Car alarm tied into a home alarm

a car that's connected to a home alarm system for when it's parked in the driveway at night. Something that would be armed in stay mode only (disarmed in away mode) and unsupervised so that it can be left in the car? I suppose it could be on a separate partition from the rest of the house, but that's a bit of a pain to remember to arm and disarm.

to however ridiculously hot it gets in a sealed car on a summer afternoon). A door contact would rely on someone opening a specific door to break in, which is useless for a smash and grab through the window and expensive/time consuming to have a contact on every door. A glassbreak would be useless against jimmying the door lock.

My suggestion is to use a standard $50 car alarm with a keychain remote.

Use a timer relay across the siren output, or a trigger channel off the alarm to trigger a relay and activate an unsupervised RF transmitter to the home alarm system.

Please keep in mind that the transmitter would need to be mounted near the windshield to maximize its range. This can easily be done with a Honeywell system.

r in a car that's connected to a home alarm system for when it's parked in the driveway at night. Something that would be armed in stay mode only (dis armed in away mode) and unsupervised so that it can be left in the car? I s uppose it could be on a separate partition from the rest of the house, but that's a bit of a pain to remember to arm and disarm. A motion would be goo d except for the temperature range (-40 in the winter up to however ridicul ously hot it gets in a sealed car on a summer afternoon). A door contact wo uld rely on someone opening a specific door to break in, which is useless f or a smash and grab through the window and expensive/time consuming to have a contact on every door. A glassbreak would be useless against jimmying th e door lock. Any custom solutions that could be applied to any or at least most systems? - Chris

I don't know if there is a product out there but if you had a car alarm you could just tap off the output of the car alarm with a relay that would tri p an unsupervised transmitter to a receiver located in the house. Contacts of the receiver trip a zone on the house alarm. Visonic used to mfg a few u nsupervised wireless transmitters and receivers. Had a range of about 100 f eet, line of sight. Without a car alarm you'd need some kind of shock shock sensor (take your pick) all which are prone to false alarms, just like mot ion detectors. I use a photo beam on my boat (which is rock solid) but that wouldn't be to practical in a car. There are current sensors that would tr ip a relay if the dome light went on but if they just broke a window and di dn't open a door ..... NADA.

We did several of these for RV's parked along garages, etc... Use a standar d vehicle alarm with the output that is tripping horn/lights also tripping a wireless transmitter. We then had a wireless receiver in the overhang of the roof in that area of the house hooked up to a 24hr zone on the panel. If car alarm is turned on and off properly, no signal to house. If alarm on car goes off though, the house alarm trips and sends message to central station as well, regardless if system in the house is armed or not. We had one guy that was tripping his car alarm on accident all the time and we wi red in a five second delay with an Altronix timer so the car alarm had to b e going off that long before the wireless signal would be sent.

ard vehicle alarm with the output that is tripping horn/lights also trippin g a wireless transmitter. We then had a wireless receiver in the overhang of the roof in that area of the house hooked up to a 24hr zone on the panel . If car alarm is turned on and off properly, no signal to house. If alar m on car goes off though, the house alarm trips and sends message to centra l station as well, regardless if system in the house is armed or not. We h ad one guy that was tripping his car alarm on accident all the time and we wired in a five second delay with an Altronix timer so the car alarm had to be going off that long before the wireless signal would be sent.

Interesting ideas, although I have zero experience with car alarms. As far as range goes, a WL transmitter should be fine as I tend to use DSC equipm ent and their range would be fine for the vast majority of driveways. Only if you had something parked out by a shop might it be an issue. A 24-hour zone tied to the siren output would certainly get around the stay/away arm ing issue as well. I may just have to look into cheap car alarms.

- Chris

Car alarms are designed for cars... Compact small size, 12 volts DC, and should be designed to use as little electricity as possible when on (Important for cars, because if you use too much electricity, it will drain the car battery and it will not start!)

Years ago we did something like that with service trucks. Each one had a bumper plug that plugged into the building alarm. When the truck was out there was a service termination cap on the loop to that vehicle.

ard vehicle alarm with the output that is tripping horn/lights also trippin g a wireless transmitter. We then had a wireless receiver in the overhang o f the roof in that area of the house hooked up to a 24hr zone on the panel. If car alarm is turned on and off properly, no signal to house. If alarm o n car goes off though, the house alarm trips and sends message to central s tation as well, regardless if system in the house is armed or not. We had o ne guy that was tripping his car alarm on accident all the time and we wire d in a five second delay with an Altronix timer so the car alarm had to be going off that long before the wireless signal would be sent.

Hello Steve. Been a long time.

Did that other (moderated) group ever get off the ground? I stopped checki ng in after a couple of months and lost the link to it.

Sure would be nice to have a good active alarm group. But, as you may remem ber people are not to anxious to give up their personal information just t o discuss alarms. Besides you know as well as anyone what happened here whe n personal infomation gets into the wrong hands. Just because a group is m oderated doesn't mean that a nasty participant or even a moderator couldn't take advantage of personal information outside of a moderated group.

Do you know of any related discussion groups? As you can see things are pre tty civil around here now. Not to many participants though. I presume it's either because the reputation lingers or social networking has taken it's toll on Newsgroups.

The forum didn't really take off..... About a hundred registered users with about two dozen that checked in every couple of days. No interaction to s peak of though..... That and I moved back to public sector just about a yea r ago (Programmer Analyst for public safety systems for the city) so I'm no t really in the industry any longer....

ASA is still my baby though, so even though you don't see me around all the time, I am here. The only other forums I'm aware of are all manufacturer hosted. I think the forum/message boards are just dying a slow death due to the likes of Twitter and other more immediate social interactions.

th about two dozen that checked in every couple of days. No interaction to speak of though..... That and I moved back to public sector just about a ye ar ago (Programmer Analyst for public safety systems for the city) so I'm n ot really in the industry any longer.... ASA is still my baby though, so ev en though you don't see me around all the time, I am here. The only other f orums I'm aware of are all manufacturer hosted. I think the forum/message b oards are just dying a slow death due to the likes of Twitter and other mor e immediate social interactions.

Well ...... good to see you're still checking in. If you come across a good trade discussion group stop in and let us know.

Ciao