Camera detectors are not niche products designed for speeders or red light runners. Sure, they will help you avoid a ticket but they are also every-day road safety systems for all responsible drivers that help to improve situational awareness.

Nobody can fully concentrate for 100% of the time. All of us have occasional lapses which could easily result in an accident or a fine and licence endorsements. Collisions, fines or penalty points can all result in increased car insurance premiums to say nothing of the implications for personal safety.

80% of auto accidents involve driver distraction. (Virginia Tech Study, 2006) When speed cameras are placed in accident blackpots, using a camera detector makes sure that you are not distracted at a vital time, i.e. when you're driving along that stretch of road that has a bad history of accidents. Camera detectors remind you to be paying attention when you need it most.

Almost 60% of red-light running in the USA is caused by drivers not paying attention or becoming confused. (Federal Highway Administration Statistics). A camera detector makes sure you won't accidentally run a light yourself by drawing your attention in advance to the dangerous junction approaching. It gives you time to think, concentrate and plan ahead safely.

33% of red-light running is intentional. (Federal Highway Administration Statistics). Red light cameras are placed where they are most likely to catch red light runners so being reminded to pay extra attention at these junctions will not only help you avoid a fine yourself... it may even help you avoid a reckless driver!

It’s been well documented that rear end collisions can increase at red light camera locations, caused by drivers panic breaking at yellow lights to avoid a ticket. Being more aware of these camera intersections in advance makes you better prepared to avoid that type of accident.

To make red light cameras financially viable most cities have to enforce right turn on red, so even if you proceed through a light at 2 mph, a perfectly safe driving practice that you may have been doing for more than 30 years, it can suddenly lead to an unjust ticket and you being branded a red light runner. Tickets are expensive and in some states like California and Arizona can lead to points on your license that increase you car insurance for years to come.

Finally, the more accurate GPS speedometer, combined with advisory speed limit announcements during camera alerts and the optional Speed Reminder features, means that a GPS camera detector will help you to become much more aware of your speed at all times, which can only have positive safety implications for all.

Yes – GPS camera location is legal in every state in the USA and Canada.

Most governments recognize the fact that GPS Detectors give drivers advance awareness of the accident areas where cameras are located and act as an electronic extension of the existing road signage. They are genuine road safety aids which can help reduce casualty figures. Police view these devices as useful road safety tools because they help all drivers, particularly when they are in unfamiliar areas, to have the same level of knowledge about accident areas and camera locations as a reasonably informed local driver.

The only countries in the world with laws against GPS camera location are Germany and Switzerland. It is legal in every other country in the world.

If the GPS signal is partially blocked by heavy trees, steep walls or a tunnel, the speed display might look slightly erratic for a short time until you clear the obstruction.

If you have clear line of sight to the sky above and still experience this problem, it’s likely that you have an “Athermic” windshield. “Athermic” glass (sometimes called comfort glass, solar reflective or UV reflective) can prevent satellite signals getting through it to reach the internal GPS antenna which results in either no speed being displayed, intermittent or erratic speeds, or even an extreme amount of time to achieve a satellite lock. This glass also greatly reduces the performance of radar detectors because it cuts down the amount of radar signals entering the vehicle.

There are a three easy ways to check your windshield to see if it is the cause of the problem.

1. If you have polarized sunglasses, look at the windshield through them to see if it looks purple.

2. In a stationary vehicle, hold your Cheetah GPS detector out of the window to see if satellite lock is faster.

3. Click here for the Athermic Windshields – Vehicle List. This list is not exhaustive but is correct to the best our knowledge at the time of writing.

If your windshield is Athermic, you can purchase a remote extension antenna from Cheetah to collect GPS signals through the rear window or from the outside of the vehicle.

For full, in-depth update instructions, click here.

Trinity 2.0 is added to daily. You can update the C50 as often as you like. We recommend you update your database at least once a month and the C50 will remind you during its start-up sequence if it’s been longer than a month since your last update.

Updates require a PC with Windows 98 or above with internet access.

We've tested our software on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 (Premium 64 bit).

For Vista and Win 7, please ensure that you run the install and program as an "administrator".

Please note that we do not provide specific update software for MAC computers, but if you have the Windows OS intstalled you can update as normal.

Check the red light camera guide to make sure you are not mistaking a traffic flow camera for a red light camera system. Perform a database update – new cameras are added on a daily basis.

Press the [SELECT] button to select User Mode 1 – All cameras, mobile sites and safety alerts and re-check the intersection for an alert. Cities will usually only install cameras to cover 1 or 2 directions (called approaches) at an intersection, but often put up warning signs are on all 4 approaches to make drivers think that all directions are enforced. If you run the C50 in User Modes 2 or 3, it will only alert for the approaches that are actually being covered and will stay silent on the other non-enforced approaches. Selecting User Mode 1 will turn on the alerts for the non-enforced approaches and you should hear a “Photo-enforced intersection” alert to confirm the location is in the database. If you still get no alert in User Mode 1, please report the location to us.

You should report any new camera sightings here. Alternatively you can send an email to with as much information as you can. You can also call Cheetah USA on 623 748 4562 to report the sighting. Our database team will check out your report and add it to the Trinity™ database.

