FAQ’s & Information

We have put together our frequently asked questions and some additional information. We have tried to provide you with as much information as possible but if you need to know anything else just get in touch, we will be happy to help with any additional queries you may have.

General FAQ’s

Yes this is possible with Kestrel Workbench software, individual Signs can be tagged on a map. Site names can be created and any data downloaded for individual devices at various locations can be grouped within the report creation tools provided. i.e. single site data report or multi-site data report.

Both Google maps and Open street maps can be used depending on the accessibility to the internet.

Kestrel Workbench is a powerful software suite designed for both configuration, control and report creation for K2 series products. It can be used to generate PDF report files and can create tabulated data as well as graphical charts. It also has capability to export to Excel (as long as excel is installed on the computer) which allows the raw data & charts to be used in documents and presentations.

You will need a conversion interface that sits between the Kestrel LED driver and the message sign that you have. We can supply such a product for up to 6 outputs. You can also create one yourself – please contact our technical department who will be happy to supply you with details on how implement this simple conversion.

The K2 Radar allows operation between 6V to 17V, virtually any battery technology can be used. For voltages that exceed this we have a 24V to 12V conversion product which will allow connection to 24V battery or 24VDC supply rail. Please contact the sales team for information on this product.

Yes, for the K2 Pico Radar we can supply a variety of communications interfaces. These include GPRS modem, Bluetooth, ZigBee and even a GPS module for tracking. All modules in the family are designed for optimum power consumption ideal for battery powered system.

The K2 series Radar products are targeted for the global market and this encompasses the USA market. Our products exceed the requirements for both EU and FCC marking, however not all radar antenna products and not all communications devices are suitable for the USA due to regional restrictions. Please check the data sheet for individual products and our conformance guide documentation.

Yes, we are often asked to modify functionality for specific projects although this is more complex for the K1 series products than the new FlexAR Family of products which have been designed specifically for re-configurability.

The K2 Pico Radar is a completely flexible platform and fully integrated with our Kestrel Workbench software, this all new front end software platform allows the user to effectively define the functionality of the devices in a system.

It not only allows the user to control specific trigger conditions but can also be used to initiate communications functions when a specific event occurs. The process is controlled through a scripting language, the scripts functionality can be fully tested within the Kestrel Workbench using our simulator. The script can then be loaded directly to the connected radar and it will perform in exactly the same manner as it did in the simulator.

Kestrel Radar Sensors provides a comprehensive tool called Kestrel Workbench and this allows every aspect of the system to be controlled from a single environment, whether you require to simply change an operational parameter or completely rewrite how the product functions this can be carried out within this single tool.

Kestrel Radar Sensors believes that having complete control over design and manufacture is the only way to ensure that we deliver the best quality of product to the end customer.

We keep full control over all aspects of hardware design, software development to part procurement through to final production and test. We have invested heavily with in-house manufacturing and have the very latest generation of state of the art Surface Mount Manufacturing facilities. See our website for details.

Yes we can and we are happy to produce LED signs that are fully compatible with our products. We offer our customers a bespoke service to provide whatever level of solution they require.

We supply our devices at the most competitive prices and we also try and ensure that they give higher levels of performance than any other radar on the market. We are happy to discuss individual customer requirements for single drop purchases or long term supply requirements.

The standard LED string should be +Supply through a current limiting resistor to the Anode of the LED string and the Cathode of the last LED connected to the LED driver output. The LED drive outputs are all open Drain MOSFET’s. This is true for the Segment drivers as well as the Auxiliary sign driver outputs. Please feel free to contact our technical team, we are more than happy to offer any advice we can.

Yes this is possible. The K2 Pico LED driver for example can drive 2+1/2 digit 7 segment digits with the option for up to 4 additional auxiliary LED boards. This is in addition to the 4 PWM LED drive outputs on the K2 Pico Radar which are supplied as standard. For full details check the individual product data sheets.

In general the answer is yes! We can supply a number of outputs to trigger your signage application. We can provide 4 Open Drain MOSFET channels from the K2 Pico radar products that can be used to signal external equipment when a specific trigger speed has been reached or we can provide RS232 serial communications with the speed information sent over to your LED drive electronics. If you require details advice please call our technical team for further information.

No. We supply components for integration in OEM products, it is the OEM’s responsibility to box the final product.

Our K2 series is available in a plug and play kit (radar+sign) which makes it even easier for OEM’s to integrate as it provides a cable free solution.

Yes! All our radars detect both speed and direction of the target.

K2 FlexAR Products FAQ’s

We took the decision to shrink the form factor of the K2, this means that it is not mechanically compatible with the K1 series radars, however, it has a much more compact footprint which is much more convenient for customers to integrate into their products.

