Road Angel Halo Pro - Setup and Initial Use

Road Angel Halo Pro

I bought Road Angel Halo Pro for our new car.  This is the picture you will most often see.  It is misleading.  The camera had a bigger footprint than suggested by this image.

The camera comes in a nice cuboid box, with a 32 Gb SD and micro SD on the outside under the cellophane.

Installing it was 'fun', the sort of fun you don't want to have.  So, don't follow the instructions, because if you can't make it connect it will be stuck to your windscreen.  I did the setup with the camera on the passenger seat.

The camera provides a Wi-Fi SSID to connect to.  It's the only way to communicate with it.  To get the app I downloaded from the Play Store to connect I had to turn off my VPN (normal), and delete the VPN profile.  Not great.  Then comes the re-naming, so that it doesn't present default values to anyone standing outside my car.

1) rename the Wi-Fi and set a password.  Now essentially start set-up again.  Delete everything from the app.

2) rename the device and set a password.  Now essentially start set-up again.  Delete everything from the app.

One other thing that tripped me up.  It knows my time zone - London, but it chooses to display the date in m/d/yyyy (American) format. 

Now, and only now, stick it to the windscreen and put the cabling behind the various bits of interior decor (where you can).

Now to get the videos off I have to delete the VPN profile, stop my home Wi-Fi from autoconnecting , connect to its Wi-Fi and run the app.  Too much like hard work - there has to be a better way.

So that I know what's happening, when It's powered up, it tells me it is working in an English language voice, and it tells me it's got GPS the same way.  Just occasionally it shouts something in a language I don't understand. 

It will also report collisions with your car in a car park, when you're not there, but to make that bit work, you need to buy an extra connection kit - bit of a cheek, to advertise a feature like that, that I can't use out of the box. 

Which has this as a 'best buy'.  Well I haven't seen any of the others, but on what I have seen so far I wouldn't recommend it - but I'm stuck with it (literally).