Uniden R8 Firmware 1.35

Uniden has released firmware 1.35 for the Uniden R8. This has several new features (Mazda CX-5 K block and improved autolockouts!) along with several bug fixes. If you remember firmware 1.34 that was briefly released before being pulled due to GPS errors, this update is essentially a fixed version of 1.34.

I’m still waiting on Uniden to provide a full changelog and clarifications for this update, but here’s what I know so far regarding all the updates. For more info, here’s the full discussion area on RDF.

K Blocks

Instead of just 2 K Blocks, we now have 8 total: 3 standard K Blocks (including K Block 3 for Mazda CX-5’s) as well as 5 custom K Blocks for additional false alert ranges such as 24.160.

Additionally Uniden mentioned that the level setting of the K block filter will be automatically changed to match the selected mode when changing the highway <-> city mode. I’m not entirely sure what this means and I’ve asked for clarification, but my guess is that it means that the K Block signal strength filters will now vary alongside the highway/city mode signal strength filters.

GPS Lockouts

Uniden has made several changes to help improve the autolockout functionality. Here’s the details that they’ve shared:

• Mute Memory Tracking errors is fixed.
• Modified to register multiple false signals within the alert radius
• The Auto Mute Memory values are adjusted

In short it should do a better job now with both automatically locking out and unlocking stationary false alerts.

Auto Mute

The auto mute features are now more sophisticated, matching and even slightly improving upon the features that have since been added to the R7.

First up, the “auto mute on/off” setting has now been replaced by a more advanced “auto mute alert level” option. Instead of a simple auto mute on/off option, we can now have it only auto mute weak signals.

This way normal signals will automute when you initially pick them up far away, but as you get stronger and the get closer, the detector will unmute.

Additionally if you get smacked with close range I/O, the detector will alert at full volume without dialing the volume back.

Alert Temporary Volume

There’s a new menu option called “Alert Temp Vol” that lets you temporarily adjust the volume of an alert mid-alert. This way you can reduce the volume and continue hearing the alert, without fully muting the alert.

RLC low speed filter

There was an annoying issue where sometimes you could be stopped in a parking lot near a red light camera or speed camera and the GPS drift could mean that you would repeatedly get alerted to a nearby speed cam.

With this new update, they now ignore any RLC’s or speed cameras when you’re traveling under 5 km/h.

Main Volume

The “main volume” option adds a menu option to adjust the detector’s volume in the list of settings, not just from the idle screen by hitting the + and – buttons on top of the detector.

Bluetooth Setting Moved

Super minor change, but they’ve moved the Bluetooth menu options from the end of the menu to closer to the start.

Bug Fixes

Finally they’ve fixed the bugs that caused them to pull firmware 1.34.

The primary bug fix is that they’ve eliminated the GPS error that could occur when detecting certain frequency K or Ka band radar alerts.

Second, they fixed the reversed audio announcements for the DST on/off menu option.

How to Update

Finally, to update your detector, head over to Uniden’s R8 download page, grab their update software if needed, and plug in your R8. You can download the latest firmware manually if you want, but the update software should automatically download firmware 1.35 for you.

Note: The Mac update software is currently broken for MacOS 15, but Uniden is working on a fix. You can still update normally on Windows.

You can purchase a Uniden R8 here.