Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

popularmechanics.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

241–250 of 535 posts

Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#241

Post by kyleblarson »

monkeynotes wrote: post #181
spiritplumber wrote: post #100

I have an older RV that people sometimes try to steal (it's usually meth heads wanting to live on it; I've taken to leaving a plaque on the dash saying that if they want a hot meal instead, just knock on my door). The alarm is aftermarket, and silent. All it does is make the fuel pump go in reverse. (The fuel pump is also aftermarket) It's been hilarious a couple times.

Why not just have the alarm cut the power to the ignition or something less damaging than reversing the fuel pump?

Why not just live in a place where you don't have to assume that meth heads are going to try to steal your possessions?

Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#242

Post by kortilla »

chrisseaton wrote: post #178
anonymousiam wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my neighborhood, I've seen multiple reports of guns being stolen from vehicles. Anything of value should be hidden, such as dash cams, radar detectors, coins for parking meters, etc. People post videos all the time of hoodlums looking into car windows deciding whether or not it's worthwhile to break in.

Leaving your gun in your car and having it stolen sounds like a way to get framed for a murder!

This is why you report stolen guns ASAP.

Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#243

Post by paulgb »

betwixthewires wrote: post #155

There's an effect, I forget what it's called, where a deterrent is effective enough that the only time you see it activate is accidentally. I believe this may be the case for car alarms. It has a side effect of desensitization, but it is still effective. I doubt most thieves smash and grab without consideration of alarms on the grounds that probably nobody will care about the alarm. Thieves want to steal without bein…

It's not the effect you're talking about, but it reminded me of a study that found that the value of Lojack (an early GPS-enabled car theft tracker) decreased car theft for everyone in cities where it became prevalent, since would-be car thieves were reluctant to steal any car knowing that it might have a tracker.

[1] https://www.nber.org/digest/jul97/lojack-benefits-all-car-ow...

Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#244

Post by spiritplumber »

ineedasername wrote: post #167
spiritplumber wrote: post #100

I have an older RV that people sometimes try to steal (it's usually meth heads wanting to live on it; I've taken to leaving a plaque on the dash saying that if they want a hot meal instead, just knock on my door). The alarm is aftermarket, and silent. All it does is make the fuel pump go in reverse. (The fuel pump is also aftermarket) It's been hilarious a couple times.

What happens when the fuel pump goes in reverse? Also, anyone ever take you up on the hot meal?

It prevents the fuel pump in the engine from working (I had to add an electric fuel pump because the original one isn't doing very well).

Yes on the hot meal. I've been homeless and it stinks.

Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#245

Post by jniedrauer »

olyjohn wrote: post #201
johanvts wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is illegal to honk in Denmark unless theres a dangerous situation ahead. Honk any other a time you can be fined about 130€

It’s actually illegal in Washington State as well. I’m sure that’s fairly common in a lot of states and countries. But of course it’s also not enforced here.

> It’s actually illegal in Washington State

Woah, didn't know this. It's not like it really changes anything when someone lays on their horn while passing me on my bike. But at least I can feel some righteous indignation now.

Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#246

Post by spiritplumber »

seany wrote: post #163
turtlegrids wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The alarm is aftermarket, and silent. All it does is make the fuel pump go in reverse. Would you mind disclosing what brand/model this alarm is? This would be great for a couple of “issues” I’ve been having. If you aren’t comfortable saying publicly, could you send me a message with the info? And Amazon/Aliexpress/eBay link?

If it's a DC pump the alarm probably just turns on a relay that swaps the input polarity of the motor.

Yep. It comes with a relay and I wired it to another DPDT relay. It's supposed to go on the carn horn terminal instead.

I love how older vehicles have really simple wiring.

Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#247

Post by fy20 »

chrisseaton wrote: post #134
anonymousiam wrote: post #112

If the author had a Ring doorbell (and looked at their crime reports), or participated on NextDoor, they would know that theft from parked cars is the number one problem in most neighborhoods. An alarm is still a good deterrent for people who do not park their cars in a garage.

I don't get what people are stealing from parked cars? You can't remove radios anymore. What are they taking? Surely nobody's leaving a laptop or a purse in a car?

The thing about radios isn't true. You can remove them easily, but they are usually locked in software to that vehicle so can't easily be reused. That doesn't mean they can't...

Last year someone broke into the underground parking of my apartment building and stole the radios from a couple of new BMWs. No way was that just a random smash and grab, as to get in you need to go through the car elevator or unlock two doors (with plenty of cameras that turned out to be useless).

You wouldn't do that unless you already had a plan for reselling them.

Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#248

Post by dotancohen »

whyenot wrote: post #237

I was getting my car serviced at a local Toyota dealership today. While I was waiting for my car, there were two Priuses that came in with stolen/hacked off catalytic converters. A Prius with a really loud "straight pipe" exhaust is awful weird. In any case, auto theft isn't about stealing the whole car, sometimes it's just hacking off the valuable bits without even breaking in. It's not a new problem. Before catalyt…

Many people weld a cage around the cats, or across them. Of course, the cage can be cut just like the cat, but it makes a 3 minute job turn into a 10 minute job, which may be riskier for the thief.

Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#249

Post by spiritplumber »

arbitrage wrote: post #121
spiritplumber wrote: post #100

I have an older RV that people sometimes try to steal (it's usually meth heads wanting to live on it; I've taken to leaving a plaque on the dash saying that if they want a hot meal instead, just knock on my door). The alarm is aftermarket, and silent. All it does is make the fuel pump go in reverse. (The fuel pump is also aftermarket) It's been hilarious a couple times.

Anyone ever take you up on the offer of a hot meal?

Yeah. One time it was an older lady with her daughter. They stayed with me 3 days until they managed to sort something out with social services. I think they're in San Diego now.

They had a dog along who crapped in my living room, and they ended up cleaning my house top to bottom as an apology.

Just because someone's homeless it doesn't mean they're on drugs or stuff like that!

Re: Why do they still make car alarms? (2015)

#250

Post by bausgwi678 »

ChrisRR wrote: post #153
l72 wrote: post #87

Now if we could just disable the feature that causes the horn to honk when locking the vehicle with the key fob... As someone who lives on a residential street, but with a hospital at the far end, we have tons of patients, families, doctors, and nurses that park on our street to avoid paying for the garage. I get to listen to horns honking at all hours. A few cars (Acura comes to mind), do a bit better, in that they…

I've never heard of this happening. It must not be a UK thing

I have a UK Jeep Renegade which beeps on lock/unlock & is not possible to disable - drives me nuts. Various websites online claim it can be disabled in menus which don’t appear for me. The one workaround appears to be putting the car in Dutch mode but the Jeep garage couldn’t do it as they were worried for the computer in other areas. If anyone knows how to work around this I’d be keen to know!
Post reply on HN