What is this Strange Gadget in My Car?

VanessaDannenberg asks: "Four months ago my fiancé and I bought a 1997 Thunderbird, which came with a few aftermarket mods. Of particular interest is this strange radio-related gadget that was attached to the windshield above the mirror. It has two 5-pin ports on it (as pictured) which accept a flat cable that runs under the car's headliner. I can't tell where that cable ends, but I figure it's a laptop interface (RS232?). Has anyone seen this thing before? What does it do?"

Comments

I've got one of these!

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

It controls the Orbital Mind Control Lasers (OMCL), that keep Americans buying 7 kinds of dish-soap.

Re:I've got one of these!

[Kris_J]

It controls the Orbital Mind Control Lasers

Actually, you only think it controls them because that's what they want you to think.

radar

[jjshoe]

Custom radar detector? older detector shreaded for better forwards backwards detection? Jammer? Ask the previous owner.

I know, I know!

[tfinniga]

It posts the images on something other than geocities.

Hope you didn't want to use your geocities account for a few days.

/.ed

[regcrusher]

You didn't really expect a Geocities link to last on Slashdot, did you?

BTW, is this a record?

[leonbrooks]

8 minutes from /. posting to digital smoking crater. (-:

I remember putting an article up on a 64kb (yes, b not B) link some years back, then it got found and posted to ./; within about 1/2 an hour the link was grinding (./ was much smaller in those days, this is not my first ./ ID) and within two hours it died completely (pings went into hyperspace). For three days.

So heavy was the traffic that taking the webserver down didn't make a noticeable difference. Even if they'd been able to get through, the DNS queries alone would have been enough to smash the link flat. Think "trying to fill a thimble from a wide-open firehose".

a mirror

[Fletch]

I've never used Flickr before, so I've no idea whether this mirror will stop working after N bytes, views, etc. But there it is.

Re:a mirror

[Micro$will]

Not 100% but it looks a whole *LOT* like a reciever for a secuity system.

Yes it is, high end Viper or Prestige, forgot which. My friend had the exact same alarm, until someone stole his car.:D

And that "funny angle" in the LED display is there because it's supposed to be mounted on the A-pillar.

Re:a mirror

[Micro$will]

Correction: the alarm in question is an Excalibur Gold. The LED display will show different numbers depending on if/where there was an intrusion attempt, and it included an antenna for greater range. It also featured a rolling code to lock out scanners. If you follow the wires coming out of the unit you should find the other part of the unit, which contains the relays for lights, siren, door locks, etc.

Apparently, in my friend's case, the battery was disconnected and the car was towed, so the alarm did squat.

Image mirror

[epsalon]

here

Occam's Razor

[Solder Fumes]

The device is likely to be mundane and ordinary, not some tool of awesome power and destruction.

My guess is that it is part of an aftermarket car alarm with wireless remote, an internal pressure-gradient sensing type. The LED displays the time left to shut the door before it will trigger the alarm.

Re:Occam's Razor

[WWWAvenger]

I'd have to agree with this analysis. The crystal with a frequency of 6.775117MHz would correspond with a 433Mhz unlicensed band reciever (with a 64x multiplier).

FCC Codes

[Darth_Burrito]

I don't see anything labelled as an FCC code, but every once in a while I've had some luck identifying equipment using the FCC's database.

did you buy it stolen?

[Anonymous Coward]

Couldn't you just ask those you bought it from?

don't touch unlabelled gadgets!

[Tumbleweed]

"Even if they're labeled free sex and beer." or something like that.

And lemme tell ya, if it's labeled 'Gravity - Do Not Touch,' DON'T FREAKIN' TOUCH IT! (that sentence proves there's still a use for the caps lock key, you losers)
For a possible scenario of what could happen in that type of situation, see the short film, 'This Guy Is Falling.' Great little flick. Might still be able to catch it at atomfilms.com. (sorry, too lazy to check and karma whore with a link)

Hmmmm

[complete loony]

KA358A Dual Operational Amplifier
Where's the power? my guess would be the socket on the end.
My guess would be a garage door opener.

Think copper, coated with plastic

[b00m3rang]

Seriously how-t-f are you sopposed to use the laptop??? looking straight up at the screen as it sits flush with the roof? look at it upside down?

