Speed trap detectors
have been widely available for many years, they work by trying to sense the
radar emissions from police hand held speed guns and cameras. These on the
whole prove at best unreliable and at worst as much use as a chocolate
teapot. This is due to the majority of units being produced in the good old
USA where many more frequencies are used by police
equipment. in the UK most traps use only k or ka
band radar so if you have an American device you are far more likely to
think there are speed cameras all the way down you local high street as you
pass the automatic door openers!
 That said Bell have produced a European tweaked device that claims to pick
up GATSO cameras which only emit a very small amount of radar waves just in
front of the camera. In practice this only gives about 50 yards warning.
Until recently that was your lot, but now there is an alternative in the
shape of the Geodesy unit produced by UK Company Morpheous.
This clever little box is based upon GPS technology developed by the US
military and now to be found as an option on the Ford Fiesta (how things
change eh?).
GPS works by taking signals from a minimum of 3 satellites orbiting the
globe and calculating your position using mathematic formulae, I could go
further into detail but as I've just confused myself I'll leave a URL for
you to follow if you want to know more!
The Geodesy box contains the GPS receiver and also a large memory which
stores mapping data, using this map the Geodesy can plot your position
within a couple of meters anywhere in the UK. This when combined with the
location of all UK fixed GATSO speed traps gives the box the ability to
alert the driver when he or she is approaching a speed trap.
 So how does it work in real life, well after much begging I managed to get a
unit on approval for 2 weeks, the Geodesy needs to be located on the dash to
get a clear view of the sky but unlike speed camera detectors it doesn't
require clamping to the windscreen for all to see! After attaching it to my
dash using the sticky Velcro pads provided all I had to do was switch on the
unit and wait while it acquired enough satellites to get position and then
it was driving as normal.
The temptation to see if it works led me straight to a part of London dubbed
Camera Alley to see if it would warn me of their presence. As I approached
the first site the lights on the front of the unit started to illuminate one
by one and an audible warning also warbles as the lights start to build.
Sure enough in the distance I could see the first Gatso painted in that
every so obvious Grey!
As I got level with the camera all the lights were on and the sound became
quite insistent, then as quickly as it all started the lights started to go
off one by one until it sat quietly once more.
I repeated this test many times over the 2 weeks and not once did it fail to
alert me of cameras in London and on longer journeys taking in motorway and
countryside driving. Great I thought but the suspicious part of me thought
how on earth can they keep the map up to date as police forces around the
country continue to install these grey cash registers.
The answer is similar to virus protection software, Morpheous keep a central
a database of all UK GATSO sites which users connect to via modem to update
their boxes at regular intervals, this is free for the first year of
ownership and is £25 per year after that.
 Morpheous also offer a £50 bonus to users who use their box to mark any new
cameras being installed. By pressing a button on the unit it stores this new
position, which is uploaded to the database when you update next, the
company will then verify the new camera exists before issuing its location
to all users.
I was most impressed that it even knew about some temporary cameras on the
M11 during recent roadworks.
The base unit can also be enhanced with a range of extras and peripherals,
the obvious choice is to expand the geodesy's capabilities to include route
guidance. This uses either a PDA or a laptop if you already own one or a
dedicated LCD screen much like other systems.
I did find a few annoying things with the unit including its range
sensitivity, all units come preset with a 1 mile warning or camera
locations. Obviously in London this led to my dash looking like the interior
of a Nottingham Nightclub. This has been catered for and you can at extra
cost purchase the PC interface which allows you to connect to the box to
change settings like distance warnings and sounds and to add your own
locations with different sounds, perhaps the mother in laws house with a
claxon?
As an overall package it is excellent and proved highly reliable during my
2-week taster. Yes it does have a few flaws like not being able to tell
which way you are travelling and therefore alerting you to a camera on the
other side of the road, but hey its far more accurate than anything else out
there. You could try and enter all your local speed trap locations into a
standard GPS system (most of them support user generated locations) but
you'd spend days in the car doing it!
The biggest problem with the geodesy? PRICE!
The basic unit costs £275 this includes mounting kit, 1 years updates and
delivery, another years updates cost £25.
The extras mean you can then add the PC interface for an additional £99 and
a power clip to save on batteries for £25, the soon to be released geodesy
II will interface to navigation screens and laptops prices for this unit
will start at £475.
At first I nearly choked when I was told the price, but when comparing it to
other speed trap detectors it's on a par with the competition, except I had
managed to prove that the Geodesy works!
I guess it all comes down to how much you think a driving license is worth
and to some extant the morality of fitting such a device in your car. If you
fancy one of these units click the link below....
More Reviews -
[ Road Angel 2 Review ] [ Cyclops GPS Speed Camera Detector ] [ Bel 550 Euro ] [ Trafcam Speed Camera Alert ] [ Morpheous Geodesy ] [ Morpheous Road Pilot ] [ Roadpilot Micro ] [ Toad Inforad ] [ TR20 Lite ] [ Talex GPS Speed Camera System ] [ Indic8tor review ] [ Road Angel 6000 Review ] [ Roadpilot Micro Go ] [ Snooper S4 Review ] [ Road Angel ] [ Road Angel Compact ] [ Origin B2 ] |
