Alarms, immobilizers and Trackers: Understanding your vehicle security system
Watching over your Vehicle.
Immobilizer and Alarm.
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What is an immobilizer?
An immobiliser is an electronic security system that prevents vehicle theft by isolating two or more electrical circuitry that are essential for the engine to run, making it impossible for thieves to hotwire and start the car.
An alarm system on the other hand is an electronic security measure that sets off a siren and may also flash lights if an intruder is detected by any sensors on the system.
A tracker is an electronic device planted in a vehicle that functions as a transponder which regularly updates the current location of a vehicle making it possible to locate and retrieve a snatched vehicle.
The key and its fob on the ignition.
Alarm.
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Modern car alarms systems are made up of a special purpose computer that processes signals, the keycode for activating and deactivating the alarm unit, an array of different sensors and finally a loudspeaker.
Once the alarm is armed, it's sensors are on high alert. once any of them gets triggered, the computer evaluates the input and let's out a loud and disturbing noise to alerted it's owner or the people around.
Types of alarm sensor.
Older versions of car alarms had two basic sensor types
A door sensor made to detect any forceful attempt to open any of it's doors.
A tilt sensor which gets triggered if the thief attempts to pull the car away with a towing van or jacks the car up to remove it's tires.
In modern alarm systems a whole lot of other sensors are added to the system making it able to respond to a variety of security threats.
If a car thief should brake in through the glass with out touching the door or lifting the car, the two sensors mentioned above will not be triggered. For that reason modern alarm systems add a Shock/impact sensors. It gets triggered If someone smashes any of the car’s windows.
A smart car thief may avoid braking the glass so as not to trigger the impact sensor but may use a glass cutter to cut open a hole through the class. In such a case the Microphone sensors designed to listen to such sounds taking into consideration the ambient sound and the level of noice in the parked environment. Any change in the level of noice can be a trigger depending on level of sensitivity.
A Proximity sensors will get activated if a person without the correct key fob gets too close to the car when the alarm is armed. The distance depends on setting and sensibility level.
If for any reason all the sensors fail to detect or are skillfully avoided by the thief, then that is beyond what an alarm can manage, so you need an immobilizer.
Immobilizer.
If a thief has successfully made his way into a vehicle, the next step is to use a duplicate key, pick the ignition or hotwire the ignition. And that is where the immobilizer comes in to play.
After the key has been confirmed, the immobilizer now demands for a code much like an OTP which will be provided by the fob attached to the key. If the fob is not close enough to provide the correct code, the engine will not start. The key fob creates a One Time Password that lets your car drive
It is totally possible to have an immobilizer without an alarm and you can also install an alarm system without an immobilizer, but it is best to have both an alarm and immobilizer protecting your vehicle simultaneously.
Tracking Systems.
If your car was snatched from you, in that case the thief may take the key fob and that will bypass the immobilizer leading to a third line of defense, a tracking system uses GPS to transmit and update a vehicles current location making it easy to pinpoint the vehicles current location with an accuracy margin of less than 3 miters.
the car tracker uses a map to pinpoint the vehicles current location in real time.
Security Implementation.
Auto activated systems:
here the vehicles security is automatically activated without the driver's consent. It may happen once the fob is a certain distance from the vehicle and all doors are closed or after the engine was turned off for a given period of time. The security may get activated when the key is left in the ignition, doors are closed and no pressure sensor is activated on any seat.
User define:
in this case the user is expected to arm the security system when there is need and may select the armed features based on environment and situations. A typical example is the option to deactivate the proximity sensor if parked on a busy street with people and animals passing nearby.
Third party notification: Some systems will send an alert to a security company each time the vehicle detects a possible threat.
Combination:
collecting the best features from the different security models into one place often offers a better hybrid security model.
The blinking light on your sound system is often an indication that your immobilizer is armed
Conclusion.
Besides the fact that you get abetter deal when negotiating your vehicle insurance if it has a good security system, your alarm may also keep the kids away so they don't use your car to practice Scrabbling.
Having a combined security made up of an alarm, an immobilizer and a tracker will give you better protection all round the clock.
protection all round the clock.