THE CHALLENGE: In an attempt to meet increasingly stringent emission standards, many new vehicles incorporate a feature called “Auto Start/Stop” that under specific conditions will turn off the engine, for instance while motionless at a stop light with the brake pedal depressed, and then turn the engine back on immediately when the brake pedal is released. The feature is often indicated with an icon of a capital letter “A”, partially encircled by a curved arrow. Unfortunately, while many components of the vehicle are upgraded to handle this new demand, it’s not uncommon for the voltage to drop momentarily as the engine is rapidly restarted. If the voltage drops below the minimum threshold of your radar detector, it will reboot. You can imagine the frustration as a radar detector beeps and whistles through its boot-up routine at every stoplight, and you might cringe at the wear-and-tear on the internal components as the voltage is repeatedly dropped and reinstated. Th...
Brown-Out Buster
Instructions on building a very simple and low-cost voltage booster to keep your radar detector operating when your vehicle stops and restarts due to Auto Start/Stop technology.