Safety Cameras Any-one tried the Roadpilot MicroGo?

[FWH]

Hi,

Has any-one tried the Roadpilot MicroGo?

http://www.roadpilot.com/PDF/microGo...O_Brochure.pdf

Obviously, I am looking for a product that can help remind me of the speed limit.

It looks like a good product because:
a) You can set it to blue display
b) It shows the current speed limit
c) It is small

But...
a) How accurate is the info?
b) Is it big enough to read the display?
c) The upgrades cost.. is it worth it?


/ FWH

[CIVHEAD]

Originally Posted by FWY

Hi,

Has any-one tried the Roadpilot MicroGo?

http://www.roadpilot.com/PDF/microGo...O_Brochure.pdf

Obviously, I am looking for a product that can help remind me of the speed limit.

It looks like a good product because:
a) You can set it to blue display
b) It shows the current speed limit
c) It is small

But...
a) How accurate is the info?
b) Is it big enough to read the display?
c) The upgrades cost.. is it worth it?


/ FWH

Hi, I've had a microgo since Xmas and I am very pleased with it.
It was £99.99 from Halfords. The info seams very accurate so far , its plenty big enough to read the display. The 6 months free up grades has just run out but I am unsure weather to upgrade or not.
It only shows the current speed limit when you get near a camera.
It has made me drive a bit faster in a 30 limit. I used to drive bang on 30 by the cars speedo, but now drive bang on 30 by the microgo which is about 33/34 on the car
Hope this helps

[FWH]

This was helpful sounds good. Thanks.

Where have you placed it?
Does it need to be in the windshield to get good signal?

[CIVHEAD]

Originally Posted by FWH

This was helpful sounds good. Thanks.

Where have you placed it?
Does it need to be in the windshield to get good signal?

I have mounted it right next to the drivers side "A" pillar in line with the cars speedo & tucked the cable down the side of the dash. I havent tried it else where

[lobey dosser]

An alternative, and maybe more useful, would be the Garmin Streetpilot I3 GPS unit (reviewed here) - http://www.gpsinformation.org/i3/i3.html.

Couple this with the speed camera site info files available here - http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/module...eferer=SideBar and you have speed camera warning, plus a pretty decent GPS routing facility for about the same price.
Mine was £100 from Comet a year ago. However they don't seem to stock it now so it may be hard to find.

[crispy]

I have a microgo. Mine shows my current speed at all times, but i have it set to only warn me of speed camera's if Iam above the speed limit. Very good accuracy (I update it weekly) and also very good voice alerts.

You can get an external antenna for it that you can place anywhere in the car (10 quid from maplins) allowing you to position the Microgo where you want. I have fixed mine under the slidy bit where the ashtray would normally be so that there are no wires showing, no mounts and I can just close the slidy bit rather than remove the microgo from the car. You need the external antenna to do this though.

[cylon2007]

Originally Posted by lobey dosser

An alternative, and maybe more useful, would be the Garmin Streetpilot I3 GPS unit (reviewed here) - http://www.gpsinformation.org/i3/i3.html.

Couple this with the speed camera site info files available here - http://www.pocketgpsworld.com/module...eferer=SideBar and you have speed camera warning, plus a pretty decent GPS routing facility for about the same price.
Mine was £100 from Comet a year ago. However they don't seem to stock it now so it may be hard to find.

the Garmin I3 is now discontinuned (shame as it is a nice little unit) I had one to use on the bike but tobe honest didn't like the routing as much as the TomTom which I am used to. There's loads od I3s for sale on ebay including new ones.

[Nadz]

crispy- what was the part number of the external receiver you got?

[FWH]

Hi,

I bought this myself today.
So here is my review of the RoadPilot MicroGo:

It was about £85 (including Swedish VAT at 25% from Misco.se) and that is with a 6 month subscription.
A further 3 years subscription is about £100.

There are some other products out there with free subscribtion, but to have the same functionallity as the MicroGo you have to pay around £150 including Swedish VAT.
So this was not much more expensive.
And the other products cover less geography.

The MicroGo is much smaller and better designed than any of the other products available here.

They claim it works straight out of the box - and it did!
It was also preconfigured for my country (Sweden) with all setting and language and everything.

You get the MicroGo, a suction-cup with ball-joint thing to stick it to your windscreen with, a cigarette lighter power cord (with built in power conversion down to usb level), a usb cable to connect it to your PC, a CD with software and a product manual. All nicely packaged.

Easy to deal with the one button interface and the display is clear.

The colour backlight really only shows up well in the "dark", in daylight the colour is nowhere near as obvious as they would have you beleive in the marketing material - but such are LCD screens and I am happy with it anyway.

The software (an application and a driver) installed easily just like the (on CD) supplied software manual said it would.

Then you need to register in order to update (if you dont update regularly it stops working). This also worked well.

I ran into problems with the actual download of the update (Download interupted). I thought it was my firewalls etc but nothing I tried helped. I put it down to go away and think and eat. When I came back it worked great. So probably a problem at their end.

I was amazed to find that the over-read on my Mercedes speedometer (havent got my Civic yet, will report when I have it) was only approx 1-2 km/h compared to the MicroGo. Other cars I have driven with GPS devices have all had the expected 10%-ish over read.

Could be that they have built over-read into the MicroGo, but I don´t see why they would. Will try it in the Civic and see.

The suction cup thingy is not bad, but when I get my Civic I will try fixing it to the dash with velcro instead.

All in all I am happy with my new toy!

Why didnt I get a Garmin or something like that?
Well because I have ordered my Civic with sat-nav and only wanted the camera positioning feature.

[FWH]

An update.

First of all made a how-to here:
Instal RoadPilot MicroGo without cutting any wires

The reason for this taking some time is that after 3 weeks it died!

It lost it´s serial number from the memory and that was that.
Took about 4 weeks for me to get a replacement....

But now I have one and so far so good.

It doesn´t cover congestion charges in Stockholm or other cities than London and I have passed one pair of cameras that have been around for years that were not in the database.

Still like it though.
The backlight around the button does reflect in the windshield though - that can be annoying.

Occasionally at stand still it will show 1 km/h...
Tends to show 5-6 km lower than the Civic speedo.
In my Merc it is only 1 km lower at motorway speed.

[andylangtree]

I have a microgo fitted to my type r, fitted using the same method as you used. I have found that the unit sometimes picks up cameras on the opposite side of the road, even though direction sensitive is set correctly. It has picked up on all cameras. According to the unit my speedo is out by 3 mph at 30mph and 4mph at 60.

[FWH]

No "false positives" for me yet.

[Munro]

It looks like a nice compact unit, much tidier than the usual ones. very good value as well.

Does it pick up laser guns, or is it only gps position of known speed cameras ?

[FWH]

Originally Posted by Munro

It looks like a nice compact unit, much tidier than the usual ones. very good value as well.

Does it pick up laser guns, or is it only gps position of known speed cameras ?

Only GPS of known positions of cameras.

Laser detectors are illegal here.
Not only use of - but even possesion of.
They drag you to court for having one even if it is not is use.

Roadpilot have slightly bigger units, like the Micro, with laser detectors.
These however do not have multi colour displays.
Have a look at their website: RoadPilot Limited UK

[Kremmen]

As an alternative in the UK consider the Talex, which is only £25 a year for updates.

TalexLite - Fitted