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I have an 88 Cadillac Brougham; it's a very large car and soon I'm going to
be investing money into upgrading the electrical system and with it,
putting in a security system. However, most security systems are designed
for smaller cars and therefor, don't go off when they should on a larger
car. Anyone have reccomendations as to a good security system?
Gwokable
how handy are you with electronics/install?
all alarm systems are are input(s) (eg. a motion sensor) that drive
output(s) (eg strobe, siren).
All you need is to add extra input(s) to the system. so add more
motion/vibration/shock etc sensors and wire them into your "small car"
system.
windsonian
Considering I work on computers for a living, I can and have reverse
engineered motherboards and harddrive disk controllers for fun, fix heating
and air conditioning equipment and do a limited amount of house wiring, I'm
pretty good with electronics. I'v been learning cars for the past
half-year as mechanics is something that has fascenated me :).
I have a buddy with a similar car that has a black widow brand car alarm
system on it and the alarm system fails to go off when it is kicked, the
doors, hood and trunk are opened and slammed shut, and the car is pushed
back and forth. However, if you tap on the car, open the gas tank lid or
sit on the hood it goes off. It seems to go off at random sometimes as
well.
Gwokable
well, this should be easy for you then.
what inputs do you want to use to trigger the alarm? motion, vibration,
doors, windows .... etc etc
or alternatively, what actions do you want to cause the alarm to go off?
eg. sitting on the bonnet etc etc
windsonian
*Apparently the forum doesn't understand unlogged in users can't post with
old cookies...*
Gwokable
Knowing someone who knows someone who *ahem* was in the profession and
having talked to them about their "experiences", the main thing a car thief
looks at is time, attention, and payoff in that order. If it takes a lot
of time to get into then that increases the risk; if it's in a busy street
that also increases risk since cops tend to stick to mainroads. Finally,
if the car will get you 6 grand from a chopshop you'll be willing to steal
a car that will take 2 minutes to break into on a mainroad.
Car thieves on a mainroad
(http://www.fugly.com/view_video.php?viewkey=e9aa3827bba3afb7ff94)
With that said, the main thing that scares off most would-be car thieves is
seeing a hard target. Certain cars and certain alarm systems they know not
to touch due to the amount of time involved. However, an experienced team
of car thieves can make off with such cars and taking off with, for
example, an 04 Escalade would be worth all their time combined to plan and
take a car since a reputable chopshop would pay them right around $10-$15
grand on the spot in cash. Therefor, you want to warn off would-be thieves
by making sure they know the car has A alarm system (brand and model only
help them bypass it, so trading stickers makes good sense) to warn them it
isn't going to be an easy target, and throw as many unexpected kinks into
an experienced team of theives plan as possible.
The system I'm planning to put in would consist of 2 seperate,
different-brand car alarm systems, cross trip-wired so one trips the other,
each wired to seperate batteries at each end of the car (one battery is
exclusivly for powering the sound system and as a backup incase the main
battery fails). The units themselves will be buried in the car; likely
underneath the seat and between the dash and firewall, with their wires
routed to several wiring terminals throughout the vehicle which, from
there, will wire into other devices. This makes it easier to diagnose and
unhook a malfunctioning device, but they will be hidden well enough to keep
them from being seen. The batteries themselves will have only the main
cables exposed at the terminals, with the actual power leads running to the
units internal to the car via insulated vampire taps off of the main lead
wires. If you unhook or cut the main terminal, that end of the car won't
power up or on.
This provides several kinds of security. First you can't unhook the alarm
from the lead, second you can't brute-force the unit via a code scrambler
as there are two seperate units and if you turn off one, the other will
still trip. I'll trade buddies security alarm system stickers and post 2
or 3 seperate ones on the doors. Additionally, each terminal can wire into
two seperate alarm systems so disabling one won't lead to the vibration
sensors failing to kick on. I'll also make a decoy out of a gutted alarm
system and a very simple quartz/memory counter timing circut so the led
blinks and if it gets torn out, it isn't a huge deal since it's a decoy
(trick on the thief who bomps it and finds out it isn't the headunit).
