I was thinking it ouwld be cool to have sort of a theft prevention setup in which there are tons of switches on the dash none are labeled and have to be switche on in a certain order to start the car anyone seen anything like this. This is an idea I might actually do is to use milspec connectors at the firewall like these . If anyone has some cool ideas along this theme feel free to post.
There is a device that is similar to what you are talking about. It's called Valet-D and has been around for about 15 years. It's not very well known and is made and installed by one man.
Check the one at the bottom. If you wish to use a device such as your horn, but do not want the horn to sound when you deactivate the starter kill, yet still work when driving, you can use the same configuration above on both the horn and the starter wire as shown below. The starter kill is deactivated by the positive output of the vehicle's horn relay and the horn's interrupt is deactivated by the positive output of the starter wire from the key. You could substitute the horn with other devices such as parking lights, brake lights, etc. where you do not want it to be obvious that you used the device to disable the starter kill. http://www.the12volt.com/relays/page2.asp#psk
A simpler version would to wire a series of momentary contact switches- a combination of them - some NO (Normally Open) others NC (Normally Closed) - by depressing only the right combination will you complete the circuit. Use as many or few switches as you desire.
an old telephone operator-style switchboard would be cool. You'd have to have the right plugs in the right sequence of sockets to start the car
I think your initial plan with the switches would work just fine. I have been considering such a setup. I bet you could also rig it to blow the horn and shoot flourescent orange ink on their crotch if some asshole did it wrong trying to steal your car. (grin) Wayno
From the random thought machine: How about wiring up the rotary section of an old phone? You dial in a number. Folds away, hides, whatever, just a random thought in lieu of a keypad.
Wire the ignition through an Enigma machine. Change rotor combibations daily. Actually, disabling tech needs more thought than just a complex switch...no matter how the switch works, a wire from coil to battery will runnit. Some of your switches need other functions, like interrupting other side of coil circuit, connecting horn to other switches, scranbling starter circuit...
Maybe a hidden reed switch that you have to put a rare earth magnet on in a certain spot like they use on a hidden cabinet latch setup. Bruce you beat me to the Enigma idea. Some guy with an Ultra will come along and steal your car though! Stu
"Some guy with an Ultra will come along and steal your car though..." Yeah, but it's easy to look out for the guy cruising your block with six moving vans full of Lucas computers and a Greyhound bus full of computer punch secretaries...
You can use the military plug type shown as a total car scrambler--all your wires go through that connector, one pin i, one out, then the matching plug completes the circuits between the random pins...there would be FAR too many combinations possible to guess, and important wires could have FOUR pin connections... And confound high and low tech...remember the magnetic strip card ignition switches streetrodders once affected? Instead of a swipe reader, many just concealed a pushbutton the card hit on its way in!
why not install a ford starter solenoid on the positive cable coming from the batter to the starter, then hide a switch to activate it under your seat. unless someone knows where the switch is, they can't get power to the engine.
I've actually built that type of set up, I've not installed it yet, but it has been op checked and works fine, it took me forever, there is 32 identical mushroomhead MILSPEC switches, most with positive lock detents mounted in a overhead consule, (I have a few of the included switches that are identical but momentaries, more on that in a min) a push putton momentary for the starter and a flipdown plate that covers my secret audio controller. 10 of the switches are for my airride, 2 are for my doors (momentary) 2 for my windows (momentary), one for my electric fan, one for my Bags master power, one for my comressor master, the rest of the 15 are for the ignition hot, (yes I wrote down a checklist to start my truck until I get it memorized) there is a certain number of switches that are dummies and not functional BUT are wired in (going to nothing)....and did I mention that the entire conglomeration including all the wires that have to do with the starter and coil are yellow? The way I see it, by the time someone has the time to break out their volt meter and meter wires out to figure out what goes where, I'll be out there, if they do get a chance to get that far, then they have to figure out how to get the truck off the ground to move it...I believe the law of averages is on my side on this one... oh and not one switch is marked.....
Make it with to many moving parts and you may be the one who can't get it started! No matter what you use for anti-theft if they want it...it's gone! A simple master kill switch with a removable key is about as good as it gets. If you have an electrical fire it will also kill the juice.
I'm not too worried about it, I know the track record of the switches I'm using, I've flown in the aircraft they were mounted in for a number of years (though I used new switches) heck they're good for an EMP blast...as far as an electrical fire...eh, it has the same probability as your modern car, everything that needs relayed, is relayed, I've been using a checklist to start my work ride (helicopter) for some years, works great on getting the ol girl fired up...and if my work sled dont catch on fire (electrically) my fairly simple set up "shouldnt" (disclaimer, I have caught my work sled on fire, those instances involved bullets and holy fuel lines....) as far as using the correct keyed switch, eh, I wanted keyless for one, and for two those are much easier to jump/jimmy in these old sleds than my rig...
That would really be a very simple setup. It could be done with ice cube relays or a simple PLC. I'd go with the PLC personally. Total cost would be under $500 and could have a very simple backup setup so that cutting battery cables or losing the battery would not cut the program.
keys are so lame. any yahoo with a keymaking machine could steal my car. I think I will just install a garage door spring in the roof with a baseball bat attached to it and an ever so carefully placed trip string. or one of those giant boulders tripped by removing some golden thing like in that indiana jones movie.
Yeah, folks been doin it for years....may as well keep doing it.. there is more than one way to skin a cat and accomplish a need without having the ugly cylinder lock in the equation.
The other cool one if you wire it up military style... You can grab one of those generator panels and have a switch that tells the motor its gotta run, no matter what is going on under the hood. Now if only I remembered what those were called...
my brother had one of these similiar devices installed in his honda daily driver, mainly because he occasionaly worked in questionable neighborhoods, he's an electrician. he had it installed in the rear ashtray, which could be reached from the drivers seat.
Ya plc's are fun.. Just got another programming course in november. Now im into Allen Bradly shit! People dont understand what can be done with a plc but the drawback of plc's is the software. Omron used to have some free software for your puker . Allen bradley dont give away shit and thier software to program is 1200 bucks. One of the cheaper units is automation direct and i think they have a really simple free software package but if you want to do a lot then its like 400 bucks or so for the full blown stuff. There are some cheap keypad entry deals also but ive never used one. The thing with a plc is you could set up inputs with timers to allow you to start the car. If you didnt hit the inputs in a certian time frame then its a no go. Lots of other ideas come to mind too.I just got thru learning the a/b move commands that would allow you to sequence the switches in any order you desire.. I got time tomorrow to play some more . Ill have to try some things.. Its a good learning experience for me and i cant do it at home . Dave
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