Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

I currently dont have one of these, but have often thought maybe I should.

What do you guys use and why? Are there any restrictions on their use?

Used to have a radar detector , which would go berserk in town centres as the automatic door detectors would set it off.I believe that they are now illegal , but I use warnings on my satnav now.PocketGpsworld seems very good and for £19 a year it gives weekly updates on both fixed sites and mobile sites.Alternatively there are some laser jammer devices ( which are very illegal if used fior that purpose ) , but conveniently they also operate as remote controls for your garage door / front gates - "sorry officer , must have left it switched on when I closed the garage door this morning !! "

I like the sound of that

Yes mine used to go mad when passing auto doors, but it saved my bacon a couple of times, shame they're illegal now

There's a big difference between 'detectors' and 'warning systems'.

Detectors rely on picking up the radar/beam emitted by the fixed or handheld device, and is little more than advance notice that you will get a ticket. If the unit picks up the beam then they are getting a reading back. Jammers (see above) will block the signal, but you need to a) slam on the anchors before they try again and b) turn off the jammer or you will be pulled over. They need to be professionally fitted at a cost of around £400.

Warning systems work on satellite positioning of your car relative to known installations, or sites where hand helds have been used before. Its all down to the quality of the database, as units are from about £80. Units like the Novus Delta come with free lifetime databse updates and are very effective, you can pay more.

My personal view is that not having something like this, if you do have a habit of straying over the limit, or can't always tell what it is (a deliberate ploy on the part of the authorities in many cases) its a no brainer.

I defintiely have to get something. I gues for the advisory systems they are as good as the database, and how often they are updated..... Do you as the user have to mark the spot so to speak to update the database. I suppose that would miss the mobioe units....

I have a tomtom at present whuch often saves me from a bad day, but its not always accurate.

Hi - I use a radar/laser detector which (as noted above) bleeps a lot through towns and when passing petrol stations etc. It bleeps madly if a gun is pointing at you (which happened to me but by then it's too late!) but in a perfect world hopes to give you a warning of laser 'splatter' going on up the road ahead. It's clever and an intersting gadget, but if I lost it tomorrow I don't think I'd bother replacing.

I would however definately recommend a speed camera warning system and recommend getting a dedicated unit rather than a TomTom type sat-nav warning. With most sat navs you pay a subscription for cameras every year and of course the system only works with your sat nav switched on - navigating you. When not being navigated you have no camera warning.

I use the Novus Piccolo, a cheap unit costing just £59 to buy outright and gives you free camera database updates for life. At that price it soon pays for itself compared to yearly sat-nav subscriptions, plus you have the peace-of-mind "always on" dedicated unit.

Hope this helps. See a video of this tiny thing in action...

http://www.novus-gps.co.uk/Novus_piccolo.php

You can of course update your unit as often as you like, there is a counter on the Novus website to say how many sites they have added/deleted, its usually about 50 of each per week.

cool, thnx.

How does something like the Pogo unit (http://www.pogo-gps.co.uk/pogoalert.php) compare to the Novus ?

I was thinking of getting the Pogo (because it also has a plug in laser detector) until I came across this post

I'd be wary of that statement from that company. In it's former guise as Talex it promised free updates for life, and continued the free updates when it became Novus. Then one day they just cut it off and said that Talex owners now had to pay...... or buy a new Novus unit - so much for the free for life updates. I now have two useless Talex units stuck in a drawer somewhere.