Safety Camera detectors

[Ian Mills]

I am considering buying a speed camera warning device, it must be portable and battery powered. My initial investigations suggest that the Road Angel Plus is probably a good option.
Do these things really work?
Is the Road Angel a good choice?
Does anyone have any other advice?

 

[pauljmcnulty]

I've got a road-angel, the one called "new", but isn't any more!

It's fine, but considering the money my little tom-tom is better as it's a sat-nav as well. Hence the expensive road-angel sits in a box unused. [&o]

Road-angel has the additional feature of detecting laser-traps, like hand-held or Scamera vans. Bearing in mind the very remote chance that the tiny beam will hit the box, it never did on mine, and the fact that by the time they've zapped you it's too late, I can live without it.

The newest generation have "live" warnings of mobile traps. This seems to depend on you paying to keep it updated and everyone has to enter new speed traps as they pass them. I can't see too many people taking the time to do this, let alone the idea of pulling over to do it safely. As such I think it's dubious how efficient this will be.

 

[Dylan1]

definately worth it-saved me loads of points[]
works well but agree once the gun hit the thin area its prob too late but the up to date camera warnings are very helpful imo

 

[944s2]

I've had RA6000 for couple of years now no problems though newer version exist

Interesting to note that the much favoured Tom Tom uses RA data!

 

[JB 3.2]

The PocketGPSworld.com provides a good and cost effective speed camera database which is compatable with Tomtom and other sat nav's.

 

[millisland]

Our Road Angel Plus takes forever to pick up the satellites[:-][:-][:-]. We have sometimes done a long journey (over 100 miles) without it working, it just sits there "searching".

I got fed up with this after getting no reassuring help from Blackspot, and not willing to spend ???£££ sending the thing back to Blackspot for them to have a look at, put the money into buying a TomTom which is just brilliant.

Harriet

 

[Dylan1]

i gave up with the tomtom for the same frustrating reasons-the annual subscription for "extra"services went but accessing the services proved a nightmare-complete waste of money imo.road angel far more user friendly in my experience.

 

[tommo1]

Hi
I'm also in the market,
the best ones I've found so far that are rechargeable are Novus GPS Rider (free lifetime Subscription) and the Inforad range also free lifetime subscription, both get very good independent write-ups
now I've just got to make my mind up and take the plunge,
unless anyone outhere as got one and could give some feedback

Cheers
Tommo

 

[Glyn]

I have now had two road Angels - brilliant and better i think that Sat-Nav based systems.
The problem with Sat-Nav systems is that they issue a warning based upon proximity - therefore if one is within the range you have set the sat-nav to warn they will give that warning even if its on a side road to the one your travelling on or indeed warn if the camera is looking at the opposite carriagway.
Road Angel only warns if the camera is in a position to flash you, I have never had a speeding offence with road Angel.
The post above in which the person complains it takes ages to lock the satelites is clearly faulty - Road Angel locks in within two to three minutes of driving - after a few years (5) my old Angel did what the previous post identified and failed to lock in so i replaced it and have never looked back
Road Angel also do a sat-nav with the same camera warning system in that it will not warn you of a camera unless it is in a position to flash you and if you need sat-nav and GPS camera detection then i would recommend that one.
There may be other systems out there that do the same as road Angel as i know Road Angel supply software to other sat -nav suppliers - such as the latest Tom Tom product.
For just a few quid you can be protected with confidence it wont let you down, a couple of speeding tickets will not only give you the fines but the points - and in turn the insurrance companies hike up your premium, get protected and get a system

 

[pauljmcnulty]

The problem with Sat-Nav systems is that they issue a warning based upon proximity - therefore if one is within the range you have set the sat-nav to warn they will give that warning even if its on a side road to the one your travelling on or indeed warn if the camera is looking at the opposite carriagway.

