Yo yo yo - RCE...
You bought that Tom-Tom GPS system right?What's your personal opinion? |
Shortwave
Mar 11
2006
|
| It's more a case of the radar detector rather than impaired vision. I
actually beat a ticket on having a radar detector because my truck has
HF and VHF transceivers and it was one of the reasons Connecticut
dropped their no radar detector law. :>) Simple fact - there is no, and I'll say this again, no - prohibition
to the reception of public radio signals of any kind any where. You
have every right to receive a signal broadcast by a public agency as a
citizen. The fact that it's a radar signal for law enforcement is beside the
point - you have a right to receive it. |
Shortwave
Mar 13
|
| LOL. That's certainly an interesting interpretation of an FCC law.
Your right .... you have every right to receive the radar signal and bounce
it back.
And you also have the right to remain silent, and have a court appointed
attorney to represent you when you refuse to pay the fine. RCE |
RCE
Mar 13
|
| It's not only interesting - it's true. And the main reason that CT's
law concerning radar detectors was thrown out of court - and why they
were one of the first state to adopt lasers instead of radar. :>) I think the only state left in VA and they are just being stubborn
about it. >And you also have the right to remain silent, and have a court appointed
>attorney to represent you when you refuse to pay the fine. Also true, but I represented myself in front of a magistrate who
refused to take that view. So I elevated it to the next level,
produced my FCC license and my Extra class Amateur license (this was
back when there actually was a First Class FCC license instead of this
General crap), produced the law and the judge threw the case out. I believe this was also the subject of a Supreme Court case which made
the same determination, but I can't find the reference.
Minor issue anyway. Anybody with a reasonable knowledge of how radar
works can beat a ticket if it's radar - laser is another who story. |
Shortwave
Mar 13
|
| Yeah. I've been doing some reading on a system called the "Blinder".
You have two high powered LEDs mounted on the front and two on the rear of
the car along with two laser detectors. When a laser is detected, the LEDs fire and the laser gun's reading goes to
garble. But, I was thinking. Some of the new cars have a laser based system, at
least I think it is laser based, that detects how closely you are following
behind a car with the cruise control on and will slow the car if you get too
close. I am wondering if the Blinder would screw that system up. Could lead to
some interesting situations on the highway. RCE |
RCE
Mar 13
|
| I have the Garmin c330 and it has worked very well. I looked at the Tom
Tom briefly but went with the Garmin since I have owned three of them
for boating and one that resides on the little woman's bicycle. That update is interesting. These all use government GPS satellites so
there must have been another way for that info to get into the machine. Dan |
Dan
Mar 13
|
| That should be interesting since there are so many people adding GPS and
satellite radio receivers to their car's windshields. I guess my state
is not one of them since they sell windshield mounted transceivers for
the toll system. Dan |
Dan
Mar 13
|
| I don't know how it worked. I am quite sure that the first time I tried to
program the address it simply did not have it in the data. I tried several
times. Yet, on this recent trip, I tried again before I left MA and it had
the name of the road and address. It offers weather, traffic conditions and will re-route you around heavy
traffic congestion, but I think you have to have your cell phone connected
to it via bluetooth for these real-time services. The data comes from the
Internet. I haven't used any of this stuff. I almost bought the Garmin because it's a good product with excellent
customer service. They were out of the model I wanted, so I decided to try
the TomTom. So far, I like it. RCE |
RCE
Mar 12
|
| Now that you mentioned it, they do here also. To be honest, I don't know
of anyone who has been ticketed for "impaired vision". I only mentioned
it, as I was pulled over this week. The cop saw my radar detector
attached to the windshield and said doing so was illegal. He also
mentioned anything hanging from a rear-view mirror was also illegal.
"Impaired Vision", he called it. Hell, who knew? Thankfully, he didn't
write any tickets. |
thunder
Mar 12
|
| Cops never complain about my eye patch. Arrrrgghh. RCE |
RCE
Mar 12
|
| Selective enforcement is my guess. A radar detector works against them. Dan |
Dan
Mar 13
|
| Did you mount it to your windshield? Is it removable and remountable in
another auto?
