cw42

iTrader: (1)

I've started this thread to document my experiences with the Drive Smart (DS) GPS SAFETY CAMERA WARNING DEVICE. First, a bit of history:
Since getting my first Subaru around 4 years ago, a my99 uk turbo, I figured it would be a good idea for my licence to get a warning device for the speed cameras which were becoming ever more prevalent back then. After some extensive research on t'internet, I settled on a Road Angel, what is now the rather cumbersome looking "classic". This, at the time, was an excellent unit, if very expensive at £400! It warned of all camera types out there and blackspots too, which was nice. Updating the database was easy, but like most systems of the day, it was slow to get new cameras on the database and awkward to input manually. I was more than happy with it at the time, until I saw sillysi, owner of a gorgeous P1, with his pda running tom tom sat-nav software and a camera database warning system. This was an amazing bit of kit, giving you the best of both worlds, gps camera detection, including motorway specs cameras, and sat-nav in one package, and you could play on the pda when it wasn't in the car
So I got one of those, and I was happy again, until I read about in-car pc's and being able to play all of my 15gig of music on my cars system. Off I went again, back on t'interent to explore the world of in-car pc's. This brought me to a full system install in my car, running a 1ghz pc with a 200gig hard-drive, through my sound system. It had sat-nav, camera locations and maps covering the whole of Europe, which was very useful when storming up the Stelvio Pass in Switzerland last year

Which brings us to November last year, when I became the lucky winner of the scoobynet comp to win a ecutek remap from Powerstation. Well documented here: http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/showthread.php?t=473163
Out came the pc install from my old car, and it's still sat in the loft awaiting installation (*****, if you're reading this! ) So, in the meantime, I could do with a camera warner, that's there all the time. I've still got my pda based sat-nav, but that's not on all the time, and as all the camera databases are now being charged for, I've not updated the database on that since January.
Which brings us to present day, and Drive Smart (DS).
I'd read about DS a while ago, and had a quick look at there system, which as well as being free to update the database, was growing in popularity due to its upgradable nature. Owners were suggesting useful upgrads to the software, and they were being answered and told where to go download the new software upgrade. Databases were being updated on an almost daily basis, and to my knowledge, still are, which is exactly what you want. Time to look at buying one then. My usual search for retailers on the net came up with only 3 options:
1/ Buy from DS themselves for £189
2/ Buy from Comet online for £189
3/ Buy from ebay for anything from £100- whatever the auction ends at.
The ebay option looked the best bet, but was it a kocher unit? Would it have the full support of DS? Questions I wanted answered before I started to bid. Off back to DS's website, and the link to thier forum, which is well populated and active, to post a question about ebay. This I did, but the next day found my post changed from the heading "ebay" to: "car picture, and I want a DS upgrade" ?! and a pm in my new DS forum inbox, which was this:
"Hi,
We are sensitive to ebay being mentioned as some of our resellers buys 100's of DS at a go and off set this by selling on ebay.
Only a small percentage of people buy off of ebay.
If you want to make a deal on price give me a call and we can sort something out for a combined package.
Regards
Neil"
So I gave Neil a call, and after a nice chat about Subarus, car clubs and future owners, managed to get an excellent price for the unit and the Pulse Master laser detector. I'm not going to tell you on here what I paid, but it's worth giving Neil a call and mentioning that you've read this and are interested at getting one of these units (depending of course on my experiences!)
That conversation was at 4pm on the 28/06/06, and the next morning, on the way to work, I called into my local delivery office on the off chance that the postie would be able to locate the package for me. Neil had sent it via Special Delivery, so it was located straight away, signed for at 06:10 on the 29/06/06, excellent service so far!
And that brings us to now, sat at work typing this on my break. I've taken it out of the box, and first impressions are good. I'd read that the unit was quite large, but I don't think it is, although compared to some of the smaller units out there, I guess it's not small. It comes with everything you need to get going, and I'll take pictures to document what you get later. An excellent and strong windscreen sucker mount is included, but it's my intention to somehow get this unit installed where the clock is on my MY03 sti, and use the wifes' laptop in-car to do the updates.
That's all for now, time to get back to work SUBSCRIBE TO THIS THREAD FOR UPDATES
chris.

