Infrared lights and GoSafe vans

ldxo15wus6fpgm

This might seem a little hair brained!

Passed a GoSafe van the other night around 3am, I'll admit I was speeding by a little bit, it was a wide, dry, empty road in the early hours, and I came around a bend and saw the van and slammed on the brakes. To be honest I'm bloody sick of the things. They are constantly sitting in hard to see places, and places that are easy to catch people out rather than places where their positioning might reduce accidents. Too many times the guy in front of me has hit the brakes hard without warning because he's seen one of these vans and I get a bloody heart attack and come close to rear ending them.

I've no idea if the van got me, as they don't flash because they blast your car with infrared light which is invisible to the human eye. For a second I wondered whether my headlights (which were pointing directly at the van for a little while) might have saved my ass by blinding the camera but then I remembered the infrared light they use, and that got me thinking.

Would installing a few IR bulbs around my number plate blind the GoSafe vans? A quick google makes me think they might but I'm not sure. Pretty sure they'd do nothing for gatso vans which use a standard flash. I'm assuming hairspray on your reg plates is illegal here!

Does anyone know if installing IR bulbs near my reg would break any laws?

I'm not considering radar detectors because they are illegal and carry a fairly severe penalty if I remember right. Also some of these can be caught by detector detectors! :pac:

endacl

Surely if you go easy on the long pedal you can save yourself the trouble of wondering about the infrared doohickery? High Ho Horsey!!



AFAIK any modifications that interfere with speed detection is illegal.

MugMugs

Kelsey Spicy Peach wrote: »

Does anyone know if installing IR bulbs near my reg would break any laws?

There are specific laws relevant to additions made to vehicles.

Furthermore, by putting them there with the intent of attempting to avoid detection, you're advocating breaking the law.

Long and the short of it, we all speed. We just don't all get caught

tfitzgerald

Anyone know more about this hairspray ?

R.O.R

tfitzgerald wrote: »

Anyone know more about this hairspray ?

CD from the mirror is a better bet.

ironclaw

Kelsey Spicy Peach wrote: »

This might seem a little hair brained!

Passed a GoSafe van the other night around 3am, I'll admit I was speeding by a little bit, it was a wide, dry, empty road in the early hours, and I came around a bend and saw the van and slammed on the brakes. To be honest I'm bloody sick of the things. They are constantly sitting in hard to see places, and places that are easy to catch people out rather than places where their positioning might reduce accidents. Too many times the guy in front of me has hit the brakes hard without warning because he's seen one of these vans and I get a bloody heart attack and come close to rear ending them.

I've no idea if the van got me, as they don't flash because they blast your car with infrared light which is invisible to the human eye. For a second I wondered whether my headlights (which were pointing directly at the van for a little while) might have saved my ass by blinding the camera but then I remembered the infrared light they use, and that got me thinking.

Would installing a few IR bulbs around my number plate blind the GoSafe vans? A quick google makes me think they might but I'm not sure. Pretty sure they'd do nothing for gatso vans which use a standard flash. I'm assuming hairspray on your reg plates is illegal here!

Does anyone know if installing IR bulbs near my reg would break any laws?

I'm not considering radar detectors because they are illegal and carry a fairly severe penalty if I remember right. Also some of these can be caught by detector detectors! :pac:

Sorry to burst the bubble but two things:

1) Headlights won't blind a GoSafe van. Its ability to adjust to changing light conditions is ridiculous and far superior to any standard CCTV system. There is a YouTube video of the system somewhere, I'll try find it. You could even go from complete darkness to full heads, at speed, and it would have time to adjust and snap.

2) IR Modification will not work. That I can assure you. Its all to do with the overall reflectivity of the plate i.e. The illumination of the white on the contrast of the black letters will be visible and 'wash out' any IR you are sending back. And you would need to send back Watts of IR power. Most standard IR LED's are Milli-Watts, and its just not enough to do what you want it to do. And even if you did send back enough IR, the camera is not standard i.e. Its sensitive to a larger spectrum of the light spectrum that a standard camera, so with a little manipulation, you can read the plate. You would also need to modify the actual plate on the car, as merely surrounding the plate will not be enough. And that would be illegal.

Also a whole host of problems with high power IR LED's, including heat dissipation and current.

Its also illegal to attempt to circumvent the law i.e. The only reason you would want this on your number plate would be to prevent a speed camera / toll camera reading your plate. And that is illegal.

There are plenty of projects on the net and you can buy these covers for your plate, but I assure you, they do not work. And you can view my other comments on the speed camera threads that I'm not a GoSafe employee etc. I'm just trying to save you the time and effort.

e.g. http://blog.workingsi.com/2011/06/improved-high-power-ir-led-speedred.html

I've been fortunate enough to driven across most of the western worlds enforcement zones and speak to the people that build these things, so I'll leave it up to you to take my word on it.

yop

tfitzgerald wrote: »

Anyone know more about this hairspray ?

Its a spray for your hair :cool:

Truckermal

yop wrote: »

Its a spray for your hair :cool:

What would happen if you sprayed number plate spray on your hair????:pac::pac:

yop

Truckermal wrote: »

What would happen if you sprayed number plate spray on your hair????:pac::pac:

You'd think your German....

biko

Please don't use this forum to discuss how to be able to speed and intercept detection.