Alarms

[PKCSPT]

It's name is Lance, he is more the silent alarm type. When he runs to hide behind peeks around with his tail wagging I know someone is approaching. If I walk toward them he will too,,, hoping to be pet. At 100lbs people tend to approach more slowly.

[webpager]

Tracking is very easy to do with an inexpensive used android phone or used (though not as inexpensive) Apple phone. These phones can also easily be used to turn on or off lighting or other electrical by remote control with another phone (as long as there is phone service). If you Google something like "cheap phone service" you'll find there are number of them out there. I have one for the phone that I use as part of my car automation that I pay $10 for 100 minutes and that lasts 120 days. If you add more before the 120 days is up those minutes will roll over. So, basically, a little more than $30 per year.

You can then use the phone to track it. There are a ton of free android, Apple, or third party apps to track.

For automation I added a touch tone decoder (about $12), a set of relays, and some wiring. Some of the relays are momentary, like to start the car, open the windows (front), open the sunroof, honk the horn, activate the seat heaters. Others are not momentary, such as opening a relay to disable the ignition. All of these functions as well as locating it can be done from another phone. If someone were to steal the car I could also listen to the conversations (or more likely the radio that they would have blaring) as well as track it through the GPS on the phone that remains in the car. The phone in the car is set to auto answer and silent ringer. The audio out goes to the touch tone decoder, so even if there were noise on my end it would not be heard by someone in the car.

[Diemjoe]

Cool idea. Thanks.

[tony.latham]

Tracking is very easy to do with an inexpensive used android phone or used (though not as inexpensive) Apple phone. These phones can also easily be used to turn on or off lighting or other electrical by remote control with another phone (as long as there is phone service). If you Google something like "cheap phone service" you'll find there are number of them out there. I have one for the phone that I use as part of my car automation that I pay $10 for 100 minutes and that lasts 120 days. If you add more before the 120 days is up those minutes will roll over. So, basically, a little more than $30 per year.

You can then use the phone to track it. There are a ton of free android, Apple, or third party apps to track.

For automation I added a touch tone decoder (about $12), a set of relays, and some wiring. Some of the relays are momentary, like to start the car, open the windows (front), open the sunroof, honk the horn, activate the seat heaters. Others are not momentary, such as opening a relay to disable the ignition. All of these functions as well as locating it can be done from another phone. If someone were to steal the car I could also listen to the conversations (or more likely the radio that they would have blaring) as well as track it through the GPS on the phone that remains in the car. The phone in the car is set to auto answer and silent ringer. The audio out goes to the touch tone decoder, so even if there were noise on my end it would not be heard by someone in the car.

Amazing. Got a pic of this cellphone-centered device?

T

[lrrowe]

I am with Tony.

[webpager]

It's buried under the center console.

What I have is one of these:
http://m.ebay.com/itm/271531889237?cmd=VIDESC&gxo=true

I bought the wired receptacles for the leads and sent them to power, ground, and to the relays. The device is powered at all times as is the phone it's connected to. It's just a 3.5 mm male to 3.5 mm male cord between the phone and decoder. The relays (mini, 16 on a board) go to the controlled components. The decoder is the same (different seller) as I've got here. The relays I got from Amazon. The idea came from the car alarms that do it, but you have to use their network. I didn't want to be paying $20 a month for the cool factor or rare lockout problem.