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What's the point of a car alarm if.........


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I've always wondered what's the point of a car alarm if it doesn't actually notify you when it goes off?

I know that the main reason is to scare away would-be criminals trying to steal your car. The car alarm basically functions as a "crying baby" that screams and shouts hoping that A) it will scare away the kidnapper or get attention from other people that might be around and "HOPE" they'll actually do something like stop the criminals or call the police...highly unlikely.

So again, what is the point of a car alarm that doesn't notify you? Most of the time, alarms are triggered because o accidental contact to the vehicle and so the alarm gets triggered. But if you are inside a mall, or inside your house and your car is parked far away, you'll never know that your car got hit or bumped until maybe 3 hours or 8 hours or even the next morning! Of course, now that we have dash cams available, incidents can be caught and record on video, but still, the point of a car alarm to me is that it is suppose to notify the owner that an accident has occurred or someone has attempted to break and enter your car. Actually, if they did, most of the time, the damage will have already been done (ie. broken glass, etc), and you won't know about it until hours later when you walk to your car and see the damage.

For probably the last 30 years or so that car alarms have been in wide use publicly on vehicles, it's only been say the last few years with the advent of smartphones and wifi/3g/4g networks that we can now install smartphone car alarms. These alarms can communicate with smartphone apps and you can even view the status of your car via smartphone app anywhere in the world (you can check if the alarm has been triggered, where it's parked, even control things like locking/unlocking doors, and starting engine etc). But I'd say it's still relatively new as MOST people do not have car alarms that can communicate with their smartphones.

There are countless number of videos on youtube that show criminals stealing motorbikes, cars etc while the alarm has been triggered, but since nobody can hear the alarm and since there is no way the car can communicate to you that it is being attacked, these thieves can spend minutes, even dozens of minutes working on the car before they successfully get away with it. If there was a way the alarm could notify the owner via text message, phone call, or some pager system, you could respond ASAP.

It's like a baby that is crying. The whole point behind a baby monitor / VOX is that when the baby is "set off" and makes noise, it requires immediate attention...someone needs to respond ASAP and not 3 hours later or the next morning.

So I came up with a cheap method or DIY method to make this on my car. I'll post pictures later but I finally finished and it works great. A simple 2 way radio with VOX feature accomplishes this. You also need the VOX earpiece external mic accessory sold separately. All I did was clip the external mic inside my engine bay (to the sidewall where it is safe from touching anything else and well insulated), ran the wire through the side door panel into my cabin. Then I plugged it into my radio. The other radio, I keep with me wherever I go. Now when I park my car, I can turn on the radios, and when the car alarms makes any noise, the radio inside my car picks up the noise and transmits to directly to me wherever I am (house, mall, work, etc), so that I can be notified ASAP that the car alarm has been triggered. Of course, you need to be no farther than 4 or 5 km from your car....anything farther and it might not transmit under FRS frequency (the free one). I use my own channel (i try to pick one that might be uncommon so that other people in the area using radios won't be on the same frequency).

It works brilliantly! Albeit, there is a bit of upkeeping to do in that the batteries do need to get recharged often. The stock batteries that come with the radios are usually 500-800mah which is somewhat small. They'd only last about 24 hours or 1 day on standby before I'd have to recharge them. So I've been using high capacity 2500 mah AA eneloop pro rechargeables and they now last 3 to 4 days on standby before needing a recharge. You also need to TURN OFF the radios when you drive because it will pick up the engine noise as you are driving so you don't need to hear that. I just turn it on when I park the car and go elsewhere.

It was a theory I had come up with while trying to figure out an alternative way to create an "alerter" or beeper system where I could be notified of my car at all times. This DIY idea works and maybe this could help someone else out there looking for a relatively cheap and easy DIY car alarm notification system.

I currently don't use a smartphone (don't really need it now) and so I didn't want to have to buy a brand new car alarm that communicates with smartphone apps, and buy a new smartphone + contract and subscribe to data plans and pay more money every month. That's easily about $1,000 altogether. For now, buying a simple $90 2 way radio does the job well!

Hope this helps anyone.

Edited by cornflakes
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All any sort of car alarm is for is to try to make it so that a thief will move on to the next vehicle - without an alarm.

Even with the dash cam, it doesn't matter unless the cam saves the video to a remote location, since if your car is stolen, so is the dash cam and the video!

Not to mention that most cops are not going to worry about your stolen car (that's why you have insurance) unless you live somewhere with a very low crime rate.

Any car thief that knows what he is doing will break in, start your car and leave in a minute or less.

If you are in the mall, doctor's office, movie theater, or anywhere else that is more than a minute away from the vehicle, you're SOL, except that you'll be notified that your car was broken into and stolen.

Honestly, the best thing a car can have is a GPS locator like LoJack, or one of the other commercially available hidden units (OnStar is too easy to disable and everyone knows how).

The reason being that if a thief wants your car, there is nothing you or any alarm can do to stop them, and the best you can hope for is to get the car back before it is stripped or destroyed (if you can get the cops to move on it).

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good response gossamer. that's definitely what I would do if I had the money to buy it all, but for now this temporary DIY

is a start

here is the pic:
-leave one radio in the car attach via velcro so doesn't slip off
-run external mic wire through sidewall of car
-clip the microphone inside the engine bay, i used electrical tape
as well to secure it and made my own boom mic (spongy material)
to help keep out dust or particles from getting inside the mic pinhole.
(it was a bit wet due to the weather today when i opened the hood, but
inside the engine is completely dry).
289dkcw.jpg
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The first thing the thief would do is steal the radio, unless he manages to hotwire the car and steal the whole thing. You would know something is up but by the time you arrived the radio and/or the car would be long gone.