Much in the same way that I don't need to drag my computer to every web server I want to connect to. They have wires for that.

An idea

[darkwhite]

I'm not an IC specialist, but after a brief search and some reasoning I have an idea - it might be a stripped-down UHF/VHF transciever (the system board without an enclosure, speaker, channel selection knob, etc.) Possibly the person who used it did this specifically to disguise it from cops - any cop will recognize a transciever enclosure, but this will probably get little attention beyond bewilderment.

Don't worry about it

[stox]

It's the C4, that's connected to it, under the carpeting you need to worry about.

Lights?

[AndyL]

The letters "V.B.O.G.I." could indicate colors....
Could the wires lead to some sort of ricer extra lights somewhere? Possibly 'neon' tubes that were removed by the seller?

Simple!

[Improv]

It's an idiot detector. It appears to have served its purpose, so you can detach it now :)

More seriously, why the fnord did you think "Ask Slashdot" is the right place to ask this kind of question, and why did the editors decide this was worthwhile to post? Oy.

You 'Bought' Thunderbird?

[FlipmodePlaya]

You can't own Thunderbird, man. That's what OSS is all about...

Radar doodah thingy detector

[tod_miller]

Something that detects radar strength and tells you to slow down because of a speed trap.

Sounds like someone driving a thunderbird would buy such a thing. :-)

Alarm system display and remote control receiver.

[Otto]

The antenna clearly indicates it's to receive or transmit in some fashion.

The crystal frequency of 6.775117MHz would put it at the 433 mhz frequency, which makes sense for such a device. The Op-amp makes it clear that it's doing something along these lines.

The angle of the 7 segment display indicates that it was original intended to be mounted on the A pillar. The dots on the 7 segment display would facing the bottom of the unit, thus putting the antenna at the top. When mounted along the pillar, the angle of the 7 segment display would then be flat in relation to the driver, as the A pillar always leans in that direction.

The KIA70 is a low voltage detector, probably detecting 2.7v (thus the "27P") and simply cutting the thing off when the voltage gets low, to prevent weirdness on the circut.

Can't find anything about the S727G/OM-7003 IC.

I'm betting B=Battery wire, I=Ignition wire, G=Ground wire. O and V I don't know, but they're probably some form of signaling wires back to/from the main unit.

Anyway, I say it's an A-Pillar mounted remote antenna/display unit that hooks to a car alarm system somewhere else in the car. The case for it has been removed and discarded, most likely. It receives and possibly sends antenna signals for the system, as well as displaying status codes of some type from the main car alarm unit.

Back off of Vanessa cromags!

[tweedlebait]

Answer the damn question or go read maxim in the bathroom.

She's cool in my book.

http://starbase.globalpc.net/~vanessa/c128tower/in dex.html

OMG a nerd on slashdot who's female and not the likely winner of a hotornot contest with a legit question.

Does she deserve a bunch of sexist heckling and brush off answers? Nope.

Re:Back off of Vanessa cromags!

[VanessaDannenberg]

Hardly the wording I would choose, but there *is* a reason I put the truth about my past on my website.

(Hint: so that there's no surprises for the trolls to scream about)

To the great-grandparent: Thanks for the compliments on the Commodore tower. I can't say whether or not neon tubes would look particularly good in that thing, but it's something to consider for when I decide to work on it again (lack of interest, lack of money, too lazy, etc.)

Re:Alarm system display and remote control receive

[VanessaDannenberg]

Thanks to everyone who wrote with their suggestions. After a little more digging and some insight from you all here, it turns out this is part of an Excalibur "Gold" ATV1600 car alarm. One site out of about 47 bazillion I waded through had a picture to confirm it's identity. Now the fun part is finding out where the rest of the system is (doesn't make sense that the previous owner would only take part of the system with him).

Oh, in answer to why I posted here... I could think of no better way to get an answer about a device that looks geeky to me, than to ask a bunch of geeks. :)

/me watches her Karma go up in flames along with Yahoo.

Re:Alarm system display and remote control receive

[Corporate Gadfly]

After a little more digging and some insight from you all here, it turns out this is part of an Excalibur "Gold" ATV1600 car alarm.

Here's a link to the manual for the alarm.