Ought to You Purchase or Skip This Radar Detector & Sprint Digital camera Combo?
Professionals
Compact
IVT Filtering
Two-In-One Performance
Cons
GPS Lockouts
Detection Vary
Meddlesome Overspeed Alerts (iRadar App)
Affiliate Disclosure: As an Amazon Affiliate, Automoblog earns from qualifying purchases, together with the objects featured under. Cobra Electronics, an affiliate companion, equipped the Street Scout seen right here. Automoblog is a member of the Radar Detector and Countermeasures Forum to make sure fact and accountability when masking radar detectors.
Radar detector or a splash digicam? How about each built-in into one unit? That’s the concept behind the Cobra Street Scout, a two-in-one driving companion with a 1080p HD sprint digicam and a radar detector. With the radar detector portion of the Street Scout, you’ll be able to modify the sensitivity of the X and Okay bands, mute false alerts, and mark places like velocity traps and pink mild cameras. In the meantime, the sprint digicam affords a g-sensor and an emergency recording characteristic.
We just lately spent three weeks driving round metro Detroit with the Cobra Street Scout. Sadly, my general opinion of this two-in-one combo is blended at finest. Having a splash digicam and a radar detector in a single unit is a beautiful proposition, however so far as the Street Scout is anxious, it’s a wonderful concept with below-average execution. On this assessment, I’ll run by way of the Street Scout’s “spec sheet” and elaborate on my expertise with the unit a little bit additional.
Why Purchase a Radar Detector/Sprint Cam Combo?
Insurance coverage suppliers and cable corporations are at all times speaking about the advantages of “bundling” your providers. And in so many phrases, Cobra Electronics has finished the identical factor with the Street Scout. Choosing one thing just like the Street Scout has three predominant advantages.
Buy Worth
Relying on which radar detector and sprint digicam you might be contemplating, shopping for a “bundle” just like the Street Scout might prevent a little bit cash. As a substitute of shopping for two separate items, you buy one and hopefully keep away from spending further money. As of this writing, the Street Scout retails for $400 on Cobra’s website and thru Amazon for the same price.
Saves House
With a two-in-one combo just like the Cobra Street Scout, you don’t have to mount each a radar detector and a splash digicam to your windshield.
Don’t Have To Determine
Once I take my twice-yearly 900-mile drive from Michigan to South Dakota to go to household, I could make a case for mounting a splash digicam to my windshield. Likewise, I can even make a case for desirous to have the safety and options afforded by a high-quality radar detector. The Street Scout offers you two fascinating objects in a single package deal – a radar detector and a splash digicam – for a protracted journey like this.
Cobra Street Scout In-Depth: What It Presents
The Street Scout comes with a suction cup windshield mount (referred to as the “EZ Magazine Mount”), a 12-volt SmartCord USB energy wire (so you’ll be able to nonetheless cost your cellphone), and a 16GB SD card and micro USB cable for the sprint digicam. A useful journey case and a fast reference information are additionally included.
Set up is straightforward with the windshield mount and USB adaptor wire. As soon as the Street Scout has energy, each the radar detector and sprint digicam are lively. Regardless of having twin performance, the unit is surprisingly light-weight at simply eight ounces. The included mount simply secures the Street Scout to the windshield. It stayed put the whole time throughout my three-week drive.
The Street Scout is appropriate with Cobra’s iRadar app. With the app, you’ll be able to both report or obtain real-time alerts generated by a whole community of customers. iRadar alerts embody pink mild and velocity digicam places, velocity traps, air patrols, photo-enforced places, and different warning areas. Along with the iRadar app, the Street Scout can connect with an in-vehicle Wi-Fi hotspot for software program and database updates.
Radar Detector
The Cobra Street Scout will warn you to X, Okay, and Ka radar bands and laser (LiDAR) weapons from the entrance and the rear.
Sensitivity Modes
Urgent the SEN button will mean you can modify between three completely different sensitivity modes: Low, Excessive, and Auto. Throughout our three-week drive, we stayed in Auto more often than not, which is velocity adjusted. As described by Cobra within the proprietor’s handbook, at 50 mph and above, X and Okay bands default to the utmost vary whereas the Ka-band detection vary is at all times at its most, whatever the sensitivity setting. That’s probably as a result of Ka is the most typical band regulation enforcement makes use of right now.
Cobra’s actual verbiage right here could seem unusual utilizing the phrase vary, however we consider they imply sensitivity primarily based on their descriptions of different radar detectors of their product lineup.
