I'd go out on a limb and say Honda-tech'ers have to worry about their cars being stolen more so than any other group. With that in mind...

if you had input on the design of an alarm what would you recommend?

here's what i've been thinking:
-typical alarm setup. brain and a remote. splice into wiring harness, and viola.
-remote similar to a cell phone. similar size. no fold, touch screen lcd, animation showing status of vehicle- opened doors, trunk, hood, etc. high quality, high resolution, actual picture of your model. (not like the old lame little remotes w/ the picture)
-shock sensor, tilt sensors on car
-remote would have 1 mile range. vibration and sound alerts.
-ability to turn on headlights, interior lights, honk horn, etc. basically expandable to filp any relay you'd like.
-remote start

price tag: $500.

thoughts?

 

so when you putting this out?

 

it's an idea.

 

It would be sweet to be able to control multiple cut offs remotely, fuel, ignition, and so on. Also, the price would increase depending on how many you needed due to stand alone management. Just a thought.

 

i wonder if honda-tech, or anyone else for that matter would be open to the open-source idea... letting them pick where to put them and when to flip the relays, and having a simple GUI to set it all up. instructions and ideas could be shared on a forum/website.

that way, you're not limited to typical alarm standards, you're able to put relays ANYWHERE. allows setup for custom harnesses and such.

see, brainstorming does work!

 

I fail to see how Viper's top of the line products don't meet the OP's criteria. In fact, it almost reads like the side of the box. Add a tilt sensor and some relays... Interesting topic though.

I'd take the current lineup of alarms, decrease the size of the brain. Maybe sacrifice a dozen of the extra programmable outputs, especially in trade for some more sensor ports.

I'd also decrease the size of the remotes and increase battery life. Or build them with lithium ion rechargeable packs and include a second, non LCD remote. Day to day I find the LCD remotes too bulky and too easily scratched and broken. Replacements are over $200. But they're great for diagnosing a rusty hood pin or door pin switch. You know what, scratch that! Make the LCD remote purely optional, decrease the cost of the alarm, and just provide a diagnostic cable that I can tuck away and access with my bitwriter instead of digging out the alarm and plugging it in each time. Wireless ie bluetooth would be nice one day.

Biggest actual problem that needs to be addressed is with the remote start alarms. The ground when armed doesn't work with the remote start unless you add a relay and use the status output. Big PITA. Also, there's a trace amount of ground when disarmed on some of them, enough to trigger a relay. So the orange wire is pretty much useless.

Price of the alarm install is still prohibitively high. Most people wont drop $250, they'd rather risk getting their car stolen. Bring the price down to the $100 mark and much more people will get alarms. Charge all you want for remote start and other convenience features though.

That's assuming you can find a good installer these days. Best Buy wont pay enough anymore so all the good installers have changed professions. You can let them do your stereo, but don't even joke about letting them do an alarm. And the small shops are all out to screw you. Chances of finding a good installer is quite slim, and even if you find one, how will you know?

The 520T needs mounting tabs on both the module and the battery itself.

One final thing, I'd like to see shock sensors and radar sensors developed until they actually work like they're supposed to.

 

I like your ideas.
A small remote- with 1mile wireless and a lcd could run about $100 as an option.
a remote with no screen, just buttons would run about $50.

the brain is rather simple. in a lack of terms, its just a microcontroller used to flip relays.

Having a usb cable tucked under the hood/dash to program the brain would be easy.

QUALITY shock sensors and such are no problem to find and utilize.
shock- http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/ima...09197-02-L.jpg
3 axis accelerometer- http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/pro...oducts_id=9045

the list goes on.


what would be a realistic ammount of "ports" to have?
for example-
would you want like 5 sensor hookups? say for 2 shock sensors, 2 tilt, and 1 motion for your sunroof?
and the ability to wire to 10 other wires, to control lights, honk the horn, read if doors are open, etc.
Just curious what you'd find useful.

 

Can it have GPS, then as long as you are within 1mi show you a relative direction and coordinates of your car as it's being stolen? Or have both remote and alarm communicate via cell towers so 1mi isn't an issue and your location is on the screen :D. And of course the brain needs to communicate it's location via cell and should trigger the alarm if it moves too far (ie someone put it on a tow truck).

 

building a gsm/cdma piece of hardware is quite an undertaking.
using a pre-existing wireless protocall, such as wifi or xbee is much easier.

 

If it could have anything,

Unlimited range
Good shock/proximity sensor that works properly
Some sort of key fob that you take with you, that needs to be inside the car for it to start
Some sort of physical means to keep the car from moving when parked, such as a wheel boot or similar, steering wheel column lock, etc.
The car calls you and/or the police when it detects intrusion
Remote start that works with the above but still allows for stealthiness