Almost lost the Tahoe today...

[PatDTN]

I'm an electrical engineer, and I was talking with another EE friend of mine today about it. So we spent some time cooking up ways to electrify the door handles.

Funny story from LONG ago. My father had a Model T during the war years as a young stud. Just barely too young to fight in WWII. He and his buddies rigged up a vibrating coil which they used I guess after magnetos so that it put the voltage through the entire chassis of the Model T. Back in those days everybody had steel bumpers so they'd pull up against somebody's car touching bumpers and wait for the owner to come to his car. They'd start the coil going and when the guy touched his door handle he got quite a surprise.

That Model T had a rusted out floorboard in the back so my dad and his buddies carried a box of gears and springs and bolts around with them. They'd go through the drive-in and coast a bit with the car in gear and the ignition off to load the exhaust with unburnt fuel then flip it on causing a huge backfire then tip the box out through the floor hole.

Rubber was rationed so his stories of keeping tires on it were fun too.

 

[PatDTN]

Back when I had a BMW M5 I had a security system installed. Among normal features it had a carjacking protection. Whenever you opened the car door it started a timer and you had to enter a code through a rocker switch to cancel it. When the timer expired it killed the car and set off the alarm. That allowed the carjacker to be far enough away from you to make you safe.

Those BMWs have a double lock system where the doors can't be unlocked from inside. I declined to have that activated because then the thief would destroy the car trying to get out.

 

[PatDTN]

Incidentally when I locked my keys inside my 2009 Tahoe at the store I realized right away and just climbed in through the open sunroof. I pulled my keys out and tried to get out. The doors had to be unlocked with the fob. Must be similar to the feature on the BMW.

 

[Sam Harris]

I don't know if the $799 includes a kill switch or not. The one offering the $1600 job sent me a video of his kill switch in action. Unfortunately, $1600 isn't in the budget after paying 2x deductibles.

Tbh, that seems pretty outrageous.

 

[Doubeleive]

Tbh, that seems pretty outrageous.

$799 is retail on there higher end alarm only, not including installation or any add-on sensors.

 

[DougAMiller]

Back when I had a BMW M5 I had a security system installed. Among normal features it had a carjacking protection. Whenever you opened the car door it started a timer and you had to enter a code through a rocker switch to cancel it. When the timer expired it killed the car and set off the alarm. That allowed the carjacker to be far enough away from you to make you safe.

Those BMWs have a double lock system where the doors can't be unlocked from inside. I declined to have that activated because then the thief would destroy the car trying to get out.

Yeah, I discovered that this summer when I was working on my daughter's 525. I had removed the driver's side door handle and lock to fix a problem with it refusing to work most of the time. I figured it was probably just dirty switches in the lock mechanism. Anyway, I had gotten in and closed the door with all of the other doors locked to check something, and I could not get the manual buttons to unlock the doors. The power locks wouldn't work either, probably because I had the driver door lock assembly out of the car. I had left the keys and my phone on the workbench, and apparently not much works with the key off and doors locked, even the horn. It was really hot in the car with everything closed up, it was about 95° that day, and I could not figure out any way to get out. I finally thought about having the Tahoe keys in my pocket and started hitting the panic button on it. It must have taken half an hour for my wife to finally come out to see what was going on, and I was able to have her use the keys to unlock the passenger door, but I was getting pretty serious heat stroke by then.

 

[S33k3r]

$799 included install. Here is the stuff I want -- maybe you guys can suggest anything I missed, or anything I don't need:

The two things I must have are 1) A killswitch and 2) an alarm the thief cannot disable

The other things in which I am interested:
2 way communication
Communication/Control via a phone app (which also requires a monthly subscription)
Glass Break Sensor
Motion Sensor
Geo Fencing (so if my vehicle moves I'll be alerted)
Car Jack Protection -- this would be the kill switch plus annoying alarm that goes off after the vehicle has been moved, theoretically stranding the would-be thief. I don't particularly think this is super beneficial in my scenario, but I do believe in a layered approach.

Most of the high end systems come with remote start and some come with climate control. Having the ability to remotely lower my windows to a predetermined height would be nice, too.

Thoughts?

 

[Sam Harris]

$799 included install. Here is the stuff I want -- maybe you guys can suggest anything I missed, or anything I don't need:

The two things I must have are 1) A killswitch and 2) an alarm the thief cannot disable

The other things in which I am interested:
2 way communication
Communication/Control via a phone app (which also requires a monthly subscription)
Glass Break Sensor
Motion Sensor
Geo Fencing (so if my vehicle moves I'll be alerted)
Car Jack Protection -- this would be the kill switch plus annoying alarm that goes off after the vehicle has been moved, theoretically stranding the would-be thief. I don't particularly think this is super beneficial in my scenario, but I do believe in a layered approach.

Most of the high end systems come with remote start and some come with climate control. Having the ability to remotely lower my windows to a predetermined height would be nice, too.

Thoughts?

Sounds good to me. I’d also add a tilt sensor I think.

 

[Doubeleive]

the glass sensor and motion sensor are kind of redundant, if you don't have anyone like kids playing around your vehicle then a motion sensor may work out they are tricky to get set just right.
you could have the window option added on one of the 4 aux channels it is something the installer would have to do custom getting them to only go down part way may even be harder.
the phone app from directed is a annual subscription or tri-annual.
part of that app is the 4g & gps function and the geofence (smartfence) is a setting in the app, you can turn it on or off and set the perimeter as you desire
it can also alert you if the battery gets low

 

[Doubeleive]

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