awalker@topaz.ARPA (*Hobbit*) (05/22/85)
Cheapo alarms can be made quite effective. For instance, if you have the external-key-switch type, the dumbest thing you can do is mount the keyswitch on the fender like most people do. The miscreant will simply bend up your wheelwells and cut the wires, get in, and drive away. Passive systems are more or less standard and undoubtedly have standard hacks to disable them. Dealer systems [like BMW, frob the light switch to enable, turn on ignition to disable] are ignition-key based, and we all know how easy most ignition locks are to remove with a slaphammer. What you have to do is be more creative than the car thief. A simple toggle switch, mounted somewhere under the works of a car out of sight, will provide a first line of defense that will be quite hard to defeat. Something like this allows you to have the kind of alarm that goes off *immediately* upon door/trunk opening, instead of giving the bastard 15 seconds to destroy your dash and make off with your stereo. In addition, another hidden ignition kill switch will slow him down if he's trying to drive away [and managed to get past your hidden outside switch]. Mount your keyswitch in a clever place, if you insist on using it. [Most of them are relatively easy to pick, anyway, but this isn't the usual method of a car thief..] Keypads and such *tell* the random that you have installed some kind of alarm or ignition cutoff, but if he gets surprised by an innocent-looking lack of high-tech gear, he's quite likely to go try the next one. There are *so* many neat places to hide switches in a modern car that you shouldn't have any trouble finding one that you yourself may even forget how to locate. _H*
sunny@sun.uucp (Ms. Sunny Kirsten) (05/24/85)
I recommend the following alarm company/system:
Paragon Security Systems
P.O.B. 255344 Dept. MV
Sacramento, CA 95865
which uses the ignition keyswitch for automatic arming/disarming.
--
{ucbvax,decvax,ihnp4}!sun!sunny (Ms. Sunny Kirsten)li63sfh@sdcc7.UUCP (Philip Kao) (06/02/85)
In article <2210@sun.uucp> sunny@sun.uucp (Ms. Sunny Kirsten) writes: >I recommend the following alarm company/system: > >Paragon Security Systems >P.O.B. 255344 Dept. MV >Sacramento, CA 95865 > >which uses the ignition keyswitch for automatic arming/disarming. >-- yeah!!! let's here it for brilliant people. there is a sister company called octagon in san diego also. dragon-pup
sunny@sun.uucp (Ms. Sunny Kirsten) (06/07/85)
> In article <2210@sun.uucp> sunny@sun.uucp (Ms. Sunny Kirsten) writes: > >I recommend the following alarm company/system: > > > >Paragon Security Systems > >P.O.B. 255344 Dept. MV > >Sacramento, CA 95865 > > > >which uses the ignition keyswitch for automatic arming/disarming. > >-- > > yeah!!! let's here it for brilliant people. > there is a sister company called octagon in san diego also. > dragon-pup to the best of my knowledge, Paragon Security Systems has NO sister companies. Sunny -- {ucbvax,decvax,ihnp4}!sun!sunny (Ms. Sunny Kirsten)