Review GPS Angel Red Light/Speed Camera Warning System
Photo speed measurement was invented in the Netherlands in the 1950’s to measure speeds of race cars. It didn’t take long for the Dutch police to see the value of these devices as a traffic enforcement tool and in the 1960s Gatsos photo radar was introduced.
Gatso fever spread throughout Europe as governments and police agencies found an easy way to have motorists pour money into their treasury under the guise of traffic enforcement.
In the mid 80’s the first case Photo Radar Fever hit the US! Paradise Valley, a small affluent town wedged between Phoenix and Scottsdale, began using photo radar. Not long after the Photo Radar Bug infected the neighboring cities of Scottsdale, Mesa and Peoria.
Today the photo enforcement epidemic has spread worldwide and several devices have emerged to fight back.
Photo radar covers first, a thin piece of plastic film placed over the license plate that distorts the view of your plate. An effective way to beat the cameras; however these “ticket magnets” soon became outlawed.
Then photo blocking sprays advertised as a way to make your plate invisible to the cameras. In my testing and review, all these sprays are TOTALLY INEFFECTIVE and their advertising claims bogus.
Then the VF2 flash back device came out. Also ineffective and to make matters worse reported damage to electrical systems and even fire!
Finally an effective counter measure device utilizing GPS technology emerged in 2004.
These stand alone GPS devices have been retailing for around $245.00. But at this year’s CES show GPS Angel introduced their money saving alternative, retailing for less than $100.00 the V4e.
Is it worth it, I took it the V4e for a 200 mile spin around the Phoenix Metro area to find out.
My first impression was positive. A circular device measuring 2.5 inches round sits on your dash and plugs into your lighter. It looks nothing like a radar detector and has a series of LED’s that flash red when the device alerts.
A business card was attached to the package with a note indicating that the unit was recently updated with their latest database, so I plugged the unit in and headed out.
The red flashing LED lights of the V4e captured my attention as I approached my first fixed camera on I-10. However the faint V4e chirps was barley audible over the CNN anchormans news report on my XM radio.
This first group of cameras was installed earlier this year by the Arizona Department of Public Safety and I was pleased that the unit was alerting. However, unlike the Cheetah device which is programmed to ignore cameras opposite your direction of driving, the GPS Angel was alerting, along with other red light cameras on the surface streets in my general location.
I then headed north on I-17. In the vicinity of I-17 and Bethany Home Road there are two speed cameras that were also installed around the same period of the I-10 cameras, the GPS Angel was silent.
I then headed east on the 101 into Scottsdale. The city of Scottsdale agreed to remove their cameras set up along this route last fall. However the GPS Angel still had these six locations programmed into its database and alerted.
I then headed off to Peoria to check the red light cameras that would be along my route home. As I drove through the red light camera intersections of 83rd Avenue and Union Hills and 99th Avenue and Bell the GPS Angel was again dead silent.
During my 200 mile drive with the GPS Angel I logged the following:
- Proper alerts to fixed camera locations: 10
- Alerts to fixed camera locations no longer active: 6
- No alerts at active fixed camera locations: 4
- False alerts, no cameras within one mile: 3
The brain of any GPS photo enforcement device is their database and it is my opinion that the GPS Angel needs a brain transplant!
GPS Angel’s website does offers the ability for users to notify the company of new locations, however it’s been my experience that users often enter erroneous locations because they see something they think is a photo radar device, or competitors enter bad information to corrupt the data. So I assume that GPS Angel has a method in place to keep this “garbage” out of their database.
I have not inquired to as where GPS Angel obtains its database, but their device is labeled as being manufactured in China and is similar in appearance to the other devices that Tommy Chen of Rayee Technologies was hawking on the floor of CES.
During my interview with Tommy I asked where he was obtaining his photo enforcement database and he related that they program their own. I later learned from contacts that I have the industry that many of these overseas manufactures obtain their information from the Driving University’s website where users enter locations of speed traps. “Garbage in Garbage Out”, in reviewing their fixed camera data it contained massive amounts of inaccurate and dated information.
So you may ask, do I recommend the GPS Angel?
Well yes and no.
Currently it is the cheapest device out there retailing for around $100.00. However Cheetah is currently developing a new photo radar GPS detector that will also retail for around $100.00 and it is expected to retail later this spring.
