Posted Today, 12:01 PM

Hello,



Recently I have come to have growing concerns with the security of my car. I understand that, since the car is now of age, it sticks out as a target for anyone with the snooping eyes or sticky fingers.



When I first got my car the VATS was having issues. My TDM was a little corroded but I sanded the connections a bit and resurfaced it.. a temporary fix but hey? She worked... temporarily of course. I went from removing the TDM and using the VATS bypass module, to downloading TunerPro, Scan9495.. leading to me having it tuned out of the system.



A few months back I left my work to find my window bent back and a crack ripped down the side of my door. Someone clearly having worked it back and forth. I have spent much time in my car, much money as well, and do not wish to be worried about my car (on the point of becoming a classic) being destroyed. I love it. So it got me thinking...



How do I secure my "Precious".. I went on a Journey, the rabbit hole, the abyss of forums that exist. Ones I had used thus far to replace the ever amassing list of parts. I found where someone installed a tablet with the Nexus 7, another using servo motors to control the A/c, and others installing remote start. Alas though, I did not find a solution besides deterrent systems that could surely be bypassed. Of course I could probably pay someone to do a full system... but why? After reading such forums where people had done such amazing things how could I not push the boundaries of what is. So I will take what has been put on these forums and try to combined it while adding to and giving back to you.



My plan is to use



Raspberry Pi 4 with 8 gb of ram

Arduino board

Relay board

GPIO expansion hat

PiJuice (Power supply hat)

Microwave Radio Sensors

Reed switches

Capacitor resistor kit with shrink tubes

DAC output for audio

7 inch screen

and an assortment of other sensors we I will update as I go.





The will result in me having a smart car that will be the closest thing Ken you can find besides a Tesla.:rockon22: I will use the RaspberryPi (mini computer) connected with above boards/peripherals which will do a list of things. This will all be able to control via phone application.

1. Tell me when my windows is being pulled back using a reed switched with a magnet.
2. Notify me when when my car is being unlocked manually (incase of the use of jimmy) with either reed switch or lever trigger
3. Send me video to my phone when a certain of these triggers are set
4. Motion sense people walking up to my vehicle or in vehicle
5. Record such activity via video logged
6. Have LTE/4G/GPS via integrated sim card and GPS module with antenna.
7. Radio control with premium Audio
8. Standby mode for "watchdog listening" so the electrical parts wont kill my battery while keeping the security invulnerable
9. Control my A/C with servo motors
10. And tune/flash my car for on the fly street/track switch with a full fledged gauge menu via headunit (7 inch screen). Would love to get RoberSaar and the ALDLDroid creator involved with this. Help??

(can post link to these if needed)



.....and a few more things I will add( if I figure out how to) at a later date. I will do a full write up when this is project is completed.

I am posting here to document this knowledge to others while hoping to learn and receive help and thoughts from others with some of the processes and obstacles I may run into along the way.



I have found ALDL code someone wrote for Lt1 and also another someone did for raspberry pi but would love to implement Tunerpro files to be read by it. I love the idea of giving back to the community. If someone could give me resources in where to look or who to talk to in this regards it would be great.



I currently have completed a python program that will trigger the one of my relays with it wired to my horn. The relay is triggered to pulse at .5 second intervals (which I felt closely mimicked the panic alarm). I did this by running into the wires behind my horn relay to the one of the Relay I have on my "hat" that's stacked on top of my Raspberry. The relay is controlled by what they call a GPIO pin.. it tells the hat which relay to trigger and when.

On your horn relay you will find an orange wire that's your hot input and a green wire running out that goes to your horn. The black is the ground I believe? someone correct if I am wrong. I will post pictures of this within the week. Along with some of the example code/ screenshots and documentation along the way.



I am receiving everything else but the screen this weekend. In which I will really start to tear into this project. I only got the magnets, reed switches, RaspberryPi and relay thus far.



If there is I promise to post it to this thread. Your feedback on cool ideas to implement would be great. This is a journey and will take time. I have no programming experience other than flashing old android phones back in the day.



I have thought about doing a YouTube series on it but only plan to if there seems to be much interest in this subject. Let me know what you guys think. Seriously.



Currently though I am wondering... What signal does my gauge cluster receive through the wires in order to know what the current voltage level? I am asking because I wish to know the voltage of my car and want to tie into that wire. I also want it so I can program my car to crank if it ever does get on the low side of battery.



I forgot to add that this will also add remote start capabilities from anywhere on the globe. As long as I have data service that is.

My car is a 1994 3.35 but yours should be able to be implemented just the same. the only thing that's different is you have a BCM and mine is a TDM.