Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2022 14:56:00 -0500
Reply-To: Derek Drew <derekdrew@DEREKMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Derek Drew <derekdrew@DEREKMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Car Alarm Recommendations
In-Reply-To: <377366213.3858161.1643472259630@mail.yahoo.com>
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I spent a month researching this and came to the conclusion that the best
approach currently is Compustar/Firstech. The Viper company products are
under a cloud of new ownership, massive firings, and a more hostile
relationship with DYI people than CompuStar. Also, their remote doesn't
have the same range as Compustar, and you need that range to know if
somebody enters your van when it is not in cell range. <br><br>
CompuStar isn't oriented to offering any DYI help either, but at least
they don't try to actively block the DYI sector, and if you click around
enough, you can get all the information you need. <br><br>
If you decide to go with Compustar, I can pmail the manuals or upload
them to a Vanagon-related storage place that accepts our files. <br><br>
All the information you need is online, but they try to terrify you into
using one of their installers so it is confusing at first. It is not a
bad thing to use one of their installers, but I am too much of a control
freak to do that. <br><br>
I bought all the elements online from various vendors, especially ebay
vendors in the last couple of months.<br><br>
What you want is a CMX-based system with the T11 / T12 or T13 remote
which is supposed to give you a 3 mile range. You need various odds and
ends to go with this, like a tiny "antenna" in the window.
<br><br>
I am not going to hook up the remote start for mine initially, but it
sounds like an option to consider for later when you have the mental
bandwidth. <br><br>
For comprehensive security for vans that may be worth $1/4 million each
in a few years, one could imagine a scenario in which a vehicle deployed
A) a Compustar T13 car alarm with a 3 mile range on the remote fob (a
kind of radio they use so it does not depend on being in Cell range), a
device which also has the GPS and cell phone integration (such as we also
have with our own vendor's excellent Vantracker) plus B) a SPOT trace
locator for satellite plus C) an IOS Apple Airtag "tracker"
(with the speaker disabled -- see Youtube) plus D) a TILE tracker
(android) all operating at the same time. That would give you RADIO* (w
GPS), CELLULAR* (w GPS), SATELLITE (w GPS)**, and also both APPLE and
ANDROID methods of recovering your car, all systems operating at once. If
we could find an old "Autopage" alarm that broadcast to a pager
on the CB frequency that would add E) yet another modality, but that
would require hooking up a CB antenna and optimally connecting an illegal
linear.<br><br>
* Door pins send alerts<br>
**Movement sensitive<br><br>
To me, the most important trigger is going to be one of the door pins
opening. That would require sensor triggers for this (or more easily a
late factory OEM VW central locking system). I think all these systems
would show your vehicle's location on a map provided you can find
Internet to view these maps. The door pins would be your first-alert in
most cases, with the exception where the perp was climbing through broken
glass and not opening a door, which doesn't sound like a default choice
he would have. Because the door pin operation is so definitive, the geo
fence functionalities offered by some systems seem less compelling by
comparison because by then your vehicle is already stolen.<br><br>
Add to this battery backup systems for your devices in case they
disconnect the battery, plus the usual foot pedal locks and steering
wheel locks, and at least one blinking red light in the dash, and maybe a
2nd battery to use for starting when your battery goes dead. It would be
a nice touch to shut devices down when the battery feeding them fell
below 12.25 volts just to avoid savaging the car battery. Not sure if
this would be needed with lithium batteries.<br><br>
Somehow I feel like Garmin has something to offer in relation to the
above, but I am not sure what that is exactly.<br><br>
There was word of a mint low mileage Doka being offered a month ago for
$240,000, but, based on the very number it could have been a joke and I
didn't check it. <br><br>
At 11:04 AM 1/29/2022, you wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Hi, seeking some tips re a Car
Alarm system. Looking to secure/disable the car, add some
convenience.<br>
It is a 1990 Westy, power everything (except, I guess, the engine),
manual transmission.<br>
Looking for-remote lock/unlock-ingnition kill-limited sensors, door,
shock?-possibility of remote start<br>
Will probably put a separate kill switch to the starter or fuel
pump.  Starter already has a start signal relay on it, so that
would be easy.<br>
Not sure what the state of the art is these days. They all seem
kind of the same.<br>
...Markus</blockquote>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
____________________________<br>
<b>Derek
Drew</b>
<br>
Sharon CT<br>
derekdrew@derekmail.com<br>
Email is best normally but...<br>
Mobile: 703-408-1532 (voice and texts) </body>
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