Nevetas

Are you allowed GPS only detectors in Europe (without the radar or laser attachments)?

For instance will my Origin B2 be OK in France?

I heard GPS only systems were OK, but you get into big trouble for actual radar detectors?

Surely all the Origin is doing is providing information, which the French government activily publish anyway?

MattW

im not sure you could explain that to a genderme in pigeon french tho', what do you reckon. i left my RA at home.

Nevetas

I suppose with the B2 being so tiny wouldn't be to tricky to slip it down your boxer shorts, incase of genderme stoppage

I'm taking my LRC100 & Laser dector off tomorrow, will probably leave the LRC100 off permantly with the law the way it's going...

Iwan

Check with Origin but i'm not sure their database even covers France. When i went to the Isle of Man last year it didn't cover there, so just the laser detector worked.

STi-Frenchie

To the best of my knowledge there is only one legal GPS "detector" allowed in France and it's a rather unsophisticated bit of kit selling for about €99. I would bet large sums of money that if you are stopped by the gendarmes and they find your kit - which they will be unfamiliar with - they will confiscate it...and that's the minimum they will do. I don't want to give you the ******* but the gendarmes REALLY do not like radar detectors and the penalties for using them are severe. If you are travelling in a fast car at "lively" speeds don't be surprised if they search the car from top to bottom looking for your radar detector. It's not worth the risk IMHO.

STi-Frenchie

Nevetas - read this.

The highlighted bit in the scanned article says (I paraphrase) "If caught, a motorist equipped (with a radar detector) runs a strong risk with the intolerance of the police. The penalty is heavy - a fine up to 1500 euros, a minimum of 2 points on the driver's licence and even confiscation of the vehicle."

Nevetas

Mine will be staying at home

madou

How would they stop satellite navigation with points of interest ?

http://www.pocketgps.co.uk/uksafetycameras.php

http://www.expansys.fr/forumthread.a...OMGO&thread=92

Or people creating sites this like this ?

http://www.radarsfixes.com/

The truly paranoid should memorise these, write nothing down, and have a suicide pill at the ready

Nevetas

I've added the camera's as 'push pins' into my autoroute map.

madou

Can appearance be made speed and direction sensitive in a similar way to the Origin B2 ?

Nevetas

Not very easily

madou

Pity. I was intending to install a NavMan 650 and remove my Origin B2

Not certain the quality of the freely available databases would be the same as those of commercial providers

Nevetas

The databases semmed pretty good, I downloaded a few from speedtrap.co.uk or something like that.

I'll let you know how accurate there locations were....

Petem95

If you can get a good French database of camera locations, and GPS units are technically legal in Frogland then I'd take it.

Just get a mate whos good at French to write you out a letter in French explaining its GPS only, and these are legal - so you can show this to any French coppers who decided to harrass you.

STi-Frenchie

That's probably a good idea. I shouldn't imagine there would be any problems with SatNav's or GPS-based systems, it's the other ones which detect and more specifically jam the radar that they go mental about.

Nick100

My brother and a friend (in 2 cars) were travelling in France last summer with their families. Both had sat nav (Garmin) on their dashboards. Sitting at traffic lights, Mr Gendarme went past in opposite direciton, did a U-ie and sat on wrong side of road along side them gauping in their window.

Obviously thought it may be a detector, but they cleared of after looking for a while.

I feed a PDA from my Origin B2, for sat nav and have the French maps. I haven't been to France yet, but would intend to remove the laser detector and use it for sat nav. As said above the Origin database does not cover France although I could possibly find a French POI, I don't have one.

Any thoughts on the likely response from the police in France to a B2 feeding sat nav, but without the laser detector ??

Nevetas

non favorable unless you speak good french I guess.

I took my laser detector and origin out today.

STi-Frenchie

Hard to say what may happen as SatNav is fairly standard but if you've got a detector involved...as Nevetas suggests, your french will need to be good to convince them you haven't been using the system as a detector. I personally haven't got a clue about radar detectors and don't know what an Origin B2 is 'cos Snoopers, Road Angels and all those other great goodies aren't on sale in my neck of the woods (and are illegal anyway). My only exposure to them is the adverts in Evo and Top Gear magazine.

Here's a little side note - the french news tonight showed the guys on the Cannonball Run Europe going through France. The report said that gendarmes had caught one guy doing 178 km/h and another doing 246 km/h - they didn't give any details as to the penalties involved but what was interesting was that they deployed a helicopter for surveillance and had mobile radars watching them throughout their trip. They said that many were fined €90 for doing 30-40 km/h over the limit on the motorways. Featured cars were a beemer (looked like a old 5-series if not an M5) and a Renault Clio V6.

Lum

I think a better question is, what is a good solution for getting your car into Europe that avoids france?