get yourself a Talex speed camera & danger alert system. Just bought one.

Talex GPS

- just click on the above link, despite typing in only the URL all this extra stuff (java) always gets added, why I don't know.

TalexGPS is an agent not the main Talex site. Xmas special £119 includes 1 yr free subscription (Talex main site £149 with only 6 month subscription).

Brill product - no connection to company etc (son just got done for speeding and with the vRS I very well might soon be - hence the purchase. I got a demo from a friend and was well impressed. We bought an extra magnetic mount and power cable so can share the device).

AutoExpress placed Talex Lite 1st, Talex (full) 2nd (cos it was dearer).

Been using them for a while, good little toy.

Just bought one from price drop tv for

I got a talex-lite from tesco a while ago. IIRC it was about

I know Woolworths OnLine do them pretty cheap - but only the Lite (approx

I know Woolworths OnLine do them pretty cheap - but only the Lite (approx

I'm still of the opinion that camera detectors lull you into a (sometimes false) sense of security. Just my old-fashioned outlook.

I bought a Talex Lite from Somerfields last year for £29, best GPS camera locator I've owned and I've owned many of them.

I bought one (Talex) from the link above at £119.00 including 12 months subscription. They had closed between christmans and new year, so not next working day delivery, but delivered as soon as they were back to work.

The unit is light and compact making it relatively convenient to carry when you leave the car. Mounting is via a magnetic dash mount. This is an unobtrusive sticky backed black plastic finished losenge that adheres to the dashboard top. There is an alternative windscreen mount available, but it is not as elegant a solution as the old road angel mount.

Performance wise, it seems to be pretty good. The alerts are voiced stating type of trap and speed limit in force. Where a reasonable distance from the trap is available in the correct direction of travel, the device also voices the range to the trap. At the same time, the speed limit in force is flashed on the display. If you elect to approach the trap above the speed limit, the device nags you to slow down. The device volume is adjustable for just the right amount of nag. I did notice that if you go past a trap and then return or loop round and re pass the site without going far from it, the device will not re warn you of the site. The device displays current speed when the car is moving and time when the car is stationary.

Further alerts in normal mode announce schools around school hours and hazardous areas / accident blackspots.

There are facilities to scroll information onto the display, including lat' / long' height above sea level, trip distance, peak and average speed and bearing and a few others.

The device database is reasonably comprehensive in my area. I stuck it on the dash for a day of local driving around Chelmsford, Brentwood and Billericay, followed by an evening jaunt down to Maidstone via the motorway network. Fixed and traffic light cameras were all reported. Mobile sites were reported generally, but two occasionally used sites for police speed checks were not displayed. School alerts are supposed to notify you 250M in advance, but I found the announcements to come on as I passed the schools. The device is supposed to have a "road specific activation" to avoid it triggering for hazards on roads close to the one you are travelling on. This seemed to be a bit less than effective. Apparently there is a school on the A12 dual carriageway between Brentwood and Chelmsford and a 70mph stretch of the M20 was reported as having a fixed camera and a 30mph limit.

The supplied software would not install on my Windows 2000 machine. I downloaded an alternative from the Talex site. The first update took around an hour to download (on a 2Mb connection) and then failed to load to the device. Tried again and it took a similar amount of time but was OK. The software installation was not particularly clear as to the sequence of events for correct operation. A USB to serial driver has to be installed before the cable is plugged in. I will report back when I have updated the device for the second time as most say it should take no longer than 5 minutes to load. Possibly the server or routing was busy.

This device repalced a Road Angel classic and is generally a little more versatile in that it has a more comprehensive speed trap listing that includes many (but not all) mobile sites. It finds its satellites very quickly indeed, around 10 seconds, which is far faster than the Road Angel unit. If you have a very noisy car, or have the music loud, you may not hear the voice alerts (the Road Angel changes the display colour to red and flashes to make itself visible) but you may spot the flashing speed limit. It is lighter and more compact than the Road Angel classic and hopefully wont switch itself off when mounted on the dash in the sun in an air conditioned car, something the Road Angel regualrly does.

So far I would say that the unit is very good. Subscriptions are much cheaper than the competition and the units effectiveness is, I would say, superior to that of the Road Angel Classic. Thus far, recommended.

Update

Contacted Talex about the slow download of updates. Phone was answered immediately and the chap I spoke to immediately recommended disabling McAfee Privacy Service. The download now takes around 5 to 10 seconds and the device update loads to the Talex unit in around 4 to 5 minutes. So good customer support as well as an excellent device.

Chris

I have the Talex lite and its brilliant, but dont get to test it out much as there isnt many fixed scameras up here :P Still, its nice to have because I do occasionally drive long distances to areas new to me Thumbs up from me:thumbup:

Chris

Now that's what I call a review.

Top class mate. :thumbup: