Blackspot Road Angel
 

I thought initially that I'd been really unlucky with my Road Angel Compact :thumbdn: but 12 months down the line it can't just be bad luck !! Can it???? :confused:

Twelve months ago I decided to get myself some protection from the ever growing number of speed cameras. I'd read good things about Road Angel and so decided to invest in a Road Angel Compact. ;)

When it arrived took it out of the box, installed it in the car (Jeep Cherokee at that point in time) and away I went. Only problem was for 80% of the time it kept dropping its signal. I contacted Blackspot who said with a Jeep I shouldn't need an external ariel and promptly sent me another unit. :thumbup:

With the second one I had the same issues but also the unit kept locking up and would only unfreeze if I unplugged the supply and re-connected it. I contacted Blackspot who said they would send out another unit but this time a member of staff would trial it first for a few days before it was despatched.

I'm generally not a patient man but for some reason I went along with this idea and awaited my pre-tested Road Angel Compact which turned up a week later along with an external ariel. (At this point I now owned my S) I plugged it in and away I went. The unit worked well for approx 3 months. I must just point out that during this 3 months the Laser Detector which is an add on unit which I purchased seperately also started triggering everytime the sun shone on it so this also had to be replaced. Then suddenly one day the screen flashed Red and the unit died.

Back on to Blackspot who promptly sent out another unit which lasted approx 2 months and then would only give 5 red flashes on the screen and shut down. This time Blackspot new what the issue was and instructed me to download the new version of software for the unit, which I did, which corrected the fault for 4/5 days and then the 5 red flashes would appear on the screen until the unit was rebooted again by the new software. :mad:

:banghead: ENOUGH ENOUGH I shouted down the telephone to the Blackspot Technician. I demanded a refund as I had lost all faith in Blackspot and the Road Angel Compact.
At this point I was then offered a free upgrade to the New Road Angel Plus. "What could go wrong" I thought :) and promptly sent back the Compact and Laser Detector in exchange for the newer more expensive model.

I had the Road Angel plus for approx 6/7 weeks and was initially impressed. But then the unit started turning itself off whilst I was driving, which Blackspot sent me a software upgrade to sort it out. Then the screen would partially disappear whilst I was driving and then the unit started locking up whilst I was to trying to download the updates.

Finally I called it a day and demanded a refund which I have now got for the value of the Compact. Blackspot will not give me a refund for the Laser Detector though as they cannot find record of the purchase. When I explained that I sent Laser Detector back to them with the Compact they promptly sent me a new plug in Laser detector back in the post which as you can imagine has come in really useful. :(

I have now purchased the TomTom One :thumbup: which i am well impressed with. The camera coverage is not quite as detailed as Blackspot, but I now have Sat Nav and the unit is still working !! BONUS !! :woot:


Maybe your more than happy with your Road Angel ?

Is it just me or has anyone else been this lucky?

Andy

I've got the Road Angel 2 (now for sale!) and have found it to be excellent. All the laser gubbins is built in, and works pretty well.

IIRC The Compact is a much cheaper unit than the standard

The Road Angel is the best on the market when it works.

However when it doesn't you might as well have a steaming turd on your dash !!

I have had the original road angel and now the navigator, the story has been the same with both. If only they could get the reliability issue sorted out then I think they would certainly make a few of the others buck their ideas up.

Yes I have tried several different units in friends cars and I have to say I am not impressed by what you get and have also heard of reliability issues across other ranges.

30 Minutes to get a GPS fix on a tom tom in a Porsche Boxster springs to mind.

I've had an Origin B2 for 3 years now and its very reliable in use for static cameras.

Only problem is with the laser detector, it's an add on and just doesn't work ( a few points on my license) . I've heard the laser detectors are going to be made illegal soon, I'm also told that if it goes off it's too late anyway as they have caught you, can anyone clarify whether that is the case?

I also have a B2 and find it really good. My understanding is that as the laser is targetted at your car, by the time the detector goes off, you have already been caught. The only way that it could warn you is if it picks up a deflection from a car in front - which doesn't really happen.

I suppose at least you know you need to set aside

The guy I was chatting to when I had my B2 fitted was telling me that on normal A-road yes once a laser speed gun has got you you're too late.

If it's on an overhead motorway gantry though you can probably pick up side lobe and reflections out at about a mile and at that range the beam the camera is using is about the size of a Hummer. The operator won't be able to distinguish what they're getting a reading off so you do have a chance to cut your speed

Thanks for clearing that up, at least I know now!

As I'm just running a loaner since selling the S, I haven't been able to refit my Origin b2 Solo. Someone else on the board was interested in it, but as he's not come back to me, I'll be officially putting it up for sale shortly.

Excellent unit that I had hardwired into the car. The Origin also doesn't suffer from the directional issues evident in the TomTom.

Here are some pics. I mounted mine to the right on top of the dash ...

http://www.diccaldwell.co.uk/sale/origin2.JPG

http://www.diccaldwell.co.uk/sale/Image039.jpg

http://www.diccaldwell.co.uk/sale/Image041.jpghttp://www.diccaldwell.co.uk/sale/Image042.jpg

My Spooper S6 now takes soo long to find its friends in the sky, it's NFU on some journeys.

Conversely, TTG is really good. Except for its occasional tendency to freak out when you most need it.

I've come to the conclusion that all this technology is underdeveloped, poorly made crap designed to separate the gullible from their dough.

Like, 747s crash a lot because their GPS locks up or the bluetooth drops out. Not.

No issues at all with my Road Angel Classic (apart from the grippy thing that's supposed to hold it to the dash cradle isn't grippy any more!).

Occasionally, it takes a while to lock up to the satellites, and once or twice (in 2 years) I've had to do a "hard reset" (pull the power and reconnect). But otherwise....OK (touches nearest piece of wood :) )

Sounds like you've been realy unlucky with yours. As Neil said (and I've also heard elsewhere), the build quality of the Compact is inferior to the Classic and it sounds like there are a few more bugs in the software.

R.