Ideas for car security

Morning all,

I would welcome any ideas to increase security of car parked outside on my drive. i.e. the car is disturbed/opened, and this is communicated to my home node red/mqtt system. Then from node red I already can turn lights on/ activate house alarm/make speaker announcement etc..

The car is within wifi range, and I also have a zigbee2mqtt network, as well as many spare esp32/8266 devices. I have a couple of ideas which I will investigate, just wanted some general pointers in the right direction of what is possible.

My ideas in order of easiest first:

  1. Zigbee motion sensor concealed in drivers door, detects vibration/movement of drivers door (or magnetic door switch)
  2. ESP8266 with ultrasonic sensor/connected to car battery, detects motion in car cabin.
  3. ESP8266 connected to CAN network/car battery, sends message when car door opened.

Welcome any clever ideas :slight_smile:

Wes Harrison 10:53........

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb3spEq05Pw&t=18s

I'll make that option 4) :rofl:

You can also add a GPS module to your existing car security system.

If you want to protect your car while it is parked on your driveway, you don't need to do anything in the car. I would suggest you detect motion around the car -- from the house; and make your responses from there.

  1. a camera-type image processing motion detector (pointed at where the car might be parked)
  2. a heat-sensing PIR motion detected (pointed at where the car might be parked)
  3. a ground-sensing detector, laid around near the driveway. Like an array of underground microphones.

Each of these will have false positive patterns, and what is important is to test and understand the failure modes. I would recommend maybe detecting in multiple ways, and only firing an unpleasant event (like an alarm sound that might disturb your sleep) if two or more detection methods agree.

False positive potentials:

  • Visual motion detection: sunlight changing (clouds passing), leaves blowing, pigeons and cats walking around (unless you want to deter them)
  • IR detection: sunlight glinting off a reflection like from a pane of windows across the street. These can trigger IR detectors as if it's the heat of a person approaching.
  • Sound detection: I don't have experience with this, but presumably you would derive a vibration profile of a person walking/running/creeping and there would possibly be similar matches with animals, passing traffic or flushing toilets, rainfall, etc.

Why can't that happen automatically? And automatically activate the horn/alarm?

I've built two car alarms - The first was many years ago It was a simple timer and a hidden switch. If the alarm wasn't turned-off in-time a siren would sound. It was wired into the dome-light switch so the timer starts when the door was opened. The car was broken-into one night. They broke a window but the alarm sounded and they ran-away before they could steal the stereo. They were not trying to steal the car. (They got the knobs of the stereo. That was when car stereos were mounted by the knob-shafts.) It didn't have a blinking LED or any "alarm" stickers because I was afraid they would try to disable it. But they weren't that smart and they just smashed the window... I no longer have that car.

The next one was microprocessor based but it was similar - A hidden switch and a timer and I then it alternated the high & low-tone horns. The hidden switch wouldn't work after the alarm was triggered and the only way was to shut it off was to find & remove the fuse. That was inconvenient when i had a false alarm a few times! (The only false alarms were human error when I forgot to shut it off, or something.)

This one would kill the engine after a 30-seconds or a minute. That could be helpful in case of a carjacking if I had a chance to hit the switch... They could get-down the street before the thing dies in the middle of the street and the alarm sounds, and I'm no-longer in danger.

That car does have a blinking LED and warning stickers and it has never been broken-into. The alarm died after several years, but it still has a blinking LED that just blinks automatically when the ignition is off... You can buy a blinking LED and it's easy to wire an LED to turn-on when you turn-off the ignition.

Is opening the interior door panel acceptable. If so I would put a sensor (magnetic, microswitch) connected to the door handle. Then have it trigger what you wish.

Or is your car a newer car where perhaps when the door handle is tried to the interior lights.

Or if it's an old "junker" put crazy glue on the door handle :slight_smile:

Personally my favorite is a furnace ignition transformer connected to the body of the car and ground.

1 Like

"Self-activating" alarm. :rofl:

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