In different phrases, the Low and Excessive settings on the Street Scout are much like Metropolis and Freeway on different radar detectors. Typically talking, you utilize Metropolis mode (extra filtering) to cut back the sensitivity of X and Okay bands to mitigate false alerts, whereas Freeway will increase the sensitivity (much less filtering) to every radar band to provide the most response time on the open street. Auto is the speed-dependant mode that mechanically switches between Metropolis and Freeway, or Low and Excessive within the Street Scout’s case.
Show Indicators
The sensitivity mode seems on the underside center portion of the Street Scout’s show. The colourful show has a number of essential “indicators” (as Cobra calls them). These indicators embody GPS, sign band and power, digicam and microphone, a scanning bar, and velocity alerts (when related to the iRadar app). You’ll be able to swap the frequency show characteristic on by way of the settings menu should you like. In that case, the GHz measurement will seem under the sign band and power indicator.
To entry the menu, maintain the SEN and BRT buttons concurrently. BRT is brief for brightness, of which there are a number of settings.
Detection Vary
One potential (if not important) downside is the Street Scout’s detection vary and response time. I obtained Ka alerts on two events solely to seek out the patrol automobiles practically on prime of us. The primary was a Michigan State Police automobile on M-10 by way of Southfield close to Telegraph Street and the 696 interchange. The Street Scout picked up the officer’s Ka band from the rear, however just a few automobile lengths again. The second alert was from a Wayne County Sheriff deputy on Telegraph Street (additionally a Ka band). It was an identical scenario: the deputy’s Chevy Tahoe was solely a brief distance away. In each cases, the Cobra Street Scout got here late to the get together.
It’s doable each officers have been doing what is named “instant-on” radar, a well-liked tactic regulation enforcement makes use of to beat radar detectors. Nonetheless, we’ve pushed these areas right here in Detroit many occasions earlier than, particularly whereas evaluating and reviewing radar detectors. Extra just lately, we drove the identical areas with our Escort MAXcam 360c, one other two-in-one radar detector and sprint digicam combo. Against this, the MAXcam alerted a lot sooner and with a higher detection vary.
Sadly, the Street Scout leaves lots on the desk concerning long-range detection. We surmise that is partly due to the worth vary of the Street Scout ($400) versus one thing just like the MAXcam, which is double the worth.
False Alert & IVT Filtering
Though detection vary is a matter, the Cobra Street Scout makes up for it by providing a stable false alert filtering system. The IVT Filter (or in-vehicle expertise filter) prevents any potential false alerts that could possibly be triggered by the superior security options on different autos round you. This consists of radar-sensor-dependant methods like adaptive cruise management and blind-spot monitoring. Even in heavy Detroit site visitors, the IVT filter works flawlessly.
Most spectacular was how the Street Scout is impervious to malls, buying plazas, grocery shops, and different related mounted location false alerts. When you obtain a false alert, you’ll be able to silence it by way of the MUTE button on both the USB energy wire or the unit itself.
GPS Lockouts
This characteristic by no means completely labored for me, and it turned some of the irritating issues concerning the Cobra Street Scout throughout my three-week drive round Detroit.
Within the proprietor’s handbook, below the “GPS Filter” part on web page 11, Cobra says the characteristic allows you to retailer mounted location false alerts to the Street Scout’s reminiscence. To retailer a false alert location, press MUTE thrice throughout stated alert, both on the unit itself or the USB energy wire. If you’re related to the iRadar app, you may also lock out these false alerts by way of your smartphone. Subsequent alerts to this sign will likely be muted and displayed in grey.
As of late, I’ve been making a day by day journey to the Grosse Pointe space of Detroit. On my manner, I encounter a pocket of ongoing street building on I-94 with digital velocity restrict warning signage (the Street Scout flags it as a Okay band alert). Irrespective of what number of occasions I lock that false alert out, it by no means works. I’ve hit the MUTE button (thrice, because the proprietor’s handbook says) on the USB wire and the unit itself. I additionally tried locking it out with my cellphone by way of the iRadar app. No luck.
The false alert turned grey, simply as Cobra says within the proprietor’s handbook. Nonetheless, once I drove by way of the street building zone once more, the Street Scout alerts as common as if nothing modified. For no matter purpose, the lockouts don’t stick.
Based mostly on my expertise, the Cobra Street Scout struggles with digital signage. The gallery under consists of three images of the John C. Lodge Service Drive in Detroit, a one-way avenue that runs north and south above the faster-moving M-10. The primary photograph is an aerial shot from Google Maps, with the pink arrows representing the place two completely different digital velocity restrict indicators are positioned (roughly). The opposite two images, additionally from Google Maps, present the indicators up shut.
