ALP Setup Guide Part 2: Deciding How Many Laser Heads You Need

In this section we’ll cover how many laser jammer heads you should get for your ALP. Choosing the correct number of heads is vital for solid performance. It also really matters both where you install the heads on your vehicle and how you position the heads. Mess up any of these things and your jammers will not be able to do their job and protect you. Just because you have laser jammers somewhere on your vehicle does not mean that they will work properly! You have to use your tools properly, not just have them on your car.

Installing them properly is one of the most important things I’ll cover in this entire guide so definitely read over this to ensure you know what to buy and how to install your jammers.

In order to know how many laser jammer heads you need on your car and where they should go, you need to first know what the targets are on your vehicle you’re trying to protect.

Lidar Guns Targets on our Vehicles

Police officers are trained to target the areas of the car that are the most reflective and easiest for a lidar gun to get a reading from. Those areas are:

1. Driver’s side headlight
2. Center mass (grill or front plate if applicable)
3. Passenger’s side headlight

Lidar targets on a vehicle

Modern lidar guns are able to get a reading off of any part of the vehicle, not just the shiny parts. This includes the bumper, foglights, blacked out non-chrome grills, etc. However, installing our laser jammers such that they are ideally suited to protect the 3 primary target areas will also have the effect of protecting the rest of the car too.

How Many Laser Jammer Heads Do We Need?

Here’s a quick overview of how many heads you need for your vehicle, depending on the type of vehicle you drive, where you drive, and if you want front protection only or both front and rear protection. Some of the newer anti-jamming guns with a variable pulse rate (VPR) will require additional heads.

1 Head

• Motorcycle, front coverage only, no VPR guns

2 Heads

• Small to mid-sized cars, front only
• Motorcycle, front and rear coverage
• Motorcycle with full protection against VPR guns, front only

3 Heads

• Mid to large sized vehicles, wide sports cars, trucks, SUV’s, front only

3 Heads: 2 Regular, 1 Tx

• Front protection for vehicles that encounter the DragonEye guns

4 Heads

• Front and rear 2/2 protection for small to mid-sized vehicles

5 Heads

• Full protection for all vehicles against normal guns, front and rear

6 Heads: 2 Regular per side, 1 Tx per side

• Full protection for all vehicles that encounter the DragonEye guns, 3 front and 3 rear
• Full protection for larger vehicles like trucks and SUV’s that need 3 heads per side

7 Heads: 2 Regular per side, 2 Tx front, 1 Tx rear

• Front supports two Tx sensors connected to a splitter (one blue, one green)
• Primarily an option for future-proofing
• Generally not necessary today

2 or 3 Heads per side?

The front is the main area most people need to protect and in many parts of the country they only target the front of your vehicle. As for how many heads you need per side of your vehicle, here’s the general rule of thumb:

For small and compact cars, 2 heads will generally provide sufficient protection in many situations. Standard/mid-sized vehicles can often work well with just 2 heads as well, especially against older guns.

Midsize to large cars, including wide sports cars, as well as trucks and SUV’s would need 3 heads to fully protect the front of the vehicle due to their larger target areas.

Against some of the newest variable pulse rate (VPR) lidar guns that are designed specifically to defeat laser jammers, the ALP can defeat some them with just 2 heads, but things improve greatly with a third head in the center of the vehicle and it’s for this reason that if VPR guns are in use where you drive, 3 heads are highly recommended. Watch this video to see an ALP with 3 heads installed on a big truck take care of a deadly VPR gun.

AntiLaser has introduced special Tx (transmitter) heads designed specifically to help address the DragonEye guns even further. You’d use 2 normal heads on the right and left sides with the Tx head in the center.

Are VPR guns used in your area? Well they’re most heavily used in GA and in Edmonton, Canada. In the US they’ve been reported in CO, FL, GA, IA, KS, LA, MA, MD, MI, MO, NV, NY, OH, RI, TN, TX, UT, VA, WV, & WA DC. In Canada they’ve been spotted in B.C., Alberta, Ontario, & Newfoundland. They may also be in use elsewhere and they continue to spread steadily throughout the country. Even if they’re not in your state yet, it would be safest to go for at least 3 heads for peace of mind, especially if you’re gonna be spending the time and energy to get everything installed anyways which can involve removing your bumper, running wires back through your vehicle’s firewall, etc.

In general, I recommend 2 regular heads + 1 Tx head up front.

If you’re looking to protect the rear of a larger vehicle, you’ll also need 3 heads in the back. The way to do 3 heads in the rear is to have two normal heads and one Tx head. You can’t do 3 normal heads in the rear.

If you need to order more heads, I recommend doing so before you start taking off your bumper, running the wires, etc. It’s much easier to do everything all at once. You can purchase more heads here.

INSTALLATION NOTES:

The ALP’s control box has ports for 3 heads up front. If you’re running only 2 heads up front, make sure you’re using only ports F1 & F2. Don’t plug either head into the F3 port.

If you run 3 heads up front, the center head (normal or rear) MUST be plugged into the F2 port of the CPU. If you’re using a Tx head, the Tx head will be used in place of the normal center head in port F2. It doesn’t matter if the left or right head is in F1 or F3, but the center head must be plugged into the F2 port in order to jam those VPR guns properly.

Rear Protection?

Do you need protection in the rear? Some places shoot only the front, some places shoot both front and rear. In other places they shoot only in the rear. There isn’t really a comprehensive list of what’s in use where. However, most places around the US focus on the front and it’s for that reason that front protection is considered standard and rear is generally considered extra for complete protection.

If you can afford it, I’d recommend front and rear for full protection. It’s a few hundred dollars more for the heads plus a more involved install, but should you encounter rear laser, you’re going to be glad you protected your rear. 😉

If you encounter rear DragonEye shots (Edmonton, Alberta is a perfect example), definitely go for 3 heads in the rear. You’ll use two normal heads and one central Tx head. This will give you maximum protection on both ends of the vehicle.

INSTALLATION NOTE:

Since the ALP CPU only has two ports for rear heads, make sure you buy it with the splitter for rear. The two normal rear heads will plug into a splitter which runs into the R1 port and the rear Tx head will plug into the R2 port.

Continue on to Part 3: Proper Head Placement

ALP Setup Guide Sections:

1. Why go with the AntiLaser Priority?
2. Deciding how many heads you need
3. Proper head placement
4. Proper head installation
5. Register your system
6. Update to the latest software
7. Configure your settings
8. Get your setup tested
9. How to use your jammers
10. Installation & setup checklist