So if you have a $100.00 bill burning in your pocket that you need to spend now, go for the GPS Angel and hope they fix their database. Or wait three more months for the début of Cheetah’s new unit which will utilize the Trinity database, the same database licensed to Beltronics and Escort who use it in their GPS equipped radar detectors.
UPDATE: The manufacture has commented to this post, to view please press the comments button
11 Responses to “Review GPS Angel Red Light/Speed Camera Warning System”
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ie gps angelredlightspeedcamera
so this thing blows chunks then?
None of these guys maintain their own database which explains why the accuracy is junk. They either use user-generated databases (which generally suck) or they find bootleg copies of legitimate database developers online, then build their user generated databases on top of those.
The following is a comment from the manufacture of the GPS Angel regarding my review:
Roy,
Thanks for your review and feedback on the GPS Angel.
We recognize that having an accurate red light & speed camera database is crucial for a successful product. As a company, we are committed to making our database best-in-class and will continue to invest in this area while ensuring that our product remains the most affordable on the market.
The GPS Angel database is compiled from public and private sources and is verified and edited by full-time employees. In addition, we accept user-submitted updates through our web site and have a multi-step process to verify these submissions for accuracy before adding them to our database.
We offer free database updates which are released every Monday through our GPS Angel software. Consumers can buy the GPS Angel today for only $99 and be confident in knowing that a steady stream of regular free improvements to the database are available each week for as long as they own the product.
We are confident in our database and have made the camera map available at http://www.gpsangel.com for customers to browse or search by zip code prior to purchasing. We have many satisfied GPS Angel customers in Arizona, Maryland, Illinois, New York, Texas, California and many other states with photoenforcement programs.
Thank you for your continued dedication on creating awareness and advice for this growing area.
Best regards,
GPS Angel
Response from the manufacturer seems legit. Just saw the GPS Angel on Amazon and the reviews are good too and the price is a fraction of the Cheetah.
i hope there database improves im hanging loose for now to see whos to buy
My daughter recently purchased a GPS Angel in Oct. 2009. We live in Phoenix Arizona. She had trouble getting the GPS Angel Manager software to install on Windows Vista. (Bill Gates best LOL) But after writing to the GPS Angel technical support people, she was able to get it to work. After she got the software to install on “VISTA” properly, she connected the device to her laptop and downloaded the camera updates. It worked perfectly.
Then she bought one for me as an early Christmas present. I love it !! After driving around the state of Arizona with it for a few day’s, I noticed three (3) camera locations that were not in the unit. I went to their web site to view their camera locations “before” I added them to their web site data base. When I added them to their web site I got a message saying they will add the camera locations that I submitted “after they have been verified”. I strongly believe they are fully aware that their competition could try to mess things up for them.
As far as the GPS Angel alerting when there is no camera there, my answer is this. Leave it alone. Arizona is known for relocating their “fixed camera’s” from location to location. Just because it’s gone doesn’t mean it won’t return again someday and catch you off guard. So I recommend to the staff of GPS Angel to leave those positions alone.
Next, I highly recommend a Mac version of the GPS Angel Management Software. Things would really run smoothly then. 🙂 Their technical support team told me they are in the process of developing a Mac version right now.
I have been using the Inforad K1 for a few months and it seems to be very accurate.
You just have to download the database updates via USB from their site which I’ve heard is their own generic database..
Fast money for the RCMP. Do the speed limit and don't worry about it.
It is interesting how the local citizens react when they know that the photo radar cameras are a scam. I was riding my motorcycle westbound on Lincoln from Scottsdale Rd yesterday in the right lane. As I was passing a convertible with the top down, the passenger started waving to me pointing at the side of the road ahead where the first scamera was located. This couple was probably in their 60's and she told me to be aware of the photo radar cameras and speed traps on Lincoln. I acknowledged that I was a member of Camerafraud and was aware of the fraud and told them to check out camerafraud.com to learn more. The mobile scammobile was about a 1/4 mile ahead in its usual place on the right behind a wall. Gee Ernest, that must mean that older citizens are in favor of photo radar. UH,DUH!
Heather,
You need to type slower, I think some people here completely missed your point (RIGHT P/C???)
Photo radar is a poor deterrent for speeders, only education will help, however municipalities are addicted to the income, so lets all get used to it.