How the Lo-Jack system works it there is a transmitter hidden in the vehicle
that can be activated by remote. If the vehicle is stolen, you call Lo-Jack
and report the vehicle stolen. They activate the transmitter and it sends out
a signal which is picked up by receivers, located in police cars. You can
tell which police cars are equipped by looking for four 10" antennas placed,
about 10" apart in a square pattern, on the roof of the police car. The
receiver has a series of LEDs placed in a circle, if the LED at 10 o'clock is
lit, the officer knows that the vehicle is in that direction from where he is
facing. It also has an intensity meter that indicates how close.
The problem with the system, is it's still not available in all areas. If you
go out of the service area, Lo-Jack can't activate the transmitter and local
police departments are not equipped with the receivers. As said in a previous
post, they may be going with a satellite version of the package.
Walter_Felix@MSN.COM
88' Dodge Dakota Sport 4x4.
http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Downs/9219
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-dakota-truck@buffnet4.buffnet.net On Behalf Of Jon Steiger
Sent: Monday, May 04, 1998 6:35 PM
To: dakota-truck@buffnet.net
Subject: Re: DML: Stealing Dakotas
On Mon, 4 May 1998, Robert Trottmann wrote:
> Basically, I think it runs down like this:
> Joyriders: deterred by flashing red LED
> Amatuers: deterred by starter kill and/or siren
> Car Stereo theives: amatuers- deterred by siren/removable faceplate (but
> not by a key CD)
> pros- unstopable
> Professional Car Theives: Unstopable. (This includes those w/ a tow
> truck.) Unless you lock your ride up with a boot, if a pro wants it,
> it's his.
> Even that chip in the key sh*t doesn't protect you. It, like all
> alarms, just slows the pros down. But even if you walk up to a theif in
> your truck, what are you going to do? Tell him to stop? Yell for
> police? Shoot him? (in Texas, yes).
>
> -Robert (Viper alarm w/ removable face plate stereo.)
Yep, if someone knows the system, you're right. A pro is probably
going to be unstoppable. However, there is one really, really good
way to protect your vehicle which would reduce the number of people
that could steal your ride to about one in a million; deadly force. :-)
You may have seen a parodies or skits on TV about car alarms
that electrocute the thief, but some people have actually done
this. A car battery can produce a heck of a lot of amperage. It
may not vaporize a thief, but if he walks away from the first zap,
I'd be willing to bet that he's not going to try for another. :-)
Several years ago when I used to read rec.motorcycles regularly,
this thread came up and if I remember correctly, one person had
woven wire into his grips; when you are riding the bike, the
electricity has a nice path up one arm and down the other, right
through your heart.
Of course, in today's litigious society, you can get in a lot of
trouble for doing this.
Also, (even more importantly), any system like this must be
VERY well designed. You must be VERY VERY VERY VERY sure that
it will not accidentally engage while you are driving the vehicle.
That is the major problem with this method; almost any component is
prone to failure at some point. Perhaps the best method would be
to physically disconnect the circuit from its power supply, but even
then, who knows what might happen if the vehicle gets hit by lightning,
etc.
Of course, there is also the additional complication that there
are some people who may try to move your vehicle even though they
are not trying to steal it, such as the city towing you out of
a handicapped zone, or a valet, etc. It is also possible that
someone may brush up against the vehicle by accident, so a method
must be built in to ensure that the alarm is only activated if
it is actually being stolen. (And there is really no good way
for a piece of equipment to distinguish between a thief and a
repo man.)
A variation on this might be to put warning labels in view
which explain that the car is equipped with a "deadly force"
type security system, and that it will administer a mild shock
before the fatal one. Give 'em a mild shock, or a spurt of
some harmless gas, and I'll bet most people won't wait around
for the rest of the show. (which will never come, of course.)
(This is sort of like those, "If you value your life as much
as I value this truck, don't @#$@# with it" stickers, except
that you leave nothing to the immagination. You can explain
exactly how the thief will meet his end. (without giving them
the info they would need to deactivate the system, of course.))
There is an expensive alarm system called LoJack which,
when the car is stolen, it uses a cellular phone and some sort
of tracking system (GPS probably) to call someone and inform
them of the car's position. If you're handy with electronics,
you could probably even homebrew up something like this, using
GPS or accelerometers. (Of course, it would cost money to keep
the cellular account active.)
-Jon-
.--- stei0302@cs.fredonia.edu ------------------------------------.
| DoD# 1038, EAA# 518210, NMA# 117376, USUA# A46209, RP-SEL |
| '96 Dodge Dakota v8 SLT CC (15.34@89.10), '96 Kolb FireFly 447 |
`----------------------- http://www.cs.fredonia.edu/~stei0302/ ---'
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