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Morpheous
Geodesy Review |
4th April 2003 |
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Review by
Dave Burrows
The Geodesy was one of the earlier GPS Speed
Detection System (SDS) units available in the UK market. Due to this, it's
one of the more popular units available, partly due to it's size, database and
cost.
It is about the size of a standard Radar Detector
but has a GPS receiver built in with memory to store the Morpheous database of
Speed Camera Locations.
Over
1 million UK motorists are convicted of speed related incidents every year, and
this is set to increase by a factor of 5 if the government gets it's way using
some of the latest Truvelo and SPECS digital camera systems on UK roads.
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Introduction
The Geodesy is small and compact, but has great potential. Most
of the time the Geodesy just sits there on the dashboard with a blue
led to show that it has a satellite fix, but isn't detecting any
cameras in the vicinity. You will see on the left two LED's, one
above the other. The bottom one shows if you don't have a fix
(in red) and the top one shows blue if you have a fix and the Geodesy
is in detection mode.
You will also see a range of 10
LED's to the right. These light up red and give you a
visual notification on how close you are to a camera. You will
also see a brass coloured button to the right. This is the
report button to allow you to record new camera locations. The
Geodesy when plugged into the car accessory socket powers up
automatically and takes around a minute to obtain it's first fix with
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built in GPS Receiver. The
picture to the right shows the Geodesy in it's docking case that is
used in-car. The dome (top central) is where the GPS Receiver
antenna is located. Once you
have a fix and start driving towards a camera the
Geodesy will start showing red LED's. Geodesy has a feature
called first beep, this alerts the driver to the fact they are coming
up to a camera, this is purely to alert the driver that they are
getting close to a camera. Before they start to have a full warning. The closer you get,
the more red lights that show. If you are still over the speed
limit the Geodesy will continuously sound an audible alert (beep) to
continuously warn you of the impending danger. |
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Geodesy Features
The Geodesy is a good all-round GPS
Speed Camera Detection System (SDS) and contains the following
features:-
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Audible and Visual Warning (adjustable)
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100% portable allowing you to move it
between vehicles quickly
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Fully Automated, no need to do anything
whilst driving allowing you to keep your eyes on the road and hands on
the steering wheel
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Geodesy is compatible with cars and
motorbikes
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Geodesy is completely upgradeable with
new camera locations using the supplied modem cradle which you connect
to your phone socket
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No false alarms
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Water, shock and vibration resistant
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Warning range 1 mile (adjustable)
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Speed sensitivity with the use of GPS
technology so you're only notified audibly if you are travelling over
the speed limit.
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Auto ranging
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Geodesy Design
The Geodesy
design is modular. At the back of the Geodesy you have some
round contacts. The Geodesy has been designed to be waterproof
so the Geodesy has to slide into a sheath (outer casing) which also
gives a good clean contact between the Geodesy contacts to allow it to
receive power or to update the Geodesy in the desktop cradle.
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The Geodesy can be
unclipped from this docking case that sits on the dashboard quite quickly and
easily. This allows you to secure the outer casing to the car dashboard
permanently or to a motorcycle and enable you to take the Geodesy with you
without having to untangle any wires.
The Geodesy
also comes fitted with some power clips and velcro strips to allow
for easy but secure mounting to a dashboard.
You'll see from the photo on the right, the rear of the Geodesy has
various round holes on the rear of the receiver. This is where
the contact plates are held, and you'll have some connectors in the
outer casing where these connect into these Geodesy connectors.
The power cable on the docking case isn't removable.
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Updating And Database Information
The Geodesy database contains free updates included for the first 12 months after
which the charge is £50 inc VAT a year. A Benelux database for
users who are travelling through Benelux countries is also available
for £58.74 inc VAT. The database is updated
at least once a week and covers England, Scotland and Wales with the following
data:
- Speed Cameras
- Common 'Hand Held' Camera Sites - UK
Updating the
Geodesy is fairly simple, all you need to do is plug it into the
desktop cradle, connect the supplied phone lead. One end plugs
into the back of this cradle and the other end into your phone socket,
plug the supplied AC adapter in and it will start connecting to
Morpheous and updating the database giving you visual indication from
the LED's to tell you if it's updating.
All of this
equipment comes standard with the Geodesy. The only issue I
found is that the manual states "phone line must be analogue no
connection is possible on digital or BT Highway lines". This
also includes ADSL. I tried this on 3 ADSL lines and each one
failed to connect, but
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connecting
the Geodesy to an analogue phone line succeeded. Unfortunately
there is no way to update the Geodesy across the internet like the
new big brother Road Pilot, so if you only have an ADSL line and not an
analogue phone line you will not be able to update the Geodesy!
Key
Features of the Geodesy
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adjustable
visual and audio warnings
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adjustable
warning range up to 1 mile
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suitable
for cars, bikes, vans and trucks
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shock,
vibration and weather resistant
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easy to
install (plug and play)
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easy to
use
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easy to
update with new locations around the country
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100%
accurate
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100%
satisfaction or your money back
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Summary
The Geodesy is small,
and non-intrusive when alerting you to Speed Cameras when driving under the
speed limit and is certainly worth the money it sells for. The Geodesy
feels and looks very robust, the only enhancement I would suggest is that it's
given a USB connection like the Road Pilot allowing you to update it over the
internet. Using a dial-up modem is for most is a thing of the past. |
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