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from the but-they-still-steal-the-contents dept.
The NYT reports that in 1990, New York City had 147,000 reported auto thefts, one for every 50 residents but last year, there were just 7,400, or one per 1,100 for a 96 percent drop in the rate of car theft. There's been a big shift in the economics of auto theft: Stealing cars is harder than it used to be, less lucrative and more likely to land you in jail. As such, people have found other things to do. The most important factor is a technological advance: engine immobilizer systems, adopted by manufacturers in the late 1990s and early 2000s. These make it essentially impossible to start a car without the ignition key, which contains a microchip uniquely programmed by the dealer to match the car. "It's very difficult; not just your average perpetrator on the street is going to be able to steal those cars," says Capt. John Boller, who leads the New York Police Department's auto crime division. Instead, criminals have stuck to stealing older cars.
Now a startup in Chile is working on an unstealable bike by making a lock out of the frame. The only way to steal it is to break the lock, which implies breaking the bike. Or you could try painting your bicycle pink.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday August 13 2014, @06:08AM
So, let me get this straight...
You park the car, open the hood, find the ignition circuit fuse, pull it, replace it with a undersized one, then close the hood, lock the car and walk away. Then you reverse the entire procedure upon return?
And you do this every friggin time you park just on the OFF CHANCE your car might get stolen?
Let me get my phone, I need to call 1800bulshit.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by Foobar Bazbot on Wednesday August 13 2014, @03:02PM
Eh, not necessarily. You could have:
Then it automatically arms whenever you turn the ignition off, and all you have to do is get in, start the engine, and push the button. If you forget or wait too long to push the button, then you get to go replace the fuse, and try again, but for normal operation you don't need to access the fuse box at all.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday August 13 2014, @09:47PM
If you are going to put in a hidden switch, why in hell would you need anything more than a hidden additional momentary contact on the starter relay line?
Why dick around with fuses which you then have to find a way to wire around?
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 14 2014, @05:57PM
If your objective is to prevent the car from being stolen, you're absolutely right.
AIUI, anubi's objective is to cause trouble for anyone who steals his car, which makes some sort of delay-based immobilizer preferable, because a mysterious breakdown after you start the vehicle and get underway is more trouble than simply failing to start the vehicle and moving on to the next target.
(Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday August 14 2014, @07:43AM
I did not go far enough... however you filled in the blanks pretty well. I have an old-style capacitive-discharge ignition circuit. It draws more amperage as the engine RPM increases. It pulls about 3 amps at 3000 RPM, so hiding a 2 amp slow-blow inline fuse and hidden bypass plug just gives me an opportunity to frustrate a theft attempt by introducing a delayed ignition failure. If it fails to start at first, the thief is just apt to trace it out and bypass it with a piece of clip wire. If everything appears to work normal, he starts the car, and it seems to work. I am hoping he will take it onto one of the main streets or freeway, where the now unbypassed fuse will blow and leave him with another troubleshooting exercise to do - but this time he's in everyone's way.
Its an old carbureted car, so it's pretty easy to steal.
So, in my case, I figured security by obscurity. There are many things that do not look like switches, but can be used as such. Simple things like a molex connector whose plug is just a loop-thru. Even 1/4" stereo phone plugs can make dandy little power receptacle/switch assemblies. You can remove the plug that bypasses the fuse when you feel you need a little extra security.
If I really want to go whole hog on something like this, I remove the distributor rotor and take it with me. Useful when I abandon the car all day while hunting. However that requires a bit of finangling under the hood. Rotor removal does not prevent theft, but the guy has to go find another rotor or tow the car. Its no longer as simple as clipping a bypass wire in the right place.
I like the gasoline valve idea Cafebabe posted. If I find a nice little 12V solenoid valve, I might put one of those in, too.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]