The Indic8tor at first seemed very similar to the highly rated Talex system, its form factor and even design cues are very similar and we had to ask the company if they were just a rebadged version. After reassurances that there were numerous differences we sent for our review sample. When it arrived we were impressed by the build quality and its rubberised rugged design, it certainly feel's better built than the Talex which had an air of plasticness about it .

The components in the Indic8tor box are pretty basic, there is the unit itself, a very long power cord for 12 volt supplies, magnetic mounting plate and a serial lead and quick start guide. We visited the Indicator website as suggested by the guide and downloaded the latest speed camera database to push onto the unit. The process of pushing the latest Database to your indic8tor is a slightly convoluted one and relies on a serial lead with a mini jack in order to connect to the unit and PC. You need to switch the 8unit of DL (download mode) before pushing the database file from the website to the unit. You can purchase a USB connector instead from the Indic8tor website and we are still quite amazed that this isn't the standard option as serial connectors on PC's are becoming a rare thing.

With this all in place it was time to set the unit up in our test vehicle and start making some road tests. The Indic8tor sits on a small magnetic base which has a strong sticky pad adhesive mechanism, the whole thing is very sturdy and holds on even in extreme cornering. As already mentioned the power cable is very long and means you can easily route it out of sight behind the cards trim. Measuring 100 x 65 x 15mm the GPS unit sits flush to the dash with just its green LCD panel pointing towards the driver, we angled this a bit to make it easier to read and then switched the unit on.

It took around a minute for the first power up to gain enough GPS satellites in order to function, the moment you power up the voice announces a self test and sits with the time showing. As soon as satellite lock is gained your get a "good morning / afternoon or evening have a safe journey" message and a chime which means your are now protected and safe to head off onto the UK's highways.

It's easy to forget that Indic8tor is sitting there until you approach a speed trap site and then all hell brakes loose, well perhaps not all hell, but if you have the side mounted volume selector on full it's pretty loud. You get an initial warning chime followed by a spoken message telling you the type of camera and the prevailing speed limit. Types of camera site in the database include the tradition fixed GATSO, Truvelo, Red Light and also Mobile sites and the newer SPECS systems.

On first use you will get up to 300 meters warning of an impending camera site, the chime starts and warns you of the type and speed limit, the screen shows you a distance countdown in meters until you get within 100 meters when it switches to an "L" for limit and the speed, in this case 30. The voice also starts to say 30 mph slow down as a reminder and finally switches to a series of beeps which continue until you pass the camera site where you get an all clear chime.

This is a very comprehensive system and we really liked the spoken speed limits which save you having to look at the unit for info, perhaps the only negative is we'd have liked the beeps to either get louder or more frequent during the last few meters. It almost seemed to calm down before we passed the cameras killing zone. The advance warning can be increased to 500 meters or reduced to a much smaller distance but the standard 300 meters seemed to be about spot on for most fixed cameras.

The system is not only accurate with speed in that it only warns you when you are over the limit for that road but it also knows your direction and will not warn for cameras that are facing the traffic in the other direction. Over the course of 2 weeks the Indic8tor was our constant companion on over 600 miles driving and it gave us a good chance to gauge the accuracy of the database. The unit ships with the latest database pre loaded and our tests of this database showed that it was indeed up to date knowing about a new camera in east London that had only been there for just over a month.

Gauging the performance on mobile traps is more difficult and by our estimations the unit was warning us of around 50% of the places we know are regularly visited by those white vans with police cash registers inside. The indicator costs just £99 and comes with an up to date database, however in order to get your 3 months free updates you will have to subscribe to either a 1 year, 2 or 3 year subscription so the £30 1 year subscription will actually give you 15 months use.

There are a couple of extra features including an ability to set a speed which you'd like to be warned should you exceed it, plus the ability to get your current position lat and long to aid with rescue by motoring organisations.

Overall a highly competent package which in total will cost you £130 for the first 15 months use, a worthy competitor to the Talex unit and much cheaper than the Road Angel systems.

Published - 20/05/2006

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