Hi Everyone,
I decided to make an alarm system for my bike. There is a thread about bike locks in which some alarms are shown here.
What I wanted, though, is to cut out as much as possible of the hassle. With a modern car, you just lock it and walk away, but with a bike, you have to get the lock out, chain it to something, set the alarm, take off your gloves and helmet, etc. The temptation is of course to leave out some of this if you are only popping into a shop.
So I have rigged up a system that is similar to those alarms with movement sensors and a sounder, but its connected into the bike power system. All I do is to turn the bike off with the key, and a few seconds later the alarm is set. Putting the key back in and turning the bike off unsets it.
It is set up to give a warning beep if there is a small movement of the bike, and then to launch into a permanent wail if there is a big movement. I'm still playing with getting the sensitivity adjusted right; the first version was way too sensitive. Another feature I'm working on is to route the lights through the same unit, so it can flash those. This latter part may well be over the top. At least though, I have achieved the main objective of something simple to operate and that you can use for those occasions when you are going to be a little way away, out of sight, but not out of earshot.
Nick
I decided to make an alarm system for my bike. There is a thread about bike locks in which some alarms are shown here.
What I wanted, though, is to cut out as much as possible of the hassle. With a modern car, you just lock it and walk away, but with a bike, you have to get the lock out, chain it to something, set the alarm, take off your gloves and helmet, etc. The temptation is of course to leave out some of this if you are only popping into a shop.
So I have rigged up a system that is similar to those alarms with movement sensors and a sounder, but its connected into the bike power system. All I do is to turn the bike off with the key, and a few seconds later the alarm is set. Putting the key back in and turning the bike off unsets it.
It is set up to give a warning beep if there is a small movement of the bike, and then to launch into a permanent wail if there is a big movement. I'm still playing with getting the sensitivity adjusted right; the first version was way too sensitive. Another feature I'm working on is to route the lights through the same unit, so it can flash those. This latter part may well be over the top. At least though, I have achieved the main objective of something simple to operate and that you can use for those occasions when you are going to be a little way away, out of sight, but not out of earshot.
Nick