cw42

iTrader: (1)

Home now, and time to review things so far. After work today I went over to Performance Developments in Manchester to have the last of my current suspension upgrades fitted. (a whiteline uprated anti-roll bar)
What better time than now to test my new unit. Unpacked, plugged in and switched on, then headed for the motorway. First impressions:
Why have they used Janet Street Porter for the voice? No really, it's her isn't it?
Very clear display, although a bit fussy, ie, too much on screen.
Nice touch when you're not over the limit, it doesn't warn you of the camera verbally, just the flashing.
I set the motorway setting on auto at 80 mph, and this rather annoyingly cut in a number of times when I went over that, so I've now lowered it to 70.
When I finally got home, I tidied up the install, putting the windscreen bracket on properly, which was very easy to do, and using the anti-slip mat to keep it all in place.
Then it was time to upload the latest software version, and install the latest camera database. It comes with a serial to usb cable, and installing that on your pc is a little convoluted, but doable, then a restart. Downloaded the latest database and software revision, then uploaded them using this guide http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/drive-smart.php and I'm ready for a test drive.
Time for a little test drive in a while, see if I can pick up some black spots
Pictures so far:

and:


I also had a look at installing the Pulse Master, and gave up for now as I need to fix it somewhere on the front of the car, and run the cables through the bulkhead to the passenger space, way beyond me that

Drivesmart

Fits nicely on your dash
Voice's can be customised and there are quite a few to download on the forum
This was something we designed so people would play around with and make up cool voices and alerts as the DS can use any WAV files of 30k or under.
Almost every system we came across had fixed system voices that could not be modified,With the Drivesmart you can customise almost everything to suit your needs

cw42

iTrader: (1)

Thanks for the input DS.
My first mornings journey with the DS today, and it took a while to get a fix this morning. But once it had, it was fine after the database was loaded last night.
On my test drive last night, I went to 2 camera sites, one on Dowson Road in Hyde, and the other on Mottram Road in Hattersley. Picked up the Dowson no problem, but I turned off just before it, and I'm sure I saw that camera being taken down the other day , so off along the Mottram Road, and turned round after passing the camera to get in the right direction. On the way back to the camera, nothing! No warning. So I stopped by the camera, and easy as pie, put the location in the database. Press 2 buttons, options come up, input gatso @ 30mph, done, easy
Still yet to find a blackspot though

Drivesmart

Mottram road location is that before Broad bottom or the one just off of Dowson road?

cw42

iTrader: (1)

http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.c...&multimap.y=82

On the above map, just after SPRING AVENUE on the A560 heading to the right, there is a camera on the right hand side of the road, pointing up towards SPRING AVENUE. (does that make sense?)

Drivesmart

Ok yes I can see it and I know the location its about 200m South of Spring road.
Also if you head up that road it runs into Stockport road,Is that all a 30mph limit along there?
Thanks

cw42

iTrader: (1)

yep, thats the spot
It's a 30 all the way back to stockport road as you say, but it's a 50 just around where the sign for the road number is going the other way. It then changes into a 40 just after the railway bridge, and there's another camera halfway between there and the roundabout

cw42

iTrader: (1)

I made a film today DS in action.

Andy S.

a cw42 information film!!

I am worring about your sanity!!

LOL


Good write up by the way

cw42

iTrader: (1)

hehe, you found it then

killa

iTrader: (7)

Nice work there, like the vid..

cw42

iTrader: (1)

Cheers Killa
UPDATE: So far, it's picked up all the other cameras I've been past on my travels recently except red light ones. From Hazel Grove to Macclesfield the other day, there are 2 sets of red light cameras that it missed. One at fiveways and the other at the main junction in Poynton.
I'm not really that fussed about red light cams myself, but those have been there for years
Found a few blackspots as well Predictably on the Cat & Fiddle out of Macc and again on Long Hill
I've turned my volume upto 7, and increased the backlight and contrast as it was a bit quiet, and not that clear.

corradoboy

Will have a looksee next week Chris.

