Valentine 1 UK

[ricedout]

Do they actually work in the UK. I've heard that when it comes to fixed gatso speed cameras they can tell is they're switched on or not. Also if the price justified?
http://www.valentine1europe.com/?gclid=CO2P2raq97w...

Edited by ricedout on Monday 3rd March 21:44

[carl_w]

For that price I'd expect it to be angled towards the driver in a RHD car.

Seriously, didn't all the radar detectors fall out of favour in the UK about 10 years ago? I sold mine (Bel 980 I think) for £50. Since then I've relied on GPS for Gatsos (via the excellent pocketgpsworld.co.uk database) and take your chances with the mobile units. Even if a Gatso's not active it's no harm to slow down for a couple of seconds.

[Fas1975]

I've had a valentine 1 since 2002 and have it hardwired into the car. It picks up 5 bands and you can adjust the level of sensitivity. It tells you if the camera is active or not as it detects if the camera is emitting a signal. For fixed gatso's in my local area it's great as they switch them on and off in approx 5 week rotations.

Not sure about the LHD / RHD comment, mine was from the US and it includes front and rear sensors. Placement is in the top right hand side of the windscreen of an e46 BMW convertible and it picks up the signals just fine. I think it's a great piece of kit

Having said all of that, I do double up with my iphone running Waze which covers mobile speed check points and just an added safety net, but I do rely on the V1 more, especially in areas I am unfamiliar with.

[ricedout]

Fas1975 said:

I've had a valentine 1 since 2002 and have it hardwired into the car. It picks up 5 bands and you can adjust the level of sensitivity. It tells you if the camera is active or not as it detects if the camera is emitting a signal. For fixed gatso's in my local area it's great as they switch them on and off in approx 5 week rotations.

Not sure about the LHD / RHD comment, mine was from the US and it includes front and rear sensors. Placement is in the top right hand side of the windscreen of an e46 BMW convertible and it picks up the signals just fine. I think it's a great piece of kit

Having said all of that, I do double up with my iphone running Waze which covers mobile speed check points and just an added safety net, but I do rely on the V1 more, especially in areas I am unfamiliar with.

Do you mind telling me how you've got it set up. For example did you switch on Euro mode

[Fas1975]

ricedout said:

Do you mind telling me how you've got it set up. For example did you switch on Euro mode

There is no Euro mode on my one. And to be honest, looking at the website, it's marketing, it looks identical to the one I have dated 2002. Regardless of euro mode or not, it's picked up all of the cameras I've ever seen, bar truvelo. That's a key one. This (and any other non GPS systems don't pickup truvelo).

[ricedout]

Fas1975 said:

There is no Euro mode on my one. And to be honest, looking at the website, it's marketing, it looks identical to the one I have dated 2002. Regardless of euro mode or not, it's picked up all of the cameras I've ever seen, bar truvelo. That's a key one. This (and any other non GPS systems don't pickup truvelo).

Cheers!

[r11co]

Fas1975 said:

There is no Euro mode on my one.

There is no Euro mode on this one either (although you have to scroll to the bottom of the web-page to find the 'reveal'). A bit disingenuous methinks.

The V1 is pretty old technology (despite updates) and is not the beat-all-comers that it once was. Having said that, radar detectors in general haven't moved on in great leaps and bounds and if you follow the market it is pretty clear that a lot of the features that get hyped on various models to try and differentiate them from the competition are pretty much useless.

For UK use a sensitive K band receiver and the ability to turn other bands off to minimize false alarms is all you need.

I used to have a BEL 550 Euro which was just a BEL 990i with added presets to enable and disable bands according to which country you were in rather than having to select/deselect the bands individually, plus the Americanisations in the menus were replaced with proper English (Motorway rather than Highway for example). The 990i was generally regarded as the first model that could take on and beat the V1 in terms of range. Mine could tell you if a GATSO was active from up to 1/2mile away on open roads. I've owned other detectors and none came anywhere close to this.

Trouble with the BELs is that they go out of calibration after several years and once out of warranty the dealers would not recalibrate them (effectively built in obsolescence). When mine eventually went screwy this put me off buying another.

[petrolhead2014]

Does anyone know how to turn off radar detection in V1 and use it for laser only? I get way too many false alarms on mine which makes me turn it off most of the time as a result

[RowntreesCabana]

Once the lasers got you it's too late anyway. I think such devices these days are better used as doorstops.

[Maccles]

Holy thread resurrection!

I used a V1 years ago when I was on 9 points. It would often pick up laser scattered from up ahead, so I'd know to check my speed before I got within range of the piggy on the bridge. So not completely useless for laser, and was very good at warning me of upcoming speed cameras. And myriad other radar sources such as petrol station automatic doors, etc. I bet there's radar controlled cruise control that would set it off too nowadays.

I expect there's still some value in running a V1, although I drive like a grown up these days so I don't need one myself - I sold my V1 on many moons ago.

[ninjag]

Maccles said:

Holy thread resurrection!

I used a V1 years ago when I was on 9 points. It would often pick up laser scattered from up ahead, so I'd know to check my speed before I got within range of the piggy on the bridge. So not completely useless for laser, and was very good at warning me of upcoming speed cameras. And myriad other radar sources such as petrol station automatic doors, etc. I bet there's radar controlled cruise control that would set it off too nowadays.

I expect there's still some value in running a V1, although I drive like a grown up these days so I don't need one myself - I sold my V1 on many moons ago.

Surprised about the laser part as I was always lead to believe that it was only radar which scattered about whereas laser would be pretty tight due to it only firing when the trigger/button activated on the device - and as already said by the time you've detected the laser it's too late? Maybe the operator was trigger happy or firing it all over the place lol

Good point about the radar cruise control. Probably also applies for these pedestrian collision avoidance systems also.