Thought I'd share this - it might be useful to someone but with the usual disclaimers for liability if it doesn't work. I've not seen anything like this discussed.
We've probably all read about various forms of car theft recently, especially what is called Relay theft - the use of a system that relays the Open command (ie. pulling the door handle to open the door) to the key and then gets the response back to the car so enabling access to the car without the key itself. Once started it will keep running until switched off!
Small RF shielding bags can be bought to keep your keys in which stops this form of theft from your home.
However, when parking in a public car park these toe rags also can effectively sniff the RF spectrum and steal your key code or interrupt the locking process as you lock your car either with the door handle switch or the remote, gain entry to your car and then duplicate your key. There has been a spate of thefts from around Solihull and Birmingham recently. Keyless entry cars are still vulnerable at that point.
Virtually impossible to stop in most cars short of preventing access to the diagnostics port which can be done but not always convenient or stylish.
Cars that are stolen are then frequently park it for a few days to see if anyone tries to recover it through a tracking device.
So, what do you do to try and get your car back if it does get stolen by these high tech pimples on the a**e of society?
Install a tracker - Not a cheap option.
There are some cheap ones that use SMS and other server based systems. Or you can use a commercial service.
Yesterday I discovered a cheap solution if you have an old unused iPhone lying about.
Put in a cheap SIM with a half decent amount of data (1GByte should be enough) £5-7pm or buy a PAYG SIM and keep it in credit although you don't get as much data on PAYG SIMs.
Set up a new iPhone iCloud account and add your old phone to it.
Turn off absolutely everything else to reduce battery discharge. No Wifi, sounds off, turn off all applications and stop then from using data services etc.
Put the old phone somewhere hidden in the car (but somewhere it will receive phone and GPS signals) and power it from an ignition switched 12V supply via a USB connection. When the car is in use it will charge the phone battery. That should hopefully be enough to keep the phone alive for a few days. Even unpowered it should last a good while especially if it is an older phone whose batteries last longer than new processor heavy devices.
From you own phone simply use Find Friends for selecting your old phone. It will find its location and you have to accept it on the old one. (I think it is this way around).
From your normal phone in Find Friends - You can then select 'Tell me when the phone "Leaves its current Location".'
Every time you leave your car, use this Find Friends feature! simples! Takes just a few seconds to do.
If someone steals your car not only will you get an alert but you can also find your car and track it at any time.
It works - when the old phone gets more than 100m or so away from the location, you will get the Find Friends alert!
I'm looking for a USB Power bank device that permanently supplies 5V. Most of those available will switch off the output when it detects that the device has charged. It then needs manual intervention to get it to charge again. A power bank charging off the ignition and permanently supplying 5V to the USB will give you a much long period of use.
Of course it is also a phone. If someone nicks your car, you can call it. Set the phone to auto answer (not available on IOS 10) and pair it with your car's Bluetooth and set the phone low down in priority for selection (so the car selects your normal phone first when you get in), then you could scare the willies out of any thief by phoning your number which will answer directly on the car's audio system and supply some choice words including details of where they are and which direction they are going (or let the police do that for you - if you can get hold of them).
I see this as a basic solution, but there is opportunity to add lots of functionality by developing a specific App for which I claim copyright! I'll be talking to my son to look at what could be done!
I'll add some details on how I get on with this cheap tracking solution over the next few days. Got to be worth a try.
We've probably all read about various forms of car theft recently, especially what is called Relay theft - the use of a system that relays the Open command (ie. pulling the door handle to open the door) to the key and then gets the response back to the car so enabling access to the car without the key itself. Once started it will keep running until switched off!
Small RF shielding bags can be bought to keep your keys in which stops this form of theft from your home.
However, when parking in a public car park these toe rags also can effectively sniff the RF spectrum and steal your key code or interrupt the locking process as you lock your car either with the door handle switch or the remote, gain entry to your car and then duplicate your key. There has been a spate of thefts from around Solihull and Birmingham recently. Keyless entry cars are still vulnerable at that point.
Virtually impossible to stop in most cars short of preventing access to the diagnostics port which can be done but not always convenient or stylish.
Cars that are stolen are then frequently park it for a few days to see if anyone tries to recover it through a tracking device.
So, what do you do to try and get your car back if it does get stolen by these high tech pimples on the a**e of society?
Install a tracker - Not a cheap option.
There are some cheap ones that use SMS and other server based systems. Or you can use a commercial service.
Yesterday I discovered a cheap solution if you have an old unused iPhone lying about.
Put in a cheap SIM with a half decent amount of data (1GByte should be enough) £5-7pm or buy a PAYG SIM and keep it in credit although you don't get as much data on PAYG SIMs.
Set up a new iPhone iCloud account and add your old phone to it.
Turn off absolutely everything else to reduce battery discharge. No Wifi, sounds off, turn off all applications and stop then from using data services etc.
Put the old phone somewhere hidden in the car (but somewhere it will receive phone and GPS signals) and power it from an ignition switched 12V supply via a USB connection. When the car is in use it will charge the phone battery. That should hopefully be enough to keep the phone alive for a few days. Even unpowered it should last a good while especially if it is an older phone whose batteries last longer than new processor heavy devices.
From you own phone simply use Find Friends for selecting your old phone. It will find its location and you have to accept it on the old one. (I think it is this way around).
From your normal phone in Find Friends - You can then select 'Tell me when the phone "Leaves its current Location".'
Every time you leave your car, use this Find Friends feature! simples! Takes just a few seconds to do.
If someone steals your car not only will you get an alert but you can also find your car and track it at any time.
It works - when the old phone gets more than 100m or so away from the location, you will get the Find Friends alert!
I'm looking for a USB Power bank device that permanently supplies 5V. Most of those available will switch off the output when it detects that the device has charged. It then needs manual intervention to get it to charge again. A power bank charging off the ignition and permanently supplying 5V to the USB will give you a much long period of use.
Of course it is also a phone. If someone nicks your car, you can call it. Set the phone to auto answer (not available on IOS 10) and pair it with your car's Bluetooth and set the phone low down in priority for selection (so the car selects your normal phone first when you get in), then you could scare the willies out of any thief by phoning your number which will answer directly on the car's audio system and supply some choice words including details of where they are and which direction they are going (or let the police do that for you - if you can get hold of them).
I see this as a basic solution, but there is opportunity to add lots of functionality by developing a specific App for which I claim copyright! I'll be talking to my son to look at what could be done!
I'll add some details on how I get on with this cheap tracking solution over the next few days. Got to be worth a try.
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