You can always store a new camera as a personal location, which can be deleted once the camera has been added to the central Trinity database.

Personal alerts are directional so will only alert when you are traveling back to that location from the same direction.

ADD IN ALERT DISTANCE and advice on when to store mobile traps

To delete an individual personal location
Sometime you may want to delete a particular personal alert; for example, if you store one in your driveway. Press the [ENTER] button briefly during a personal alert, when you hear the “Marked location ahead” message. You will hear a voice announcement say “Location deleted” and the screen will show DELE.

To delete all your stored personal locations
Press and hold down the [ENTER] button for 5 seconds until you hear the “Location deleted” message and the display reads ALDE. (All deleted).

The default setting for the clock is off. Only Members can switch on the clock feature using the Cheetah User Software Tool. You can easily adjust the clock setting by changing the time zone from the drop down menu. Pacific = -8, Mountain = -7, Central = -6, Eastern = -5, etc.

Daylight Savings Time (DLST) / Summer Time Adjust: If your time zone is -7, please set the clock to -6 for DLST, then back to -7 when necessary.

Once you enable the clock feature, it can only be removed by a firmware reboot. If you would like to disable your clock feature please contact us at for further instructions on where to return your C50.

Yes. Immediately after powering up, press and hold down the two buttons [ENTER] and [SELECT], at the same time for 2 to 3 seconds to begin the demonstration mode. The Cheetah C50 will cycle through various voice alerts, sounds and displays.

To exit demonstration mode, press and hold down both buttons again until the word “End” appears in the display.

All car manufacturers, by law, have to calibrate their speedometers to make sure that the vehicle is never actually traveling faster than is indicated on the display. This means that, in practice, car speedos will always slightly overestimate your true speed for safety reasons. This variance can change from model to model and maker to maker. Your car’s speedo can also become slightly inaccurate if you change the size of your wheels or tires.

At a constant speed the GPS speedo in your C50 is more accurate than the one in your car because GPS speed readings are calculated from an independent source.

During acceleration and deceleration, your car speedo will be more accurate that the GPS speedo. GPS receivers only check their position once a second so will always have a slight lag before the reading is updated to show your new speed. When you reach a steady speed, the GPS speedo returns to being the more accurate measure.

Yes, the C50 has been designed to be easily transferable between vehicles. If you require an extra power cable, magnetic mount or remote GPS antenna to fit in a second vehicle, you can purchase these items separately.

Yes. You can purchase a hard-wire power supply. You cannot hard-wire the C50 directly into your car because it is a 5 Volt product, not 12 Volts. However you can hardwire the optional power supply and simply plug in the C50’s own power cord to that extra socket. If you are unsure how to do this then consult a professional automotive electrician.

The Speed Reminder feature is very useful if you want to be reminded to slow down whenever you accidentally drift over the speed limit, for example on a freeway / motorway.

You can store up to 5 speed reminders at the exact speed you want, in increments of 1 mph. When you are driving along, just press both buttons at the same time, [ENTER] and [SELECT], to set a speed reminder. Whenever you accelerate past the stored speed reminder setting you will hear a chime and the display will show your setting.

To delete a speed reminder, simply press both buttons again, immediately after you hear the chime for reaching that speed.

You can also set, change or remove any of the speed reminders using the user software tool.

Check if the C50 powers up when you connect the USB download cable to a computer. this will tell you if the C50 detector is working correctly or not. Next, check that the power cord is correctly inserted into the power socket on both the C50 and the vehicle power adapter. Then check that the power adapter is fully inserted into your vehicle’s power socket. You can also check that the power socket is clean and working correctly by powering up another device like a cell phone. Finally, check the fuse in the Cheetah vehicle power adapter (behind the silver tip) by unscrewing the end of the Cheetah plug.

No. The C50 uses completely different technology to a radar detector. The C50 uses GPS location to check its position against an onboard database of fixed safety camera locations, accident blackspots and common mobile sites. When you are approaching any of these stored locations, the C50 provides a warning.

Radar detectors do not alert to most speed and red light cameras because the cameras use sensors buried in the ground, so there are no radar signals to be detected in the first place. Radar detectors also give hundreds of false alarms for other radar sources like automatic door sensors. The C50 does not false alarm for these sources – it only alerts to locations that are stored in its memory.

No. The C50 is a stand-alone GPS camera detector only. If you want to suppress false alarms on a radar detector, or wirelessly integrate with a laser jammer, then you should purchase the C100 or GPSmirror models instead.

Common sense will tell you that it’s impossible to provide a high quality database for free. At Cheetah, we’ve always charged for the database update service, it’s just that with the GPSmirror and C100, the cost of a lifetime subscription to the update service was built into the initial purchase price of the product.

Splitting out the database update service for the C50 is the fairest way of keeping the cost down for drivers in states where the camera numbers are static and they don’t need an update service. However, even with the cost of Membership Packages included, the total cost of ownership for the C50 represents the best value for money on the market over 3 and 5 years. Plus with the Platinum Membership, we include 3 years warranty cover (1 year manufacturer’s warranty + 2 years extended warranty).