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"The UK SpeedTrap Guide"2008 - All you want to know..... |
| Defensive Equipment Tests. This Page covers equipment that I have been sent and with the help of a few friends (inc. Police) we put under test, and we will give you our views on the products, not the salesman's views. Not all manufactures of equipment want us to test their equipment, wonder why...? So all not all the equipment on the market may be tested. If you have any equipment you have bought and you want to send us your views on how well it works or doesn't for that, let us know. Send your review or comments  All Contents are ©Copyright 2005 Steve Warren. Tests may not be republished without permission. All rights reserved |
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Cobra ESD-6700 Radar/Laser Detector.
This is "not a bad little unit for the price", or so we thought LED Text display, clear sounds and
a nice female talking voice for added benefit. It's performance
however was bad, very bad. Options for mounting are Velcro and Window suckers, the mounting bracket for the window suckers is not very good and it does obstruct the laser window at some angles. Power cable was more than long enough and the instructions were not bad. You can not switch off any of the bands on this unit. So again as the Snooper we expected loads of X band alarms, (Not used any more in the UK) You get a Mute Button, City Button, Dim Button. The volume on the unit is loud enough and the build is very good. Alarms come in a form of Text, voice and chirps. With a clear signal strength meter. Power up goes through a test run sounding off all the alarms and at the same time the appropriate text for each alarm. As you approach a Gatso you get the female voice saying "Warning K Alert" then the text and chirps take over with the field strength meter showing the strength of the signal.
 K Alarm. So what tests did we do? The most important one is the Gatso Test. We have a section of road that we use for all Gatso tests, it has one of the lowest radar scatter fields making it more of a challenge to Radar Detectors it also allows us to do the national speed limit if we want to. All the Radar detectors are tested in the same vehicles and in the same position on the windscreen. The ESD 6700 was subjected to three passes using a stopwatch to time the unit from the first beep to the point of passing the Gatso to establish an average warning time . Speed was 60mph. Please note warning times can vary subject to conditions. Times for the Gatso Test. Roadside FIP
Times for the Gatso Test. M25
Gantry Gatso.
Important Note: The Gatso
Used was a solo Gantry Gatso on the M25 Motorway. Speed was 80mph
Laser Gun Test. The Laser gun was used in two ways, the first test was directly at the car with the detector in it, although the detector worked and was instant on alarm, if the officer used the first reading you were in trouble. However they often take a few readings so you may have a chance to slow. The second test was to have two cars in front and the operator target the first car and see if there was enough scatter for the third car to get an alarm, it was a bit of a problem for the Cobra we had one alarm in three runs. In our opinion you could get a warning or you could get nicked when it come to the Laser alert mode. False Alarm Test.
This is done over a six mile selection of roads taking in two Gatso's and a town centre with Banks, Supermarkets and DIY stores. We had five alarms on the K band, the Gatso alarms were all to late and five on the X band. The amount of false alarms is important, if it spends all its life beeping at you, you will soon start to ignore it. Can we recommend it, No.Its a total waste of money for
the UK market, Gatso coverage is what you need and this unit gave
no warnings that could save you.
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