saw in our testing the previous week. I had recently used the TMG for a video a few weeks back and it was alerting just fine. After having the no alert issue today, I tried reuploading the fw, upgrading the control set, and even resetting the CPU several times (shoutout to @Jag42 for helping troubleshoot the system!), but sadly no luck.
I was initially able to connect to the system over BT to update and change settings and that worked fine too, but after further attempts to troubleshoot, the system died on me altogether and no longer powers on. I’ve tried reseating the cables several times, but it looks like the system is completely dead. Very disappointing. This is the second time my TMG system has died on me.
After further discussion, it looks like the TMG can’t be used on the same circuit as a radar detector or dash cam. Personally I think that’s a ridiculous limitation, but keep that in mind in case you want to run a TMG.
After this testing was finished, TMG released firmware 8.15 and during the update process, several others have reported CPU’s dying as well. Luckily some have been able to bring their CPU’s back to life. TMG temporarily pulled 8.15 and has since rereleased it, but some people reportedly continue to have issues updating. I wasn’t able to resuscitate my CPU and so I’ve sent mine back to TMG so they could have a look at it.
I would have loved to have had a chance to test the new TMG VPR setup to see how it fares performance-wise, but in between the system randomly stopping functioning while looking like it’s still working properly, the lack of audible warnings when something happens, to CPU’s dying during updates, it’s really shaking my confidence in the system. It doesn’t give me the peace of mind that it’s going to be there working when I need it, you know?
Stinger Fibers
Next up was the Stinger fiber setup. The temporary install was hilariously ghetto so here’s a few more closeup pics.
Heads were aimed as best as we could and tilted up about 5 degrees, then secured with a bunch of tape to ensured they stayed fixed in place during testing.
The Stinger was a PITA to test. Stinger has an option for a one-time 60 sec jamming option, but it doesn’t always take effect. Additionally my old HD radar antenna no longer works properly and kept erroring out. Many times during the test passes, the radar error would lock up my Stinger and the jammers would then go IPT, wasting a test pass. It took a while, but eventually we figured out a rhythm of power cycling the unit after every pass (very time consuming) and then reenabling the 60 sec jam option. Sadly the option wouldn’t always take effect so we’d have to power cycle and start over (I’d doublecheck and triple check that option after that because it would sometimes disable itself), or the system would lock up from the radar antenna issue. I purchased a standalone interface to test the Stinger fibers without having to use my VIP so I could avoid these issues, but sadly there’s no unlimited jam option with the Stinger strip display, so VIP display it is. To be fair, I’m sure these issues would largely be avoided by running one of the newer Stinger systems, but still something to consider from a reliability standpoint.
Anyways, once you get the system running, it actually worked pretty well. It came in second place behind the ALP 3 Reg setup.
A few close range PT’s against the DE’s. (Two of the DETC runs are ones where the system errored out from the radar antenna and we didn’t have time to redo those. It jammed until the error.) We also had a surprising PT against the LR B. Otherwise all in all, it did very well.
I think in practice the Stinger fibers would work great, whether you run them standalone or with a new Stinger radar setup.
Bonus Motorcycle Testing
After we wrapped up the Stinger runs, I had to leave, but @ferius and @DC Fluid did some testing with @DC Fluid‘s motorcycle using both his ALP and the TPX Moto jammers I brought and those results were really interesting. You can read his full test report here.
Adaptiv TPX Moto Jammers
The Adaptiv TPX Motorcycle jammers come with two front facing jammers and you can pick up an optional third single head for the rear. I gotta say I’m pretty impressed with how they fared.
Pretty solid results up front against just about everything. Only some PT’s against one of the DE’s.
The rear had a tougher time, but still kinda impressive to be honest considering it had just one head on the rear against those DragonEyes while other manufacturers typically require two for some semblance of DE jamming.
If you don’t face the DE, and especially if you don’t have a lot of rear DragonEye in your area, I think the TPX jammers would be a solid choice.
You can order the TPX Moto jammers here. (Save 10% with the coupon code “Vortex”)
AntiLaser Priority Motorcycle Testing
Next up we tested the ALP setup he had installed on his bike, with one regular head and one TX Black head per side. This setup was rock solid.
This is the behavior that we expect out of ALP’s and what we regularly see. Putting ALP’s on a bike means you have a lot of extra cables to tuck away since it’s intended for car/truck installs, but it is extremely effective on a motorcycle too.
Those extra couple runs you see, since motorcycles move around more than cars do, he also tried swerving practically like a maniac (and hopefully not getting passerbys calling 911 on him, lol) as well as hammering the brakes when shot, and the ALP was still rock solid in those circumstances.
You can order the AntiLaser Priority here.
So yeah, great job by the ALP as well. Again, for further reading, check out the full discussion thread.
