Morpheous Geodesy

On opening the box things are fairly straight forward. 2 cradles - one for permanent wiring in and another with a cigarette lighter power lead. The Geodesy unit itself is small with the modem unit dominating the package. Plug the modem into the supplied PSU and phone socket - even a socket doubler is included which is just one example of the lengths Morpheous have gone to in providing a complete package. The Geodesy will dialup and logon even taking into account whether you need to dial 9 for an outside line The latest locations dowload in about a minute.

Putting the Geodesy in the car, it needs to be positioned with a windscreen view for the satellites. The first time it's plugged in it takes 30mins or so to pick up satellites but after that it gets quicker ie. <30secs. The operation is very simple - plug it in the dash mounted cradle and that's it.

The way the Geodesy works is different to any other device on the market hence the price of £380. It uses GPS satellites to locate your position and then compares that to a database of known fixed speedcamera locations. If you find a new one that isn't on the system, by holding down the single button this will then be confirmed and then added to the database. If it is confirmed you recieve a reward. This incentive means new ones are added quickly and provided regular downloads are made you are always up to date.

The performance of the Geodesy is very good. Taking it through a few hot spots it gives plenty of warning. A little too much - with the lights counting up as a camera on a road running parallel is approached (the standard range is 1 mile). The range can be adjusted with a simple phone call to the Morpheous guys, from 200 yards all the way to 5 miles. Other features can be adjusted but require a phone call - the LED brightness and the sound level. What can be un-nerving is the satellites can be lost, just for a couple of seconds so it wont make any difference, but the blue glow of the LED showing a satellite link becomes so soothing.

On the approach of a camera the blue light goes out and the lights count up in 10 stages and with beeping (which can be stopped). After passing, the lights count back down in green. If a SPECS camera is encountered all the red lights will stay lit for the mile the camera is watching you for.

The pro of the system is that not only can it be updated regularly (after the first year a subscription of £30 per annum is incurred) it is also legal owing to its GPS technology rather than actually detecting any cameras. This is where on of the pitfalls arises. The roadside traps that the police setup are not detected so for total big brother protection you would need a secondary detector unit such as the Valentine One.

Overall this unit is very good at what it does. It is not a licence to speed either, just a reassuring hand to know when big brother is watching.

http://www.morpheous.co.uk

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