Bad luck, Lawrence,

and I bother about my 11-yr old BMW... ;-)
About two years ago, I witnessed a demo by the Israel-based company OTI (on
track innovations), while I was working for the German subsidiary (better:
licensee) for LoJack Systems (basically a company that will find your car after
being stolen).
The OTI guys took one of the company Volkswagens, installed their gadgets, and
then we saw that this car was practically useless if the right security key was
not present. Their trick: the different circuit breakers communicate over the
standard 12V system inside ther vehicle, something like powerline
communications.
The _good_ point is: You may know this system is built into the car you are
trying to borrow - but you don't have one clue where all the breakers are
located, and you would have to dismantle pracically the whole car to find them -
no wires to follow as in traditional alarm systems.
The Israeli people have about the same number of cars stolen as do the Germans
per year (some 50000), but (Peter L. Peres may comment further...) in Germany we
have abt 40 M cars, in Israel there are 1.5 M cars.
In Israel your insurance company decides on the system put in your car,
otherwise you will not get insurance!
Best of all: This can be done with PICs!  ;-)

Greets
Jochen Feldhaar DH6FAZ


Lawrence Lile schrieb:
<snippitty>

> -- Lawrence Lile
> Sr. Project Engineer
> Salton inc. Toastmaster Div.
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> 573-446-5676 Fax
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