Drivesmart

We will check out those red light cameras and get them added,In fact they will be in tonights database release!
We have 1200 Red light camera's currently covered in the Database together with 5000 possible safety van/mobile sites as well.

cw42

iTrader: (1)

Thanks DS. Been on my travels over to your neck of the woods today Corradoboy, www.ysp.co.uk, very nice and the DS has missed one of the cameras on the drop down to Mottram from the junction at the top.

http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.c...multimap.y=208
There are 4 cameras on this stretch of road, 2 up, and 2 down. It picked up the first one going down from Mottram Moor to Market street, but didn't pick the 2nd one just before Coach Road.

DS, when you do a new database release, do you notify anyone, or is it just a case of checking your forum for the latest update?

Drivesmart

We update the database almost every day specially with Temporary locations of road work cameras etc.
The database when you download from the support section is dated for example todays release will be 030706.hex so you know when it was last uploaded.
The Coach road location has now been added.
Thanks

cw42

iTrader: (1)

Excellent, I'll go get my unit and do an update in a while

Where do you get the database from?

Drivesmart

Loads of sources for locations but the biggest contributors are our users

This is the same for all speed camera manufacturers but we don't steal data from our users units by stealth,If you plug a Road Angel or Snooper system in to your PC they automatically dump out any locations you have stored(POI'S) with out your permission.They can then check to see if they have the location/Locations in their database.
You also get charged £3.99 a month for the privilege of this leeching as well
We firmly belive that camera update's should be totally free as the information of where camera locations are are freely available on the net as well.
You would need an army of people out on the roads if you wanted to do it yourself and all the claims made by other camera detector manufacturers is total rubbish about where they gather data from!
If they did turn round and say it was from the users everyone would dump the subscription charges as its money for old rope,Its a shame more people did not realise what they are buying into and if everyone turned round and said no they would have to do it for free!

stressymare

i bought the Tom Tom 500
put the free camera location thing on an i never misses one
its ace an cost me nothin

Drivesmart

I would recommend the Pocket gps database over the Tomtom one and you will have to pay subsrcription after the free period anyway with the Tomtom one.

stressymare

there is no period wiv it
i didnt get it off Tom Tom
i downloaded it wiv some differant voices
i drive for a living an its a god send imo

cw42

iTrader: (1)

The pocket gps database was free upto January this year, after that, it will cost you to update. I have the same base on my pda, and for now, it's still mostly up-to-date.
As you drive for a living Liz, surely you can stump up the few quid it costs to keep your database updated? Penny pinching in the wrong area otherwise I'd say

Drivesmart

cw42

iTrader: (1)

Well, I've spent most of the evening adapting my clock area on the MY03 to take the DS. I'll post some pictures tomorrow, but so far, it's looking good. I'm going to seal it into place tomorrow, and put the usb cable in permanently, after I've checked it works with the wifes laptop. Update's tomorrow.

Andy S.

How come it is missing so many fixed cameras especially ones that have been there for years?

how can it be cumbersome when it is a lot smaller than the drive smart unit? I still like my old road angel it never miss's a beet

cw42

iTrader: (1)

I can only imagine it's because Councils are not putting details out as to where they are siting cameras. Therefore, the only way you'd get them on a database is when a user adds them to the database manually, and they get uploaded at the next sync. With DS, it would seem you just tell them where the location is, they then add it to everyones unit and update.

Your right Andy, the DS is bigger than a road angel, but the DS is also a lot cheaper: http://www.road-angel.co.uk/classic_road_angel.htm and there's no update fee either.

Drivesmart

There are over 6k of fixed camera sites in the UK(Some of these are not permanent).
Its almost impossible to have every single location covered but we have around 99% of all fixed camera's covered right now and almost every single red light camera as well(Road Angel does not alert for these either).
In London we had every single Monitron for example covered within 1-2 days of the actual camera going into the ground(These were not even active).
I know that almost all of those sites are still not in the Road Angel database(Thats at least 13 new cameras not covered and your paying as well!).

Drivesmart

http://www.streamload.com/Deliver/De...ID%3D534580318

phil_wrx

iTrader: (2)

does the drive smart detect laser without the pulse master fitted?