From: galway@chtm.eece.unm.edu (Denis McKeon)
Newsgroups: alt.locksmithing
Subject: Re: Car Alarms. Advice Needed
Keywords: Car alarm
Date: 3 Sep 92 20:32:41 GMT
Distribution: alt
Organization: Connemara - Computing for People
X-Mailer: Mail User's Shell (7.0.1 12/13/89)
Status: OR

In article <1558@rwja.umdnj.edu> holowczk@rwja.umdnj.edu (Richard Holowczak) writes:
>Hello there all of you locksmiths. Others might have asked
>this in the past but I must have missed it being kind of new
>to this whole news thing.  Here goes:
>
>I am looking to purchase an alarm for my Acura Legend. I have
>a budget of about 300 - 400 dollars

[details deferred till below]

Quick response:

I'm not a locksmith, but on this group who is? :-) (yeah, ok, a few.)

You should shop for reasonably priced alarms at a large auto parts chain
store - I found that Pep Boys was the only local chain with clearly
marked prices, and they also had a good selection, do good
installations, and had a comparision chart in the store catalog.

Detailed response:

The alarm topic comes up on rec.motorcycles fairly often.  Other potential
newsgroups for info are rec.autos, rec.audio.car, and misc.consumers.

If any one can point to an on-line FAQ, or a detailed recent published
comparision of car alarms, please e-mail to me and I'll summarize the
pointers.  If there's no response on alt.locksmithing, I'll cross-post
a request.  If an FAQ doesn't already exist, I could help create one.

[and BTW, blgardne@javelin.sim.es.com (Blaine Gardner) points to the July 
1992 issue of Motorcyclist magazine for a comparison review of m/c alarms.]

I recently went through selecting an alarm - and jumped to a choice
because I felt that getting any decent alarm that fit my needs was more
important than getting the mystical "perfect" alarm.  

Also, I believe that alarms/locks/whatever don't make a vehicle totally
secure - but all I want is a vehicle that is more secure than most of
the other vehicles in the area. (and let natural selection take action.)

An Audiovox TSP 700 was $170 plus $100 for installation (I could have done
it myself, but time is money and the alarm specialist at PB did a good job).

Half of the system cost was the paging function - since I live a few
hundred feet (out of sight) from where I park (on-street), and since my
car has been broken into both at my home and in a parking lot while I
was in a movie theater I felt that paging was useful for some situations.

Car alarms appear to be in the "how much do you want to pay?" category -
you can get a cheap siren-and-voltage-sensor for $40 - the kind that
just wails endlessly - or you can spend many hundreds on the TV-style
'smart car' system that senses motion *near* the car and talks to
passerby.  Around here, my neighbors would likely shoot either of those. :-)

If you have a car worth $50K, or money to burn, or just want to impress
yuppies on the cafe patio, then shop for car alarms at the high-tech
audio or high-performance car places.  Systems are probably a bit
cheaper at car dealers, but the systems you can buy at Walmart or Pep Boys
are probably enough for the rest of us.  At the very least your vehicle
will have more alarm than all the unalarmed cars out there.

Of course, the real budget setup is just a blinking dash-mounted LED and
some alarm company stickers (sold separately).  Bring your own chutzpah.

Another trick is having a slide-out radio - that you pull out of the
dash and put into the glovebox before you park the car.  Dumb, hunh?

A lot of people on the net seem to feel that appearances can deceive.
I used to believe that having an ugly old car would prevent theft.
If you want to depend on that theory, be my guest, I'm done with it.

The rest of this article is details and discussion, this is a good
time to quit if you don't like long articles.


The Pep Boys comparision chart covered 10 models of Audiovox, Whistler,
and Code-Alarm - ranging from $40 to $170.  Features included:

    count    feature
	9    siren
	8    automatic siren shutdown
	8    2 remote transmitters
	8    remote panic

	8    adjustable shock sensor
	8    voltage sensing
	3    glass breakage detector
	1    motion dectector

	8    audible arm/disarm
	6    LED warning
	6    valet switch
	3    starter disable
	2    4 watt pager
	1    silent paging
	1    portable/no-installation

I'm not going to re-create the chart because if you have a Pep Boys in
the neighborhood you can get one yourself, and if you don't you'll have
to roll your own comparision anyway.  If no FAQ exists I'll do a chart.

>The few that were recommended are:
>
>Ungo Box
>VSE Derringer/2
>Viper
>Clifford Intelligaurd 200

I believe these are medium-to-high price systems.

>The features I'm looking for are: Switch protection for Hood, Trunk,
>and doors, ignition kill, remote arm/disarm, sensor "zones" (Where,
>for example, if you have a christmas tree in your trunk and you can't
>shut it, the alarm will still arm and protect the rest of the car),
>a passive or active option and some sort of shock or shatter sensor
>for window breakage and body shock (like jacking up to steal tires,
>etc.).  This sensor should be easily adjustable to avoid false
>alarms by big trucks passing by, thunder, wind and low flying
>aircraft.  I have read about some alarms having the smarts to
>disable a sensor after being tripped a certain number of times. That
>is not super important but would be nice.

No info on zones or smart auto-disable, but here are
some comments on features and capabilities:

general

    The cheaper the system, the less you are able to adjust and tune.
    At the very least, motion and shock sensors should be adjustable
    to minimize false alarms.

siren/automatic siren shutdown

    60 seconds of siren is probably just as effective at 
    attracting attention as any longer period, and it sure 
    helps keep the neighbors happy (timed sirens are also 
    becoming mandatory in some large cities.)

2 remote transmitters

    For remote arm/disarm - second as a spare, or for spouse.
    A black box for your keychain - 2" x 1.25" x 0.5" (5cm x 3cm x 1.3cm)

remote panic

    An easy add-on to the remote circuitry - helps you find your
    car at the mall, and probably more of a self-confidence
    booster than a really useful personal security gadget -
    how many people would react to a car alarm by looking
    around for hundreds of yards for an assault in progress?

Sensors

    Sensors are a big variable - the trade-off points are cost of
    sensor, costs of installation, minimum false alarms, and maximum
    true alarms.  Using a few sensors is probably best - you can cover
    several break-in methods with lower sensitivity settings on each.

pin switches

    Existing dome light switches are usually used for doors, and similar
    pin switches for hood & trunk.  Recall that a major installation
    issue is placing all the parts of the alarm system in areas of the
    vehicle that are secured by the alarm. (To restate the obvious.)

adjustable shock sensor

    Triggered by sharp transients in the frame and body of the vehicle.
    Would detect glass breakage by the shock of the force used to break
    the glass.  Would probably not notice glass breakage by the trick
    with a spring-loaded center-punch I posted on rec.auto last month
    for claustrophobic recent Camry owners.  Whoops. (Until the door opens).

    Instructions with mine say to adjust so that two successive sharp
    slaps with both hands at once at the back bumper of the car trigger
    the sensor.  Also says to mount to firewall or solid equivalent, not
    to fender well or other easily flexible part (would insulate from shock).

ultrasonic sensor

    Emits ultrasonic signals & checks returns - detects masses
    (like people) in a volume of space (like the front seat).
    Would handle securing the passenger space of a convertible.

voltage sensing

    Senses drop in voltage caused by current drain.  Requires bypass
    for electric radiator fans that can come on while car is parked.

motion dectector

    A variation on the classic mercury switch - at least one mfg has one
    that is a tube of mercury surrounded by a coil - senses motion, not
    contact - and said to be very adjustable.

    Good for preventing jacking up, alloy wheel theft, towing, etc.

glass breakage detector

    I don't have specific info - could be glass mounted sensor,
    or could sense high frequencies of breaking glass.  Anybody?

audible arm/disarm

    Makes that annoying chirp you hear more and more often these days.
    I would prefer visual - but audible tells you that the siren works.

LED warning

    LED blinks on dash when system is armed.  Be sure it is visible
    from the curb side - perhaps place atop dash, or near radio?

valet switch

    Allows parking attendant to do job without fanfare.  
    If they don't put your vehicle in a continously attended lot,
    why pay for the risk without the service?

starter disable

    If system is triggered, cuts power to starter relay until system is
    disarmed.

4 watt pager

    Probably not worth it if you have a garage, or rarely park in risky
    areas/situations - unless you want to be able to go see what all the
    fuss is about while there's still some fuss.  You don't have to arm
    and carry the beeper all the time, so you have a choice of level of
    response to a break-in: "make noise" or "make noise & come a-running".

    In the Audiovox, the paging sensor/sender/beeper sub-system is
    clearly an add-on - in fact, you can buy it separately.  The paging
    sensor glues to the siren & senses vibration from the siren
    (which means there is no stock way to have silent paging - boo!)

    The paging sender mounts near the car antenna and uses it to send
    a signal to the beeper (and if you have auto-retracting antennas,
    it will also erect the antenna while paging you).  
    
    I haven't made an exhaustive study of the range - which would vary
    depending on what is in the way - probably okay for the movies & the
    mall, not for half-way across a university campus.  At worst should
    answer the question: "Hey, is that MY car making that awful noise?"

    The beeper is similar in size to a motorola digital beeper -
    3" x 2" x 3/4" (7.5cm x 5xm x 2cm) plus a belt clip.  I wish
    they had built an arm/disarm circuit into the beeper - it is
    a bit of a hassle to carry around 2 little black boxes.

silent paging

    Pages you without siren or alarm.  I'd wish for silent paging 
    on the first trigger, and siren on the second trigger, or if 
    not disarmed for 30 seconds or so after the first trigger.

door-lock interface

    Unlocks electric door-locks upon disarm, which seems like a nice
    convenience, but might be a bad idea in an assault situation.

portable/no-installation

    At least one system plugs into the cigarette lighter, 
    and uses an ultrasonic detector (among others).

manual over-ride (disarm) switch

    If you loose your arm/disarm transmitter, you can unlock,
    enter, and disarm the (sounding) alarm.  Should be hidden.

I'm sure that people will follow-up about any features I've missed.  
(exterior arm/dis-arm locks; 'bait' trigger switches that appear to be
dis-arm overrides but actually trigger the system; hidden dis-arm or
start methods with magnets & reed switches, or switches in series, or
overloaded functions for normal switches) [gosh - starts to sound like Ada].

Also note that systems seem to vary a lot in the small details,
and you could add a lot to a system in a do-it-yourself installation.

Summary (all IMHO):

    No alarm (or any theft deterrent) provides total security.

    Any effective alarm is better than none.
    Any in-effective alarm is worse than none.
    (over or under sensitive, so much hassle that you don't use it, etc.)

    Consider how much your time and energy is worth.
    Consider what your insurance deductibles are.

    Consider the costs of pursuing an insurance claim, of replacing
    stolen items (or car), of repair of entry and dash damage and
    under-dash wiring damage after a midnight radio-ectomy, loss
    of other items, and your reaction to an invasion of your privacy.

    Figure out how much some increased security is worth to you, and
    comparision shop.  

--
Denis  McKeon                            Good.   Fast.   Cheap.
galway@chtm.eece.unm.edu                       Pick two.
Xref: sparky alt.locksmithing:1563 misc.consumers.house:11774