Adding indoor (home) notification to Car Alarm...

blazinlow · 11-02-2006, 12:58 AM

I have just purchased and installed a 2-way paging car alarm. It works, but the alert isnt very bold on the keychain. It beeps a few times, not very loud, and vibrates for about a second...then stops completely. It wouldnt wake me up when Im sleeping, thats for sure - and that's my main concern.

I called the company, they said nothing can be done to increase volume and prolonge the vibrating length.

this is where I need your help!

i would like to put something together that when the alarm goes off, something in my apartment, most likely a buzzer, goes off.

My car isnt parked very far away from my bedroom, 50 feet maybe.... The 2-way built into the alarm gets the signal back and forth...

so im thinking 2 different scenarios - use a seperate transmitter/receiver (x10???) or build only a receiver that can recognize the signal the alarm already sends to the keychain and activate the buzzer.

Is this possible? I can either buy something, or the parts to build one. Any input would be great

pepsibobby · 11-02-2006, 07:03 AM

yeah i dont know. i wanted to do something like that, but have my remote unlock my house doors

Dragonknell911 · 11-02-2006, 08:21 AM

Quote:

Is this possible? I can either buy something, or the parts to build one.

Yes.

More than likely it will end up costing you just as much to make something as it would to simply buy a new alarm.

That said, you could open your remote, find whatever it is that vibrates and/or the thing that makes noise. When the remote recieves whatever signal it recieves, it turns those both on. You could run wires from the same place that turns both of those on, to a relay.

I'm not saying to take apart your remote and run wires from it, because obviously that would be stupid. You could do something creative though, like making a dock for the remote. That way when you set your remote on it, prongs from the dock touch the correct spots, and wire up the relay.

The relay could then turn on any number of components you wanted. I realize this is for the house, and not the car, but the same idea applies.

jcdillin · 11-02-2006, 08:57 AM

I would buy one of those kits you see that have a keychain and a little receiver with a relay. Actually radioshack used to sell them, i'm not sure if they do anymore. But you just use one of the outputs of the alarm to trigger a little relay to simulate pushing the button on the remote. Then you could attach anything to the receiver in the house, strobe, alarm, coffee pot.

edit: found it, but it's discontinued. Call stores I bet someone has one still hanging around

http://www.radioshack.com/product/in...entPage=search

Dragonknell911 · 11-03-2006, 09:00 AM

That seems like a better pre-built solution then what I suggested. Anyways home depot carries the same thing, and i'm pretty sure other hardware stores would too.

turbocad6 · 11-03-2006, 10:05 AM

I have the same situation as you... what I did was build a module... it consists of another cheapo alarm brain, mounted in a tiny enclosure... this is a $29 passive alarm module, it sets passively, no remote even... inside the enclosure is just the module & a 12v adaptor & a 12v piezo,this goes under my night table. there are 2 wires coming out of the module, one is the plug that plugs into the ac outlet for power, the other is a harness that extends around 4'.... it consists of a tiny shock sensor & 2 switches... a push button & a toggle.... this is mounted in a tiny nice looking box/pad that I rest my remote on..., on my table right next to my bed...

goes like this.... at night I place my pager in vibrate mode on the box/pad, I throw the toggle switch... this arms the cheapo alarm, 30 seconds later one chirp from the piezo tells me it's set.... if my pager goes off in vibrate, the alarm activates by being tripped with the shock sensor & the piezo screams.... in the morning I throw the toggle(ign on) & then press the red button (disarm)

the only time this is any kind of problem is if I knock into the thing by accident, then my wife wakes up & screams at me... other than that, no problems

the whole thing should cost $60 or so to build & is real easy...

the only thing I have been meaning to do for a while now is to build the shock sensor & switches into an alarm clock, or the base of a lamp, so it's invisable... still use the external module under the table, but use the alarm clock as the cosmetics so you don't have to see a box/pad on your table.... never got around to that yet though...

blazinlow · 11-03-2006, 11:54 AM

turbocad, great idea! This sounds very easy.... The alarm I replaced would be perfect for this. Thanks!

