>but don't these suffer from the same problem as a mercury switch ? >Say the cylinder is mounted horizontally in the veehickle. If it's >then parked on an angle (hill, verge etc) the angle could be great >enough for the weight of the ball to hold it steady and not respond >to small tampering vibrations ? Guess you are looking to make your own of this style of sensor (for the cost/time reasons already given) I would look at having the sensor on a platform that was self levelling (a damped gimbal mount style of thing) with probably a dish of oil to do the damping, on a ball solidly mounted on the bottom of the gimbal. Suspect you could get a 2-5 second damping of movement that would still transmit any rapid movement to the detection ball, especially if the detection ball suspension is solidly attached to the car. -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist