Slashdot Mirror
Keyless Entries Fail In Las Vegas On Friday
Hoompini-Ting writes "Some accuse area 51, but in any case many folks were stranded when keyless locks failed or their car computers malfunctioned. No technical explanation but I'm sure slashdotters have theories. Similar to the failure in Seattle 3 years ago. See the Las Vegas Review-Journal for more details."
that some Ford, etc. systems use the same frequency as the military, so if it were a military cause, than perhaps only those keyless systems would be affected?
From Rumor Mill News:
The article refers to the event (U.S. aircraft carrier docked near Seattle, similar electronic glitches were noted). So, RTFA.
Well, this is probably the occurrence:m arch/03302mys tery.html
http://www.thesunlink.com/news/2001/
Sorry to all you conspiracy theory nuts, this happens all the time. The fact that it made the news surely indicates a slow news day. 30 people in a town of millions called a towing company for a lockout, oooooo! Many keyless entry systems operate around 430MHz. Anytime I transmit on 440MHz while sitting in a parking lot, I set off car alarms and laugh at the people press the crap out of the buttons on their keyless entry systems. Military over the horizon radar is broadband and around 430-440MHz. Anytime the Navy has a big boat in the area, the 440 repeaters are buzzing with radar noise, and low-end keyless entry systems can fail. Granted that Las Vegas doesn't have a whole lot of Navy vessels nearby, but they do have miltary there. On the other hand, it's more fun to blame it on Area 51
EMP weapons test.
/ 9/e-bomb/print.phtml
http://popularmechanics.com/science/military/2001
The field of these thingies is powerful enough to light up a lightbulb over a few feet (if you wire the lighbulb to a reception coil). The story I heard was that the local equivalent of the FCC came in and shut the Tesla generators down. And that was long before cell phones and wireless can openers... I mean car openers.
Would be more fun to have a strong emitter send out all possible code sequences so all the cars in Vegas would unlock...
My 2003 Honda security system works the same way; I can get into the car using the key, but the alarm goes off if I don't use the transmitter. In fact, if I stop the car, take the key out, open and close the door, and remain in the car, the alarm goes off after a minute. Likewise if I leave the trunk open too long. Damn annoying technology, if you ask me. Why can't the alarm just turn on when I tell it to, and then turn off when I tell it to?
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
It would be interesting to see how many of the fob's were older. The SAW's used in FOB's drift in frequency over time. It's possible that they are operating marginally, and so even a little interference would affect performance.
In addition to the usual military radio use which could interfere, ham's could also cause problems even if they are not operating directly on frequency.
If some ham operator doesn't know his power amplifier has decided to start distorting for one reason or another, you could get intermittent distortion which lands @ ~ 430MHz, and again you have a problem.
Or maybe it's just that the batteries were faulty.
It's sort of don't care, except for the truly stupid involvement of homeland security.
Absolute statements are never true
Had this been a real EMP, the devices still wouldn't work. An EMP would render most semiconductors (transistors, diodes, etc) completely useless, and indefinitely so.
My keyless entry transmitters range was horrible (as in much more horrible than usual) yesterday, but it worked if you got close enough.
I was wondering my both transmitters seemed to get weak at the same time.
I haven't tried it today.
My computer stayed up throughout, no DSL problems, no cable problems, no power problems either, cell phone seemed ok except one call I made the signal quality was poor even though I was not too far from the tower.
Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
Sure if you want to buy a $5,000 alarm maybe it can do that ;)
But a basic car alarm works like a home alarm.
If the alarm is armed, it WILL go off if any of the doors are opened. In the more advanced models they also sense for glass being broken etc.
Typically, the alarm does not care HOW you got the door open, if the alarm is armed it assumes the person opening the door should not be opening it. With some advanced systems like VIPER,they do have a way to turn off if following the alarm going off, you insert the key into the ignition. But if the alarm does not have that feature then if the alarm remote is not working you are pretty much SOL.
"It's better to be a pirate then join the Navy"
While whatever causing the disturbance can cause your remote to stop operating, there is no way that random RF interference can cause your car and garage doors to start opening. All these systems use a set "code" of pulses - so it takes a lot more than just broadcasting on the right freqency to make something happen.
Holy crap, it happened to me! I am in Vegas for work this month. Anyway yesterday my car wouldn't open when I tried to push the button. It thought the battery in my key chain fob thingy was dead, but when I got to work (which is somewhat away from Vegas) it worked fine.
Then I thought maybe my cell phone was interfering with my keyless thing (I was talking on my cell phone yesterday as I got in the car). This morning I went out and the thing worked fine, but when I came back to the hotel the keyless wouldn't lock the door. I had to manually lock it. Then I came inside and saw this article. Wierd!
if that had happened there would be a lot more things not working right. An EMP wouldn't just disrupt keyless entry systems, but all electronic devices within a certain area.
In this case, I think the "terrorist" angle merit(ed) looking into.
It was worth considering for about a half second.
I sell @ a chevy dealer, and this is how GM domesic brands work. All cars come with simple alarms. They go off any time a door is opened by somting other than its primary "key". In cars with keyless entry the key is the "key". if you were to reach through the window and unlock the door the alarm would go off... The car canot be started while the alarm is going off it cuts off the starter... so if a theif broke in and hot wired it it would not start. to turn off the alarm you use your key to start it... it sends a code to the cpu and the cpu engages the starter :-) On cars with keyless it is the same exept the keyless fob is the primary key, the car senses that the the car was locked with keyless then you use a key. it remembers that you used keyless and things that the key is a intrusion. Some GM cars do have a chip... althogh the chip is nothing more than a resister. @ the factory the car learns how many Ohms of resistance. if keys are lost there is a way to repograme the car to the key. if the car is started with out the reister it will run but the fuel pump shuts off after the accelarotr is touched(so they work with carstarters)... btw i know i cant spell :-P
http://www.DaveNet.biz/
A buddy of mine has a 1999 Ford Ranger. There are only 12 different lock cylinders for that year of Rangers. If you have one key for a Ranger, you have a 1/12 chance of opening up and driving away in any other Ranger. The chances arent so astronomical.
The Doormat
If you're not outraged, then you're not paying attention.