--
'Til next time, John H ***** Have a Spectacular Day! *****
|
JohnH
Mar 12
|
| Just to make you aware, in some states, mounting anything to your
windshield, or your rear-view mirror, is a ticket, impairing driver's
vision, or some such nonsense. |
thunder
Mar 12
|
| The thing comes with a windshield mount, which is why I was asking. After
going back to the site I see its a suction cup mount which would indicate
its removable.
--
'Til next time, John H ***** Have a Spectacular Day! *****
|
JohnH
Mar 12
|
| Yes, and yes. RCE |
RCE
Mar 12
|
| Thanks and thanks.
--
'Til next time, John H ***** Have a Spectacular Day! *****
|
JohnH
Mar 12
|
| I like it. Easy to use and very intuitive once you learn the basics.
I use the cheapie - TomTom 300 (I think) with the SD memory card. I just bought Mrs.E. the TomTom 700 with the mini hard disk drive. She
loves it. It's a great little GPS - probably similar to the similarly priced Garmin,
but the TomTom has a bit of a sense of humor to it. You can program things
like fuel stations within a programmable distance and assign it a sound. I
use a cow, going MOOOOOO..... I used it to travel to Norfolk last week. It walked me right up to the
front door of my kid's house on a government housing development. Has a few quirks, but nothing that common sense does not correct. RCE |
RCE
Mar 11
|
| What's the start up time? And when it looses lock, how long does it
take to reacquire the signals? |
Shortwave
Mar 11
|
| Start up is basically instantaneous. It has a built in battery and I just
leave it plugged into the power outlet of my truck all the time to keep it
charged. I shut it off, but it's still "on". It usually takes about 30
seconds or less to get six or seven sat locks when you turn it on. When
going thru a tunnel with no sat signal, it will keep running for 30 seconds,
then turn black and white, meaning no signal. When you emerge from the
tunnel it locks on again within about 5 seconds. It's also a touch screen, BTW. I like it because it really doesn't distract
from driving to play around with it. Also, it's totally portable, so you
can move it from vehicle to vehicle with little fuss. When I park at a
shopping center or whatever, you push a little button and the whole rig
unplugs from the base and you can store it in the glove compartment or
whatever. It has many features of higher priced terra firma GPS systems,
including restaurant listings, etc. It also has a daytime and nighttime
display that is kinda nice. Good unit, and fun to use. RCE |
RCE
Mar 11
|
|
Forgot to mention .... It also has several "voices" for driving instructions
ranging from male US english, female US english, UK english, male and
female, plus Australian, Japanese, and several others. I have mine programmed to give me driving instructions in female Italian.
Feels right at home. RCE |
RCE
Mar 11
|
| You mean it doesn't do Urdu? Damn - sounds like I'll have to keep looking. :>) >I have mine programmed to give me driving instructions in female Italian.
>Feels right at home. Hmmmmmm - Oh - wait - got 'cha on that one. :>) |
Shortwave
Mar 11
|
| How do they handle updates? Free or by subscription? Dan |
Dan
Mar 12
|
| I think .... they are free for a year, but don't hold me to that. You get a
card - like a credit card - and the GPS somehow will connect to your cell
phone (bluetooth?). There are other travel services you can subscribe to.
I haven't used any of this yet and probably never will. It's interesting
though - when I first bought it back in November, I tried entering my son's
address in Norfolk and it didn't have the street name in the stored memory.
I assumed this was because it is a military housing area. Yet, when I drove
to his house from Florida that month, it showed the road on the display.
Last week when I drove down there again I tried putting his address in as a
destination before I left and it recognized it and calculated a route right
to his front door. How it updated the data, I have no idea. Those that are looking for a heavy duty sophisticated GPS system won't be
satisfied with the TomTom. It's beauty is it's simplicity and ease of use.
You can set it for a "3D" display or a "2D" and display the map in several
orientations.... North up, direction of travel, etc. RCE |
RCE
Mar 12
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