I have a simple insurance add on that will pay the full cost of a new car that is the same or similar or pay the full purchase price including tax for the first 5 years of ownership. After that it is 'blue-book' with a choice of deductibles. In case of break in and theft, the damage and items are covered with a choice of deductibles. A sticker is applied to the two front side windows that says no items of value in the car. No alarms needed. My xtra cost for this is $158 per year as long as my ins/claims rating is at the highest level and I am 55yrs or older. The first claim of any kind if I am at fault for the accident or theft etc is not held against me when I renew insurance.

The reason it is not expensive is that the Spark has a relatively low risk of theft. My neighbor has an expensive BMW and is with the same insurance company but pays a lot more for that kind of insurance add on.

If my car is stolen or broken into, I don't want to know about it quickly, I want it fixed or replaced quickly and the only notification I want is a letter from my Ins. co. saying "Since your car has been stolen, please find the enclosed check for the full purchase price of your car plus tax and enjoy your new car".....Still, I admire your ingenuity in setting up that system!

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No real point. If the thief is taking the car and you get there in time to see him pulling off what are you going to do? You can't use force to protect your property. You can call the police and in a few days you'll get your crashed car back. The sound of an alarm is a good detergent and gets peoples attention to see who the thief was. But unless the police are right there your car will be gone. In most jurisdictions you can't use force to stop a crime, unless someone is endangered by the crime. Your property is not justifiable for using force. Especially not using your firearm if you carry one. So it's best to have an alarm and insurance.

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I disagree (njresler), which is why I went ahead and made this anyway. First off, I also have full coverage insurance, so I'm not actually worried about the car being stolen, more so than just someone who accidentally hit my car and left some damage. If I can get to my car in time, I can intercept the person before they decide to just leave the scene (assuming the cam didn't get a good look either).

Most car thieves will not stick around the moment a person shows up. If they are in a remote or quiet area where they know the car alarm won't grab anyone's attention within 10 or 15 seconds, they'll continue to stay and work on the car to get it going. As I said, the car alarm is basically a "baby crying" mechanism. All it does is cry and whine out loud hoping that it'll get someone else's attention to either call out the criminal or maybe even dial the police for you, but this is highly unlikely. Most people will not go out of their way to stop a crime for you. They'll just see or hear the car alarm and keep walking. I would not trust other people to intercept anyone who sets off my car alarm for me.

I think it is absolutely meaningful to have a car alarm that CAN notify you (or someone/service). It's not just for car theft. There are numerous other occasions where a car alarm may be triggered and knowing asap could be very useful. Again, it makes very little sense to walk to your car 8 hours or 20 hours later only to find out something happen to your car. It's simply the system of being notified as soon as possible the moment something happens rather than never. If your house smoke alarm goes off, wouldn't it be useful for you to be notified of it immediately rather than say 4 hours later only to find your whole house up in flames and irrecoverable? If your newborn baby is crying, wouldn't you rather be notified of it instantly than to forget your baby in the hot steaming car and 6 hours later find it dead? Now these are extreme examples, but the idea is the same. When any sort of accident or emergency arises, I just think it makes total sense to have some sort of technology that can notify you asap.

As I mentioned, all new cars and car alarms WILL now have a live notification system/alerter that comes with it. Every car will be accessible and viewable via smartphone app to check it's status, location, gas meter, temperature, etc., so the whole car industry is already going in this direction, so not sure how you think there is "no real point".

Edited by cornflakes
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Most people when they hear a car alarm they just laugh and keep on walking. I haven't had any other that the standard factory ones that come on newer cars and in 45 years I have never needed one. If someone steals or damages my car I will let the insurance handle it. I never stress over it.... Even on my Camaro

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lol the radio was transmitting all night whenever loud trucks or vehicles passed by (as my car is parked right by the roadside), so the battery was completely drained (on the 2 way radios). Today I have adjusted the settings and turned on noise filter and lowered the sensitivity of the VOX. It's much better now as it won't pick up the noise of passing cars but still transmit the noise of my car alarm loud n clear to me (wherever I am). Another thing to note is that rain really annoys my car alarm. Cars that pass by and splash water on my car set off the alarm all the time or even a loud bus that revs it's engine sets off my alarm LOL. So I had to lower the sensitivity of the car alarm itself as well. I swear some of these buses do it every morning as it must be fun for them LOL. I now park my car higher up on the curb onto the sidewalk (which is perfectly legal here...that's how everyone parks...or park right up against the building wall).

The pains of not having a parking lot / garage.....i never knew how difficult life was without a garage. I've always had a garage so never had to deal with these issues before. At least it's an experience and making adjustments as I go along.

Edited by cornflakes
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  • 1 year later...

there is a much easier way of doing this, just install a standard alarm system like a Viper or Compustar, then add on their telematics module (either Smart Start or Drone respectively).

for example, my car has a Viper alarm (with remote start) and a Smart Start module... long story short, I can start, lock, or unlock my car from anywhere, literally unlimited range. it will also text my phone if and when the alarm goes off, for people really worried about their car getting stolen, there is even an option for GPS tracking, you can pull up a map and see where your car is anytime.

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