What do you guys think the range would be on those RF keychains suggested?

turbocad6 · 11-03-2006, 12:06 PM

depends... regular fm ones viper/clifford/python... most really, range is a block or 2 may be depending on terestrial blockages...

then theres fm spread spectrum.... these have 2-3 times the range...

turbocad6 · 11-03-2006, 12:15 PM

if you build this thing it is friggin awsome.... one day I had a friend over, car parked outside.... someone bumped my car... the piezo started screaming... he was like, "wtf is that", I said, my car, then went outside to see a girl parking behind me.... my alarm didn't even go into full alarm, just the primary shock sensor tripped... he was floored by this!!!

this add on is good enough that it should be part of a complete security package for anyone with a pager alarm... I thought about building more & selling them... but no time

Dragonknell911 · 11-03-2006, 03:24 PM

Quote:

I have the same situation as you... what I did was build a module... it consists of another cheapo alarm brain, mounted in a tiny enclosure... this is a $29 passive alarm module, it sets passively, no remote even... inside the enclosure is just the module & a 12v adaptor & a 12v piezo,this goes under my night table. there are 2 wires coming out of the module, one is the plug that plugs into the ac outlet for power, the other is a harness that extends around 4'.... it consists of a tiny shock sensor & 2 switches... a push button & a toggle.... this is mounted in a tiny nice looking box/pad that I rest my remote on..., on my table right next to my bed...

That is a good idea!
More than likely though, i'd stagger home drunk just once, bump into and then break it after I couldnt get it to stop

blazinlow · 11-05-2006, 07:18 PM

Im about to build this now, will report back!

Dragonknell911 · 11-06-2006, 09:41 AM

@blazinlow, keep us updated

@Turbocad6, if you happen to have them can you post pictures of your setup?

blazinlow · 11-06-2006, 11:54 AM

Ok so im about 99% complete, all thats left is soldering the DC jack on the back...but here it is:

The case is a Radio Shack Project Box. Mounted on top is the LED to show me its armed. On the side is a Piezo 2-tone siren.

The rear will have the Power In Jack

Inside you can see the brain, the antenna, a power bridge, and the shock sensor mounted on top. I removed all the extra wires coming out of the alarm brain, only used is 12V+, ground, and the siren output. This was my old alarm which was a remote start also, so there were alot of extra wires. Fortunately, I have doubles of all these harnesses in case I ever want to use it again. I still have to get small nuts/bolts to attach the power bridge permanently to the side.

Right now Im just using the remote to arm it. I most likely will set it to passive arming, so I can just plug it in, wait 30 seconds, and be armed. Probably will add a toggle switch to the 12V+ in line.

I found a 12V 800mA AC-DC adapter laying around the house which I hope will be sufficient in powering this.

Total cost (minus alarm) = about $20 in parts.

Let me know what you guys think.

turbocad6 · 11-06-2006, 12:52 PM

very similar to mine... I'll try & get pictures... I'm in the middle of getting ready to move & I have it packed away right now...

I put the piezo inside the box with a opening for the sound... othwise very similar... I used a smaller project box for the pad... it's not much bigger than the shock sensor itself... I originally had just the shock sensor & switches next to it... I want to build it into a good looking case somehow eventually after I move into my new place...

I was going to use a remote alarm too, but I had a real cheap passive alarm that I winded up using.. I may even redo it with a remote alarm just to make arm/disarm just one button press instead of a button & a switch...

looks good, glad to see someone else use this setup... it's pretty cool

Dragonknell911 · 11-06-2006, 03:16 PM

Looking good, the case is a little big, I have the same one (from radioshack). I want to do this, i'm too afraid that I would forget to put the alarm on it or something one night. I'm still considering a dock..
btw I hope neither of you have animals...