Dunno what sat-nav you have! The cheapest Tom-Tom is very specific, whereas my "new" Road Angel was unable to tell direction, and showed all cameras on parallel roads. [8|]

 

[944s2]

My RA6000 will give you direction of travel warnings for fixed cameras BUT will also on the odd occassion give ones in surrounding area which can be irritating at times but usually you know its wrong when the warning speed limit is not that of road you are on ie a 30MPH camera on Mway

 

[Dylan1]

Dunno what sat-nav you have! The cheapest Tom-Tom is very specific, whereas my "new" Road Angel was unable to tell direction

the reverse findings are what has happened in my case-i have had two tomtoms and 2 road angels-i would choose the road angels over tomtom for speed camera detection every time(in my experience)

 

[brianahern]

I have tried Road Angel and have now got a Snooper Indago. The Snooper is really good, much more stable than the road angel. Occasionally it misses a camera but this is very rare. The Nav is good and easy to use, including Europe. The best thing for me is that a small mod to the bracket base means that it will fit to a Brodit low level mount and the aerial is good enough. This means that the unit is not stuck on the windscreen and can still be removed in seconds although the bracket remains, obviously!

I think that the Sirius is the replacement.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

Brian

 

[Glyn]

My Sat Nav is the Navman 510 and with cameras it picks up on adjacent roads
The Road Angels, (last one and the current) were the basic "Classic" which has never knowingly missed a camera - not that i would notice because if it dont bleep i dont slow down - and no ticket to date

 

[Tony M]

My vote goes to the Origin B2 system. Whilst it is now considered an obselete model one can pick them up on ebay for a song and origin will renew the subscription for about £50.

The sytem can be updated by logging onto the Origin site.

Heres a photo of mine,colour matched, and fitted to the right of the PCM.

in

 

[London987]

i bought a road pilot, its pretty good but no battery so might not be what you need. very very small though and the only annoying thing is that wherever there are variable speed limits (like on the M25) it beeps to warn you anyway.....so lots of beeping! other than that pretty useful if you already have the satnav in your car. the other thing i hve is a garmin nuvi with the speed cameras loaded - wife's car has tomtom and as far as satnav goes the garmin is easier to use/read and also when comparing the two has better routing. battery lasts for hours and its the size of a packet of cigarettes so portable. you have to update the database online yourself, not hard to do, and you can add in the traffic master stuff as well (plus mount using a proclip - no holes/sucker arms on the screen). if you only have one device i'd go for the garmin every time - the laser things in my opinion are a waste of time and personally I have found working out where the camera is quite tricky without satnav. if you want to go for a hard wired solution (Tony M - nice job) but not my pref then roadpilot do a tiny tiny little unit.
hope this helps and sorry about the typos - keyboard is on the way out!

 

[Black80XSA]

I've had a variety of units..

a snooper S4 wasn't too bad in terms of false alerts and you could add a radar detector module to it if required. Whilst a lot of it relied on a database of known sites it also swept the area for non known sites. Howver it never detected anything other than databse sites - hence i was always concerned i wasn't 'protected'

Tomtom - i've used tomtom on a PDA with a GPS sleeve and laterly as a TomTom One XL. I've dwnloaded the pocketgps database of all cameras every month and i've found it contains a lot more sites than either the TomTom official download or the snooper databases, some sites i know are active so to my mind pocketgps is the best.

Tomtom has the advantage of a single spped/satnav system, one power cord, one mount and easily transfered from car to car, and easily put out of sight when parked up.


There are certain parking sensors and garage door remote systems that will block radar guns too []

 

[Glyn]

Yes, the parking system that blocks laser is the Laser Park XS and are being offered at half price at £149 on 0845 2307077 (just got a leaflet through the door)

 

[mascanes]

Hey Tony, speed cameras aside,........just seen that picture of the cocpit of your motor ....... god, it looks brand new, it's stunning. How many miles have you got on the car ......... looks absoloutly show room, very impressive .......... Ciao Mike

 

[keith phillips]

Re -road angel taking ages to find saterllites. I had this. There is a fault with the road angel. Sent mine back to them and they fixed it for a small charge, Been great ever since. Would not drive without it. Do 30,000 miles + a year,