- The show turns grey when locking out a false alert. Nonetheless, I’ve but to get the lockouts to stay. A couple of days later, the Cobra Street Scout would challenge an alert in its customary blue when driving by way of the identical space with the identical digital signage. It’s prefer it “forgets” manually imputed lockouts.
On this explicit space, you’ll be able to flip a perpetual circle on John C. Lodge should you drive as much as Forest Avenue, then again all the way down to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. By doing so, you’ll encounter each the digital velocity restrict indicators within the photograph gallery above.
I misplaced rely of what number of loops I did attempting to get the Cobra Street Scout to lock out each of those indicators. I consider it took about 4 or 5 passes to get the northbound signal to lockout and practically 10 to lastly lock out the southbound signal. Every time, the alert would flip grey as I locked it out. Nonetheless, it could return on the subsequent cross, lighting up in blue as if nothing occurred.
Ultimately, I used to be capable of lock out each of the digital indicators within the gallery above. For added context, I made the loop I’m speaking about on a Friday afternoon. I waited till Monday to drive the world once more to see if the lockouts caught. To my shock and disappointment, the Cobra Street Scout alerted me to each indicators, regardless of my locking them out the earlier Friday.
SD Card
The Cobra Street Scout comes with a 16GB SD card to retailer footage as you drive. By way of the settings menu, you’ll be able to change the size of the recording loop between one, three, or 5 minutes (three is the default). Transferring video information from the Street Scout to your laptop computer is straightforward with the micro USB wire.
G-Sensor
The sprint digicam portion of the Cobra Street Scout features a g-sensor with three completely different sensitivity ranges (degree two is the default setting). Throughout an accident, the Street Scout makes use of the g-sensor to lock and retailer the recording mechanically. Holding the MARK button additionally initiates an Emergency Recording Mode.
App Connectivity
With the Drive HD app, you’ll be able to see what you might be recording in actual time in your cellphone. When you additionally need to use the iRadar app, you’ll be able to swap backwards and forwards between that and the Drive HD app. On the Street Scout, maintain BRT till both “CAMERA” or “iRADAR” seems. Nonetheless, it’s not essential to obtain the Drive HD app. Though you gained’t see it in real-time, the Cobra Street Scout continues to be recording to the SD card so long as the unit is on.
Date/Time Stamp & Watermark
Because the Street Scout information, it would embody a date and time stamp together with a Cobra emblem watermark. You’ll be able to take away them by way of the settings menu.
Radar Band/Alert Integration
The sprint digicam portion of the Cobra Street Scout is really separate from the radar detector, which means it doesn’t file or log any alerts to the SD card. Admittedly, I wish to see this performance on a future model of the Street Scout. It might be good to have the choice to show a characteristic like this on by way of the settings menu. It might be neat to see the radar band, frequency, and sign power displayed close to the date and time stamp on the video recording.
Ought to You Purchase The Cobra Street Scout?
That is the place my opinion and viewpoint on the Cobra Street Scout is blended. Based mostly on my expertise, my reply is between “probably, possibly” and a tough no. I don’t have a heavy proper foot, so the Street Scout’s detection vary, brief although it might be, might be sufficient for me. And I like how the sprint digicam is built-in into the unit for the two-in-one performance. Nonetheless, I’ve issue getting previous the dismal GPS lockout functionality of the Cobra Street Scout.
On the finish of my three-week drive, I consider the sprint digicam is greater than passable. Nonetheless, I’m not bought on the radar detector portion of the Cobra Street Scout. For a retail worth of practically $400, the restricted detection vary and lackluster GPS lockout efficiency go away me scratching my head. That’s some huge cash for a radar detector that doesn’t minimize the mustard.
When you don’t want a splash digicam, then look elsewhere for a radar detector. Based mostly on my expertise, I’d not rely solely on the Street Scout for radar detection responsibility. Different items available on the market do a greater job, and your cash is finest spent there. Having the sprint digicam is sweet, however not on the expense of a reliable radar detector. The Uniden R4 and Radenso DS1 are glorious choices inside the Street Scout’s worth vary, with higher detection vary and reliability.
Nonetheless, there are redeeming qualities to the Cobra Street Scout, particularly with its compact and light-weight, two-in-one design. If you’re bought on the Street Scout, you’ll be able to seize it on Cobra’s official website for $400 or through Amazon for a similar worth.
Carl Anthony is the Managing Editor of Automoblog and the host of AutoVision Information Radio and AutoSens Insights. He’s a Midwest Automotive Media Affiliation member and on the board of administrators for the Ally Jolie Baldwin Basis. Like many Detroiters, Carl is holding out for a Lions Tremendous Bowl win.