Yes, absolutely. We took the design decision to switch to a virtual machine system because we were always tweaking the firmware and modifying operational modes to suit specific customer requirements. As time went on, this task became more difficult to do and to maintain as the number of modes increased and the complexity got higher.

We have made the task of providing these custom modes easier for ourselves by abstracting it and allowing the “detection application” to be separate to everything else that the radar has to do. We can provide modes quickly and easily without needing firmware changes and without fear of breaking any existing modes of operation and it allows either us or the OEM to define how the radar will operate.

Firstly, you need to check if you absolutely need this extra board any more. The virtual machine on the radar may mean that you can put the logic that was contained in this extra board directly onto the radar itself, not only will you reduce your costs but you will save power by not having additional electronics.

If you still decide that you need your external board, the radar has 4 onboard outputs which can be PWM modulated in addition to a serial port which can be controlled by the virtual machine. Either of these can be used to interface to your electronics.

There are a number of ways of updating the firmware on the radar. You can connect the radar to a PC using a standard micro USB cable (or bluetooth or via modem) and use Kestrel Workbench to connect to and then update the firmware on the device.

You can also copy the firmware onto a memory stick and using an adaptor cable connect this to the radar, the radar will automatically reboot and update the device with the firmware stored on the memory stick.

You don’t need to! The K2 radar operates as a standard USB HID device, this means that it does not require any drivers to be installed and will just work after being plugged into the computer.

Currently Kestrel Workbench is works with Windows XP upwards. Workbench is written using a cross platform framework which means that we may in the future consider releasing versions for Mac OS and Linux, this is not however a priority as Windows is the most common environment that the radars are used with.

No. The K2 uses a built in memory device to provide 4GB depending on which device was fitted in the factory.

It is extremely unlikely that you would ever have a situation where you required more storage capacity than we already provide.

No, the memory device on the K2 is built on board and is not removable like the K1 series radars.

However, the bootloader on the radar does support the USB Mass Storage class, so connecting the radar to the PC and powering it up in bootloader will result in a removable disk appearing inside Windows which will allow data to be transferred to or from the “disk”.

Yes. Each K2 radar has a unique device identifier which when provided to us can be used to generate keys which can be stored on the device to permanently enable features.

The standard K2 operation is able to detect speeds down to .1 of a mile of an hour. However we do have special Low speed variants with the ability to detect below 10cm/s for applications in train detection and conveyor speed monitoring.

Yes. Although as standard our LED driver can drive 2 + 1/2 digits, you can connect up to 4 LED drivers to a radar (contact us if you need to connect more than 4) and it would be trivial to to split the speed across the two LED drivers as this operation would be done inside the OEM application.

Because the K2 is a completely programmable, all modes of operation that were available and built into the K1 can be replicated with ease on the K2. We supply many examples of standard signs with the Kestrel Workbench software and these can be used as-is or can be modified to suit the particular application.

Yes, although we do not currently produce LED signs which operate in this manner is it possible to design your application so that it can switch between the colours depending on your application logic.

K1 Legacy Products FAQ’s

Currently we have concentrated our efforts on building the Workbench software around the K2 radar as the K1 radar had its own software suite called TrafficApp.

Our aim is to add support for K1 series radars back into Workbench at a future point, the modular design of Workbench means that this can be done in stages.

K1 series radars can still be operated with the TrafficApp software.

No. The K1 uses a RS232 serial port to communicate with the Modem or Bluetooth devices and this meant that it was only possible to have either a Modem or Bluetooth, not both at the same time.

The K2 uses our custom communications bus to allow multiple devices to be connected at the same time and therefore Modem, ZigBee, Bluetooth and GPS can all be connected and operating at the same time.

Yes, the device can be replaced if needed but we recommend sticking to a card of 2GB. The card will also need to be formatted as FAT32 in order to be recognised and used by the radar.

No, K1 radars have specific firmware depending on the feature level provided and therefore it is not possible to upgrade a K1 to include logging at a later stage.

No, the K1 is a OEM device designed to be placed in the same enclosure as the sign. It may be possible to find a suitable third party enclosure but care must be taken with the material that it is constructed from.

No, the K1 appears to the PC as a serial port. Unfortunately the driver for this requires an .INF file even though the driver is a standard part of windows. Under 64 bit operating systems you will have to install the driver in test mode, however, once the driver is installed it will operate normally in normal windows operating mode.

Yes. The TrafficApp software was designed as a tool for managing multiple radars over multiple sites and providing a central place to store data. In many instances this may seem overly complex and overkill to use. We have a simpler configuration tool which contains just the bits that allow a radar to be configured. You should note that this can only be used to configure radars over USB, the full TrafficApp software is required to configure remote devices.

We have extensive expertise in many areas of electronics and software, if you require support please call or email us - we are happy to help!

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