Conclusion
So if I were to rate the jammers based on effectiveness based on this specific test, here’s how they fared:
- 4th Place: Escort ShifterMax
- 3rd Place: AntiLaser Priority, 2 Reg + 1 TX
- 2nd Place: Stinger Fiber
- 1st Place: AntiLaser Priority: 3 Reg
TMG wouldn’t alert or jam and then it ultimately died so it was unable to be tested. Thus TMG was disqualified.
As for motorcycle testing,
- 2nd Place: Adaptiv TPX
- 1st Place: AntiLaser Priority
As has been the case for many years now, I continue to both run and recommend the AntiLaser Priority as the best laser jammer on the market.
If you want a super hidden setup, particularly if you drive an exotic car, I think the Stinger fiber jammers are a good option too.
On a motorcycle, you can also consider the Adaptiv TPX jammers.
For further discussion, you can check out the full discussion here.
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10 comments
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I’m absolutely exhausted for you, UGH but thank you and I’m shocked at the TMG situation as that was the system I was going to purchase because of price, Oh well. ALP it is
Ty for the update, I am very surprised that ALP 2 regular and 1 TX (which I have had for 3 years) is getting PTs. I had a 3 regular head set up and switched to the TX set up based on the fact it would perform better against DE, but seems I will have to go back to the 3 regular head set up. Frustrating.
Thanks for testing ! Over 95% of our (TMG) Customers are very happy. We offer a 2 year best in the industry warranty. We also have a very very low return rate or failure rate. I have Vortex CPU, and the PCB fried like bacon from an overload just like the 1st one. Vortex was advised to run the TMG on it’s own circuit, to prevent the CPU being overloaded. Vortex decided to run his system on various circuits with other Laser jammers. Engineers strongly advise not to use a relay,etc. This issue was happening to Tesla owners or any electric vehicle, and was fixed by installing a voltage regulator. We will update the manual for installation requirements. Vortex also had magnets in his cpu casing -TMG
Author
You’re not seriously implying that you previously told me that there was an issue running the TMG alongside other electronics and that I intentionally chose to run it in a way that would cause further issues and cause the system to fail, preventing me from being able to test the system or make any videos on it? Really Jared?
These issues we’re discovering over time, they seriously need to be properly documented so that others don’t run into the same issues. I’ll go ahead and do my part by putting together a list of things that people need to be aware of so they can have the best experience possible.
And I believe its great to hear it out from both of you, but I hope you guys get on the phone and hash this out, then Vortex I would hope or wish that you would go out with the manufacturers recommendation/agreement and or conclusion as to how to solve the problem and show us an updated test. I believe that to be a fair ask although time consuming, but it is only fair. As of now I absolutely am not buying anything from TMG until I see that after another test good or bad concludes this soap opera.
Author
Oh we have and I’m sure we will more. I plan on going over all this to help people avoid many of the issues that we see. I really want people to have a good experience, you know?
At this point I’m getting pretty tired of all the issues I’m seeing and I’m spending a lot of time thinking about if I should stop recommending the TMG due to its propensity to stop alerting and jamming at all while looking like it’s behaving normally. It reminds me of the Max360 sleeping issue in that way.
Hopefully I can get yet another CPU to test. I no longer plan on keeping the CPU installed though. I’ll just temporarily plug it into a cig lighter to do some testing and videos and then take it out again.
For people like me whose fuses are always hot, we need a relay to have it turn off while parked. If TMG is now saying that cars like mine aren’t compatible with their system, so be it.
Well because I and I’m sure all your followers trust you implicitly regarding these matters and realize how difficult the process is TMG needs to step up and work with you and not start a fight with you because unfortunately they will lose. No one wants a legitimate bad review so they should either put up (help solve the issue) or shut up. I hope you guys work this all out. I was just about to buy an entire system for my Lexus RX 350 until this happened. I really appreciate your time and effort. We need you
I Install my TMG A15 Plus Dual heads & 1 VPR Head with firmware 8.14 on my BMW 535i with the M sport package 02/02/2022. My TMG perform great against all the guns we tested included the dragon eye G31 DETC, G20 DETC, G21 DESL, G26 XLR, G19 Truspeed, G1 PL3, G32 Prolite. good as the ALP or same in my opinion from viewing the test result from both TMG & APL system. I wish i could post my testing result here. This was a good purchase with the new & improve TMG system that i got. Compare to APL price. Keep up the good work that you do.
Here is a link to my TMG A15 Plus testing with 8.14 firmware. Just update to 8.15 firmware today. RDFORUM: https://www.rdforum.org/threads/118359/
I’m selling my complete ALP system for $1975:
All latest models, CPU, RX x 3, TX x 2, speaker, bluetooth module, GPS module, 2 extension cables to reach rear of vehicle, Laser tester, etc. I paid about $2575 for all this new back in November 2021. 2 year warranty on CPU