Gatsos, radar, road angles and your opinions.

[No6]

Just started to look at various speed trap alarm systems.
I was in a car last year and the driver had installed a system which seemed to go off every time a sparrow flew near bye.

Anybody using a reliable, easy to release and affordable system? Would like to hear your comments.

 

[KOTM]

Speedometer?

 

[Kritou]

Drivesmart and follow the links to their user forum - nothing else like it

 

[Grazoid]

Speedometer?

Eyes??

Point is , if you can't see it until you are past it anyway , you are driving too fast for your reaction to hazards.

Inappropriate speed is the issue , and I usually find that with a couple of notable exceptions most cameras are in places where "merchant bankers" go too fast for the road anyhoo.

 

[pomm001]

After a lot of reasearch on this very subject i found that the Valentine 1 made in the USA to be amongst the best non GPS systems out there ( car use ) being a tight wad i had a friend ship me one from the US as they are about half the price than they are here on 'Treasure Island'.

Fitted it in and set it up,not that impressed, it 'sees' some Gastos a long way away, others you could almost touch before it goes off.
seems to differ in different parts of the country
Point is as all the traps work on a 'line of sight' principal there are lot of variables, beams being blocked or bounced of other vehicles.
There is nothing on the market that can detect the laser in time for you to take realistic evasive action, as soon as your spotted with the laser its all over.
This will no doubt open the flood gates of very brainy people telling you different

 

[Fanum]

You need a GPS based one with a laser/mobile radar detector to cover all the bases.

I've had a NEO6 in the cage for a year and it's good........it lists specs and all static cameras and will detect lasers as well......as mentioned though, lasers, being 'instant on' are something you will always take a chance on, but they're actually very rare (I've only been splashed by one twice in a year).

If you're over the speed limit and they hit you first, you're nabbed, but if they splash someone ahead of you the detection range is so great that you have ample time to slow down if you need to.

You can also store your own points in the unit so if you find a place where the scamera partnership like to hole up, you can mark it and the unti will warn you on approach the next time.

They are illegal in France and nmany other countries though...even the GPS ones.

 

[adamski49]

Eyes??

Point is , if you can't see it until you are past it anyway , you are driving too fast for your reaction to hazards.

Inappropriate speed is the issue , and I usually find that with a couple of notable exceptions most cameras are in places where "merchant bankers" go too fast for the road anyhoo.

But what about the hand held laser speed guns that work up to 1 km? You don't have much chance of seeing them before they've seen you.

Still a laser detector would probably be too late to react as well as they only fire a laser beam when the operator pulls the trigger. [EDIT - Just like what Fanum said ]

 

[Tobers]

So you really need a laser emitter on the car as well to zap a beam back to the laser camera thingy to confuse it. These are probalby already illegal and surely will be made so in the near future with the new road traffic bill going through (or has it gone through - foget now...).

However, they do work but trigger an error message on the plod's zapper.

They could then figure out that you've blocked them and chase after you, find the doo-dah, and sort you under perverting the course of justice which is bad.

I use TomTom Mobile on my smartphone which has free downloadable camera updates, including common positions of mobile units. You still have to stay awake though in case there is a mobile unit in an unusual place.

On a side topic, was I hearing correctly the other morning when on Radio 4 the new APCO Traffic chappie appeared to be very open to ideas like additional training, road re-engineering etc & de-emphasising speed cameras quite significantly. If so, its about bloody time!

Andy

 

[Grazoid]

But what about the hand held laser speed guns that work up to 1 km? You don't have much chance of seeing them before they've seen you.

Still a laser detector would probably be too late to react as well as they only fire a laser beam when the operator pulls the trigger. [EDIT - Just like what Fanum said ]

If you are on a road where you are in line of sight you should have already spotted them...

Sorry , but I think of it as a game between me and them. One I am quite good at

I play the game by being aware... if you can't play the game that way buy a speed limiter and stop whingeing

 

[xpi0t0s]

I'm not convinced by the Drivesmart stuff. He points the box at an anonymous box in his garage and surprise surprise it goes off. Given the number of fixed, handheld and van-mounted speed cameras I wouldn't have thought a realistic test with an actual live camera would be difficult to arrange. There's no way I'd buy the system on the basis of the obviously staged demo which could easily have been totally faked.

 

[drivesmart]

Drivesmart test

Ok these tests are totaly independant and we also have various laser guns at our office here in Fleet,Hampshire as I see you are just down the road in Reading.
You are very welcome to come along and test the Drivesmart/Pulse Master system with the LTI20-20(Used in almost all safety vans)or the Traffic systems 500(most mobile police sped traps use these) laser guns.
Also Radar Roy is one of the most respected independant testers in the US,His video can be seen on our forum and also he has a massive forum of his own in the US!
We will be attending the pocketgps show in Basingstoke on the 26th of Nov and you are also welcome to come along to test out all our products,Our Defender2 laser diffuser will also be there as well for testing.

 

[drivesmart]

So you really need a laser emitter on the car as well to zap a beam back to the laser camera thingy to confuse it. These are probalby already illegal and surely will be made so in the near future with the new road traffic bill going through (or has it gone through - foget now...).

However, they do work but trigger an error message on the plod's zapper.

They could then figure out that you've blocked them and chase after you, find the doo-dah, and sort you under perverting the course of justice which is bad.

I use TomTom Mobile on my smartphone which has free downloadable camera updates, including common positions of mobile units. You still have to stay awake though in case there is a mobile unit in an unusual place.

On a side topic, was I hearing correctly the other morning when on Radio 4 the new APCO Traffic chappie appeared to be very open to ideas like additional training, road re-engineering etc & de-emphasising speed cameras quite significantly. If so, its about bloody time!

Andy

Ok this is not true,An error message will appear in the screen on the gun(We have a couple of those here!LOL) and this can be caused by many different things including the light being refracted off something else before being received back by the gun.
Traffic bill is about 2 years off if ever right now.
Perverting the course of justice has never been applied and would be impossible to charge someone with as most safety vans are operated by civilians for one and laser diffusers can have more than one purpose.
Xenon head lights can diffuse laser as well but turning on your head lights would not be a case of perverting the course of justice?

 

[No6]

Point is , if you can't see it until you are past it anyway , you are driving too fast for your reaction to hazards.

Groan,I am talking about gatsos which go off at 4am on clear straight roads

We will be attending the pocketgps show in Basingstoke on the 26th of Nov and you are also welcome to come along to test out all our products,Our Defender2 laser diffuser will also be there as well for testing.

Any demos coming up in London ? Ta.