Physically, I have to rebuild the steering column at some point on the car
so I'm going to likely change out the default tumbler lock for a new one.
Additionally, I'm going to put on a hood pin lock and a better trunk lock.
I already have security bolts for the rims.
Finally, as for add-ons, when the alarm is tripped I'm going to put on an
ignition kill switch relay, and if I can find one, a fuel pump kill switch
(tells the ECM to cut all fuel to the vehicles engine). Additionally, the
car will have 2 strobekits installed; one behind the front grill and one by
the back window so if the thief actually finds a way to get into the car
and drive it away, he's going to get picked up by the cops for a flashing
car or make them think it's a cops car. I want to wire into the sound
system as well as at least 2 seperate speakers for the audio alarm.
Finally, the brakesystem will be wired into the alarm system such that an
actuator motor will internally pull the brake pedal metal wire down that
hooks it to the hydraulics to cause the brakes to lock up, preventing the
wheels from moving should they have a tow truck. At some point I'm also
going to put an airbag kit on it, and the vehicle has flat enough of a
bottom that I could concievably have it 2 inches above the ground when
off.
I'd like to find a kit with tripwire option such that it sends voltage
through a lead and expects that voltage to some back through a return lead.
This allows me to put in all kinds of fun relays and allows me to screw
with the ECM a bit. The main consern is vibration sensors, I want for the
car to, at least, go off should the doors be opened, windows get smashed,
or be hit by another car. If there's a frequency-adjustable kit somewhere
that'd be ideal since I can adjust a potentiometer to play with ranges.
Gwokable
so you've obviously done your homework.... so what's your question again?
windsonian
A lot of vibration and motion sensors for car alarms are built for smaller
cars.
I need something for a big, all-metal car.
If you install a car alarm made for a toyota corolla onto a old lincoln
continental towncar, for example, it will fail to go off when it's being
broken into.
So I need something made for trucks or bigger cars with metal bodies.
Where can I find this?
Gwokable
motion detectors detect motion ... unless they're a serious microwave unit,
the metal body shouldn't make a difference. if the space is too big to
detect, then put in 2, or 3, or 4 etc etc
similarly for vibration sensors, my understanding is that they detect the
movement, not the material the car is made of. if it's not sensitive
enough, put in several, or get some that are more sensitive (then you run
the risk of nuisance alarms)
the way you're talking, i don't think you really want an out-of-the-box
solution, so customising with extra/different sensors should be just up
your alley.
windsonian
that must be some special 88 caddy to be doing all that bullshit to
it...:screwy:
dodger65
Once the car is done and properly so, you'll understand just from the
picture. Riding in an old big caddy is like floating on clouds; you can be
doing 100 miles an hour and it feels like you're really doing 40 in a
smaller, newer car.
Not to mention it's as economical to own as a newer car once properly fixed
up. The only downside is the amount of time needed to fix it up, but once
fixed up (mabye another year of weekend work here and there plus a engine
swap), the car will be reliable enough that I can depend on it for a 5-10
years without any major work.
And it's a BIG plus if you want to do roadtrips to have a large, reliable,
comfertable car.
The main reason is because I know how easy it is to steal an older car.
You show me any 1970's or 1980's car without an alarm system and I can show
you how to steal it with $20 worth of tools and about 1 minute of time.
Not to mention because the frame and siding is steel, the engine iron, and
most of the electrical components are made of expensive parts, the car
itself in junk materials is worth around $800. In the next decade that'll
probably increase 2-4 fold and that makes it an easy, tempting target.
I'm not planning to put in a security system just yet, but soon I'm going
to start to put one in by installing the base components (ignition kill,
alarm, sensors, terminals, battery) and I need to start basing my decisions
off of a reliable kit.
Gwokable
