Toad like many companies are aware of the pending legislation that will outlaw the ownership of radar based speed trap systems in the UK. This Inforad GPS system uses the network of navigation satellites to pinpoint your current position within its database of fixed UK speed traps.

The compact Inforad unit simply pugs into your cigarette lighter and can operate on either 12 or 24 volt supplies. It doesn't' come with much of a mounting kit but then its light enough to be secured to your dash with a sticky Velcro pad so it can see the sky. Operation is simple enough, just power up and wait while the green LED flashes, this continues until it has a lock on at least 3 satellites the LED then changes to a constant green meaning you are ready to drive.

As you approach the site of a fixed Gatso the red LED flashes and the unit beeps 3 times, if you are under the speed limit for that camera the LED stays flashing but the beeping does not continue. If however you are exceeding the limit for that road the beeping will continue until you either reduce your speed or pass the speed camera probably getting a ticket!

The Toad Inforad will give you a warning 20 seconds before every fixed camera, this time does not vary with speed instead the unit will ensure that you always get 20 seconds no matter what speed you are doing. There are very few options or settings on the device and the majority of these can only be set when using a PC to connect, here you can select which databases you want to work with, the main one being speed cameras, but there are also red light cameras and safety zones like schools.

During our tests we found the Inforad to be quite reliable although there was a local Gatso that was not in the database, this had been in place for at least 3 months which is not ideal. Updating your Inforad is performed via the USB lead and a PC with the Inforad software installed, this connects to the central site and will add the latest version to your device.

The updates are included for the first year and will then be charged at £24.99 for another year or £49.99 for lifetime updates, the updates not only cover the UK but also a large slice of mainland Europe meaning that trip to France of Germany can also be protected. There is currently no provision for mobile cameras which is a shame, we know that some users don't like mobile alerts but we find them very useful even if locations aren't' in use, its better to be safe than sorry.

You can add locations to the database, say you find a new camera that the Toad database doesn't have then you can mark the location by pushing a button. This will then alert on your unit in future, plus be sent to Toad next time you synchronise database. Inforad then send someone to check out the location before adding it to the main database.

A nice extra feature is the ability to mark a temporary speed limit, you can hold 2 buttons down to mark the current vehicle speed, for example when you are entering some road works. then if you exceed that speed the unit will beep at you, this temporary limit can be removed by holding the buttons again.

While the Toad Inforad isn't fully featured and seemed to be a little out of date it is very keenly priced, by ditching LCD screens and fancy user interfaces it retails at just £79.99. This compares very favourably with radar detectors at £300+ and the road angel up at £400.

You do get what you pay for and the device is a little rough around the edges, but it had 9 out 10 camera we checked and works well enough. If you are looking for a cost effective speed camera warning system the Inforad is for you.

Published - 15/05/2005

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