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I read at the weekend that if you accidentally lock you keys with the fob in your car you should try phoning someone via mobile phones and get them to press the key fob near to the phone that they are holding. It will then transmit and unlock the car.
Is this a windup???????????
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Is this a windup???????????
Surely it must be, it could only work if the fob emitted an audible code signal, which would be capable of being transmitted via a phone.
There is no way - unless of course a techy expert knows different! - that a radio signal or an Infra red signal could be re-transmitted in this manner.
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This got e-mailed round our office a few weeks back accompanied by a claim that Toyota dealers have known this trick for years and use it all the time (although the reasons why they would need to were not adequately explained).
We tried it one lunchtime on a Mondeo and a 3-series, in the full expectation that it wouldn't work. We weren't disappointed.
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We tried it one lunchtime on a Mondeo and a 3-series, in the full expectation that it wouldn't work. We weren't disappointed.
Apparently some people think it works because they go outside their house and get someone to phone them from inside the house, while pressing the key, and the car unlocks. What they don't realise is that some RF remotes will work over that distance anyway!
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I made a phone call near a Jaguar once and its alarm went off. The owner came out of his house looking puzzled and turned it off. I told him I thought my mobile was responsible and offered to make the call again to check. For some reason he didn't want me to, so I didn't. Some people are completely incomprehensible to me. Why didn't he want to know?
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Just out of interest was this back in the day of analogue mobile phones? Apparantly the signal strength was enough at some stages of the 'handshaking' (or analgoue equivalent) to interfere with all sorts of electronics... Or was it a digital one, in which case you might have discovered something new... And if it was me curiousity would have forced me to wait till he went back in his house and have another go anyway..... ;)
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I thought of it horse, but it was down a narrow alley and I thought it would be a bit undignified if he rushed out again and saw me running away...
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Oh, and it was a digital phone, just last year or so.
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So it might have been a new discovery! We'll never know though.
I can see your point about being undignified, especially as you would have to make a rapid exit which would look a bit too much like legging it from the scene because you've been doing something wrong - not just to him but anyone else who hears the alarm and comes to tthe window!
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Lud, why didn't you walk around the block and do it anyway?
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Apparently some people think it works because they go outside their house and get someone to phone them from inside the house, while pressing the key, and the car unlocks. What they don't realise is that some RF remotes will work over that distance anyway!
Yeah, we anticipated that (certainly Mrs B's Panda will unlock from better than 30 yards away) - our building is rectangular and measures 50 yards by 20, with its car park all round it, and so we made sure that the person operating the remotes was in the opposite corner of the building from the one outside which the cars were both parked.
Yes, we were very bored... :-)
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On the day this is posted, my RF keyfob battery dies. Strange things afoot.
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I got my PDA to "learn" and replay the IR pulse from SWMBO's Pug 306 plipper. Would stand by the window when she got home and lock her in the car just as she went to get out. Took me about a week to get tired of that one....
Cheers
DP
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Think DP's got it. Might work with an older car which uses Infra Red signals for the remote locking, and a phone equipped with IR connectivity, which can learn the code. Won't work on newer stuff with rolling codes though.
JS
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I read very recently about something in the States where this does work.
Bear with me. I think it was GM. All their new cars in the States are somehow wired into the factory. And if you lose your keys, you ring your dealer, who rings the car up and opens it.
There's also a car sharing scheme in London where something similar happens.
Well that was really helpful, useful information. Perhaps somebody can flesh it out?
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I am sure there are still some people who think the Earth's flat.
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Not just GM;all US cars offer similar systems but only as an on-cost option.It can also call the emergency services/police.
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Pooh just fallen off the edge. :-(
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GM system is www.onstar.com/us_english/jsp/plans/index.jsp?seo=...s
Ecall is coming to Europe in about 2010, and will allow similar functionality to OnStar and more - see www.ertico.com
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Two points. What happens if you don't have your mobile with you?
Secondly, when mobile phones resembled a brick, if anyone make a call in the British Airways lounge at Heathrow or Manchester, the airline's computer system immediately crashed......
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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when mobile phones resembled a brick....
You could open the car by throwing it at the window ;o)
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>> when mobile phones resembled a brick.... You could open the car by throwing it at the window ;o)
LOL....That's the only way a mobile phone is going to 'unlock' a car..neither RF nor IR signals are transmitted down phone lines!
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