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speed camera detectors

2K views 34 replies 19 participants last post by  harrythesnotgobbler 
#1 ·
now i know you lot are a law abiding bunch, but do speed camera detectors work?? I do 40000 miles/year, sometimes not properly keeping to the speed limits, but i'm a safe driver and never stray too much over the limit so i'd be annoyed if i got points on my licence for going 10km (6mph) over the limit, so before i invest in one, how good r they???
 
#2 ·
The likes of Road Angel are legal and work quite well and shall alert you to the camera's. The sales of these shall rocket as camera's are set to painted back to grey covers/camouflaged from 2007 onwards in the UK. :mad:

Sadly the GPSWorld database for TomTom is no longer free, buy costs about £12 for 12 months of downloads.
 
#3 ·
I use a Road Angel Navigator, speed camera detector and Sat Nav in 1 unit.
Only thing it doesn't cover is the laser traps, but the law is getting very nervy about that type of detector. They are already illegal in Australia I understand, and will soon be the same in the UK
GPS based systems are 100% legal though
 
#4 ·
I have the Road Angel compact, and it does me very well, and I also have the optional laser detector plugged in (which will be illegal in a year or so's time) again, works fine, and doesn't clutter the dash with wires etc.

They're selling for £150 at the moment, with 6mths free update, but £3.50 per month thereafter for the updates.

Not the easiest piece of equipment to update, but it does it in a fashion!
 
#5 ·
I think what would be of great benefit to us would be regular reminders of the speed limit on the particular stretch of road we're on. I have seen small signs on continental lamposts at regular intervals, whereas here if you've blinked while passing a sign you've pretty much got to guess the limit.

Vin
 
#7 ·
I was told that the snoopers would soon be illegal in the UK (by Halfords, when I bought my sat-nav) I actually bought a cheaper sat nav than the one i was looking at which had a snooper thrown in, so if he was talking BS it cost a bigger sale.

He said it won't just be illegal to buy one, but to use one you already own. And the police will detect its signal, so i just use the download map on the sat nav.
 
#9 ·
It's the laser jammers that will be banned I believe (or is it the detectors as well?), basically they want to be able to hide in bushes and point their 'gun' at you or point at you from inside a van in order to catch you speeding! They don't want you to know that they are doing it so have got them banned! Unfair I'd say, if they are hiding round the corner, why can't I know about it in advance? Like for like in the end.

The one on my compact is a laser detector and not a jammer, and can be unplugged easily if need be.
 
#10 ·
I've got an Origin B2, excellent unit. From April 2007 speed cameras don't have to be fluo yellow anymore :mad: :mad: Clearly they aren't making the money they should be and are doing a better job of slowing people down yellow, so now they are going back to that stealth "it's not about the money" colours. :rant: :mad: :rant:

I'm guessing speed camera vandalism will go up :eek:
 
#11 ·
Detect the signal? Christ, Halfords staff really are McDonalds rejects aren't they :rolleyes: . Detectors are passive devices. Jammers are already ilegal and Halfords obviously can't sell those.
Both radar/laser detectors and GPS based detectors transmit no signal that can be detected. The only way a police officer could catch you is by spotting it on your dash. Anyone pub genius who tells you differently is talking out of their Brunstrom.
 
#12 ·
No, the Halfords chap is correct - radar detectors do in fact leak a small amount of signal, I think on the x band. These can be detected using RDD technology (radar detector detectors(!)). The first generation is called VG-2 I beleive, and worked by recognising the tuning oscillator used in the dector, but VG-2 only scans certain frequencies, and I think the more recent detectors (as in >~5 years) use a different frequency now to avoid detection. The second generation (Spectre) has a lot better success rate though in detecting the majority of detectors, especially in America.
 
#13 ·
Radar detectors are not yet illegal and whilst the police are pushing to make them so (because it reduces their stealth income) they are not illegal. The police are hoping to push through a change in the current law that will effective outlaw detectors, this is not yet a certainty.
Radar jammers are already illegal and can be detected by virtue the speed gun goes silly, they are not very effective and its pretty obvious that the signal has been jammed, although proving it is another matter though!
Personaly I think we should all equip our cars with detectors and jammers, they cant prosecute everyone can they! After a while they would then go back to policing the communities ie doing their job instead of bolstering their incomes with easy targets. :rant: :rant:
 
#14 ·
gamphy said:
After a while they would then go back to policing the communities ie doing their job instead of bolstering their incomes with easy targets. :rant: :rant:
Sounds like the perfect solution, only no money can be made by doing that :mad:
 
#15 ·
have to say what really bugs me is the Garda who sits behind a wall in a little village with only the speed camera poking out on top, at the end of the village so he gets people building up to speed driving out of the village, if that doesn't prove that speed cameras are purely a souce of income then nothing will. At least you in the Uk have brightly coloured fixed cameras on your roads, ours in Ireland are a matt grey, very difficult to spot. Oh and in the not too distant future all speed cameras will be privatised!!!!!! So lets see, private company = profits!!!!!!! :rant:
 
#16 ·
oh, by the way i've gone out and bought one, a Cobra ESD8200, new off e-bay, have no real idea how effective it will be, but it didn't cost huge money so i'll give it a go. Cobra in their literature seem pretty confident about it!
 
#18 ·
daveg360 said:
Both radar/laser detectors and GPS based detectors transmit no signal that can be detected. The only way a police officer could catch you is by spotting it on your dash. Anyone pub genius who tells you differently is talking out of their Brunstrom.
Radar Detectors can be detected!!! using a Radar Detector Detector RDD

Radar detectors don't transmit BUT they leak radio signal which can be detected by the RDD..and right now there is only one Radar Detector which states that it is completle invisible to RDDs. Other then that the latest version of Valentine One comes close to invisibility, even the best RDD called Specter III cann't detect it further then 30meters.

You have to be very careful using radar detector in France as you might get your car confiscated...and they do have a lot of these Radar Detector Detectors.
 
#19 ·
v. recently bought a roadpilot micro thingy... I find it works quite well. quite small and discreet on the dash, tells the exatc speed (and the speed limite when you approach a camera). I find I spend more time looking at the road, rather than looking at the side of it to check for cameras...
 
#20 ·
i thought the cameras were safety cameras and thus painted yellow to warn you of the impending danger zone so you could make sure you were not accidentally driving to fast, and thus if invisible they become totally pointless:confused: :eek: :cheese:



just got my licence back with somethign about 3 points on it

feckers:rant: :rant: :rant:
 
#22 ·
that'll be the day where I either:
- sell the car and buy a mountain bike and a track day car
- go on a violent spree and mass murder environmentalists
- move to another country. Do they have speed traps in Mexico?
- lose my pride and buy a prius, or one of those toilet-seat-looking little electic cars you start to see around in London

mmh... I dunno if they'll actually do that soon... they will hurt the automotive sector really badly... I think they may be content for a hile to only loosely control drivers, but impose heavy fines... It generates more cash... and keeps everyone 'happy'... (if they were really serious about speed, they wouldn't make 100+ mph cars road legal... and they would limit speed electronically in city centres... not that hard btw...)
 
G
#23 ·
kgb said:
You have to be very careful using radar detector in France as you might get your car confiscated...and they do have a lot of these Radar Detector Detectors.

French cops will check for Radar detectors if
you get pulled. And they will probably confiscate your car.
So if you do have one fitted, make sure you remove it and
completely hide all wiring if you come over this side of the channel.

:eek:
 
#24 ·
Nev, is it only radar detectors that are banned, or also GPS-only detectors?
 
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