jamesdem1123

so i was reading about a new accessory from ford, SmartAlert, and got an idea. SmartAlert is alot like OnStar where it can track your vehicle, provide emergency assistance and so on. Ill have good insurance and insurance on mods so im not worried about car theft but ive left my keys in the car once or twice and thats annoying when it happens because you have to either have a spare stashed on the car or call a friend/family member to bring a spare key. im getting the mobile ease bluetooth connection for my car that im not going to use at all because i have a tomtom like garmin unit with built in bluetooth and alot more features.

my idea is this: taking the bluetooth tranceiver from the mobile ease device, and creating a circuit board that whenever a phone links up with the car, it unlocks the doors. bluetooth requires a 4 digit pin with 10,000 possible codes. another idea, since when it links it acts as a speaker and microphone, have it where you can press "1" twice and it unlocks, 3 times locks, 4 times opens trunk, and have any other kind of electrical switch you want.

ive never heard of anything like this and thought it would be neat as most cell phones are bluetooth capable now.

any input/idea's/comments/criticism is welcome

jamesdem1123

you could also program it as a vehicle disabler so when the feature is turned on it has a relay disable the ignition so the engine wont start.

jamesdem1123

nothing? no one? i guess ill just tuck my tail between my legs and forget i mentioned it..

randy_tho

It would probably be way easier to do with a carputer than trying to get mobile ease to work.

I've heard of people sending com port signals to a "switchboard" to control amps, subs, door locks, and trunk release.

Hooking up the cell phone would be fairly difficult. If you had windows mobile or a Iphone you might connect to the carputer with 802.11. Bluetooth would probably be more difficult. You would have to have the carputer powered up also for any of that to work.

At the end of the day it would be way more trouble than the reward.

Deric

There are several options out there but one of the easiest is getting one of the external number pads to unlock your vehicle. I saw someone here installed one inside their gas door. That makes it completely hidden and is about as secure as what you are talking about. Also you wouldn't be SOL if you left your phone in the car with the keys.

jamesdem1123

yea, i was going to get one of those keypads, i think theyre like $80. i just wanted to get some use out of the mobile ease instaed of it being a total waste. ive always been fascinated with electronics (was an electrical engineer major in college before i joined the army) and thought it would be cool to do something like this. thats a good idea to put the keypad inside the fuel door tho. instead of windows on a cell phone you may be able to program a Java application to control features