From: kurnik@lds.loral.com (Timothy J. Kurnik)
Newsgroups: rec.audio.car
Subject: Re: Car Alarms
Date: 8 Jan 93 06:06:58 GMT
Reply-To: kurnik@lds.loral.com
Organization: Loral Data Systems

In article 7774@dove.nist.gov, keys@starchild.ncsl.nist.gov (Lawrence B. Keys) writes:
   .
   .
   .
>I am intrested in an alarm that will include:
>
>	door,trunk and hood protection (pin switches)
>	glass break detection
>	shock sensor
>	ignition kill
>	light flashing
>	soft chirp, and possibly locking/unlocking doors 
>
>I am currently researching the Alpine 8040.  Any other suggestions?

I've had an Alpine 8040 on my Miata for about a year and a half now.  I think it's
fantastic!  It has all the above and I also added the Alpine pager option.  I needed
the pager because I could not hear the old alarm from my apartment.  When my car was
broken into and the alarm went off, the neighbors closest to the parking lot thought
it was a false alarm.  (It was a K-9 and it falsed a lot!)  But that's another story.

Most good alarms provide most if not all of the above features, but I also needed
the following:

	* Sarasota, FL is considered (by some) to be the lightning capital of the
          world.  Whenever a severe storm hits the area, a number of the sensitive
          car alarms are triggered.  I didn't need another break-in with reports
          that my alarm was "falsing."

	* Since the Miata is a convertible, I also wanted an alarm that was
          sensitive enough for me to leave the top down while I ran into a store.
          (I know that sounds crazy, but with my alarm beeper, I always knew when
          it went off.)  The installer was able to set the 8040 motion detector
          sensitive enough to detect if an object broke the plane where the window
          would be if it were up.

	* Finally, I also wanted perimeter detection.  That is, if someone was near
          my car for an unusual length of time, the alarm would chirp 4 times.  If
          the intrusion continued, the alarm would sound.  The intruder wouldn't
          even have to touch the car for the alarm to go off.  I liked this because
          it kept people from spending a lot of time looking in the windows to see
          what I've got.


I must admit, however, that I do have one problem with it that started recently.
About 3 weeks ago, I left work to get in my car and I noticed that my alarm wouldn't
deactivate (chirp twice).  I kept trying and trying but nothing seemed to work.  I
looked in the window to see if the LED was blinking, but it wasn't.  I figured, "What
the hell," and I opened the door expecting the alarm to sound, but it didn't.  The
LED did, however, light for about 3 seconds, then it turned off.  This happened for about a week before the LED stopped lighting at all.  At first, I figured it was
maybe the battery in the remote, but I replaced it and the problem persisted.  I have
since learned that if I activate the panic mode (hold the remote button for more
than 2 seconds), the alarm sounds.  I just can't set the damn thing.

I'm not sure what to say about this situation, however.  The Alpine 8040 has been
perfect so far.  I'm sure this is just a fluke thing.  Moreover, my car, stereo, and
alarm have been through hell and back for the three years I've owned it.  Since I
bought the car, it's been hit twice and broken into three times.  The alarm problem
could just be an aftershock of one of the break-ins.

Anyway, if it turns out that the alarm needs replacing, I'd probably get the same
one.  Although I haven't looked into it very deeply, I've heard the Viper alarm is
pretty good.  Any comments?

SEE YA!

- T.J.