1. Home
  2. CCTV, Alarms and other Physical Security
  3. Can car alarm be set off by cell phone?

Can car alarm be set off by cell phone?

We have a 2004 Toyota with a factory installed car alarm. The alarm goes off randomly. Sometimes a few times a day, some days not at all. No physical disturbance is setting it off (it does it even sitting in our closed garage). However, we noticed that it seems to happen when my daughter's cell phone is in the car. I am still trying to confirm this relationship (by having the phone in there, or not having it in there, and seeing when the alarm goes off).

Could the cell phone be setting off the alarm? It's nothing obvious, like the phone being on "vibrate" mode, and receiving a call. Could the phone be sending a radio signal that is at a frequency that sets off the alarm (like the frequency of the emergency button on the key pad)?

We had it at the Toyota dealer, but they didn't find anything (this was before I made the cellphone connection).

Thanks for any help!

DanK

Reply to
DanK
Loading thread data ...

When I had a Nextel phone, I remember that it would cause noise on other devices like computers, radios, etc. This would occur whenever the phone was in proximity with these devices, and not just when placing or receiving calls. js

Reply to
alarman

Anything's possible...especially if the alarm has some kind of sonic device. Put the cell phone in the car windows up in a garage and call the cellphone...try different ring tones & volume settings see what happens.

Reply to
Crash Gordon

Reply to
Tommy

Yest it can......I had an older cell phone that set my alarm off all of the time....not sure why, but I confirmed it was the problem.

Reply to
PizzaHEMI

Four or five years ago, I had to move a smoke detector out of a business conference room. Every time someone would use a cell phone in the room, it would set off the fire alarm.

At my office. When I'm using the office phone (land line) and my office assistants cell phone is going to get a call ( a few seconds before her cell phone rings) I hear strong clicking on the desk handset. Seems like it might be able to cause a problem with a sensitive circuit in a car alarm.

Reply to
Jim

Did the cell phone set off the smoke detector itself, or did the interference get into the control panel? Meaning, did the smoke detector's red LED latch on? What kind of smoke detector or panel was responsible?

- badenov

Reply to
Nomen Nescio

Smoke detector would latch up. Was an older ESL smoke. I don't remember what revision. Owner didn't want to take a chance by just replacing with a new unit. I replaced it with a newer unit but out side and away from the conference room. Never tripped again, but who knows if it was due to the move or the new unit.

Reply to
Jim

And folks walk around with these transmitters nestled up nice and close to their brains.

*** Posted via a free Usenet account from
formatting link
***
Reply to
mikey

I keep switching mine between my two front pants pockets. That way the radiation expands the balls as symetrically as possible.

Reply to
Frank Olson

My brother-in-law installed his own home alarm system (he's an electrical engineer), but he didn't use shielded wire, just some stuff he had lying around. His alarm would periodically "arm itself" while he was, maybe, napping in the recliner. When he got up to go to bed, whammo, the alarm would go off. This happened several times, until he finally realized that it was coincident with his neighbor running his ham radios next door.

Rather than the cell phone sending a frequency the alarm recognizes, could it just be an electromagnetic field from the phone energizing the car's wiring?

Reply to
Sue

Read this thread all the way from the top:

formatting link

Reply to
Sue

Cabling-Design.com Forums website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.