Uniden R7 Firmware 1.46: Mazda CX-5 Filtering, Gatso, and More

Uniden has released firmware 1.46 for the R7 which brings a number of nice changes. For example there’s a third K Block for Mazda CX-5’s (yay!), 5 new custom K blocks, some lockout changes, Gatso support, and more. Here’s a look at all the improvements, as well as my thoughts about each change.

The update is now available for download on Uniden’s website as well as directly from within their update software. You can also read the full changelog, discuss the update with us on RDF, and order an R7 online.

Alert Temporary Volume

First up is a feature you can use if your detector goes off when you’re in the middle of a conversation or phone call. It’s called the alert temporary volume setting.

While you can always fully mute the detector altogether during an alert, if you want to lower the volume instead so you can still hear the beeps quietly in the background, you now have the option to lower the volume of the detector (using the volume buttons on top) while it’s busy alerting.

The signal will stay at reduced volume until after the signal is gone and the mute latch expires. Any new signals that arise at any point will also alert at normal volume.

Auto (Un)mute Alert Level

If a signal gets automuted after several seconds, we now have the option for the detector to unmute and resume alerting at full volume in case the signal ramps up in signal strength and gets sufficiently strong again. You can choose how strong the signal needs to get for the volume to crank back up again.

I think the name of this setting is a little confusing since it’s more about unmuting the detector, but maybe “Auto Unmute Level” couldn’t fit on screen. 😀 Either way, it’s about undoing the automute for strong signals.

Rear Balance for Each Band

In addition to using Advanced mode to adjust the detector’s overall sensitivity on different radar bands, we now have the option to further dial back just the rear sensitivity of the detector for X, K, and Ka bands.

If you want to adjust any of these options, you can dive deeper into the menu to adjust each radar band individually.

Add K Block 3 Filter (24.121~24.124GHz)

This is probably my favorite new feature. It’s a third preprogrammed K block specifically to help mute those pesky Mazda CX-5 SUV’s.

If you like, you can always fine tune the K block’s settings to adjust the signal strength threshold, direction, and frequency range that this filter applies to.

5 Custom User K Block Filters

If you’d like to add some more K blocks to knock out additional BSM offenders, say 24.160’ish for example, there’s now 5 more programmable user K blocks that you have to give you up to 8 K blocks total.

Tip: If you encounter a BSM false while driving, you can quickly create a K block around that signal by holding the “Mark” button on the side for 1.5 sec while your detector is falsing.

Selective Manual Mute Memory Lockout Controls

If you want to manually lock out some K band falses and there’s multiple unlocked K band signals all popping up at the same time, such as at a shopping center with multiple automatic door openers around, you now have the ability to choose exactly which signal you want the detector to lock out.

In this example you’ll see the first round of lockouts let me choose between the 3 new signals present. In all the rest of the following lockouts, there’s only 1 unlocked signal present at a time so the lockouts behave like before.

To select a signal to lock out, double press the “Mute” button on the left side of the detector, then keep tapping “Mute” again until you get to the signal you want to silence. Hold “Mute” again for 2 sec or simply let the setting time out and it will lock out the signal you’ve selected.

In practice I could see this feature being kind of annoying for people, especially since we can no longer manually mute everything all at once. While it can be nice having the option to choose which signal to lock out, I could see most people just kicking back and letting autolockouts just nuke everything for us after several passes.

That said, the GPS lockout algorithm itself seems to unfortunately still be unchanged. For example, when driving around I still find that the lockout radius is pretty small, leading to both manual and automatically locked out signals not always being fully locked out.

Given that we’ve seen the Uniden engineer’s 1.47 test firmware add some additional GPS lockout controls to fine tune exactly how the lockouts behave, I was hoping we’d see some improvements here in 1.46, but that doesn’t look to be the case. Fingers crossed that Uniden one day improves the GPS lockout algorithm itself so the detector can reliably lock signals out.

Gatso (RT3/RT4) Support

Like the R4 and R8, the R7 now has the ability to detect Gatso photo radar systems as well.

This will have to be tested to see how well it works. I don’t have Gatso in my area, but I’ve found that Unidens tend to false to Gatso quite a bit and so I’d imagine that things will be similar with the R7.

MRCD Filter Tolerance

Uniden has also adjusted the filtering for MRCD/T photo radar detection as well, making it more like the R8. This also needs to be tested, but according to Uniden, this update should both improve MultaRadar detection as well as possibly increase false alerts.

Volume Setting in Menu

In the settings menu there’s now an option to adjust the detector’s main volume. It’s the exact same thing as adjusting the volume at idle using the top two volume buttons, but now we have a separate menu option for it too.

Scan Icon Color

This is a tiny change, but if you use the “scan icon” which puts a blinking heart on screen, instead of it being red, the color of that heart will now match the color of your detector’s display.

My Overall Thoughts

As always, I’m grateful to see updates that add helpful new features. The Mazda CX-5 K Block is my favorite change and is something I find to be very useful. Having the ability to add 5 more custom K blocks is also a huge help, especially considering the R7 doesn’t have Bluetooth so you can’t add that capability using an app.

Some of the volume control features are welcome, but not a game changer. The auto mute level option can be nice to help unmute the detector when you get really close to a source and you wanna make sure the detector really gets your attention again.

The updated manual GPS lockout method might wind up being more annoying that helpful. If anything, I want to see GPS lockout improvements to help ensure that signals get properly locked out after several passes and that the GPS lockout that’s created fully covers all the areas where the signal can be picked up.

Uniden’s Firmware 1.46 vs @Mithheru’s International 1.50

Comparing Uniden’s latest firmware to the custom third party paid firmware from @Mithheru, 1.50 International, I think 1.50 is still the better choice overall.

After all, 1.50 adds some GPS lockout algorithm improvements that help the lockouts work better, it adds several different automatic sensitivity modes (similar to what we have with the R8, but more configurable), plus it adds some additional RDD controls to help make the R7 more stealthy and undetectable.

For that reason, I’m going to load 1.50 back onto my R7. That said, for people wanting to stick with Uniden’s free firmware updates, 1.46 does bring some welcome improvements.

How to Update

To update your R7, grab the update software from Uniden’s website, plug in your R7, and hit “Start Update.”

I’ve noticed that it loads in a RLC GPS database from October of 2023, but on their website they have a newer RLC DB from January of 2024. For that reason, after you update the firmware, you can grab the newer database from Uniden’s website, unzip it, hit “Download Files” on the left side of the screen, and load in the .bin file to further update your R7. Hopefully down the line Uniden will update the firmware bundle to include this latest RLC DB too.

If you need help updating, this is the best place to go for support.

If you’d like to discuss the firmware update, join us here.

and lastly, if you still need one, you can order an R7 here.