Looking for a general pupose 2-way wireless keyfob

Thread Starter

strantor

Joined Oct 3, 2010
6,782
I want something like some aftermarket car alarms have, where there is a Keychain fob with a few buttons and a little display. The display will tell you if your alarm is going off or if your door is open, etc.

Instead of connecting to a car alarm I will connect it to an arduino or similar. I do not need a fancy LCD, just a couple of LEDs would work (and a piezo beeper would be nice).

I have found many cheap key fob-to-relay-output kits on amazon, but none that sends signals back to the keyfob, like the aftermarket alarm systems. I have also found some aftermarket alarm systems for under $100 that i might be able to repurpose for my needs, but the scant details make me reluctant to make a purchase.

Has anyone here seen something like this? Does it exist? Or must I make every useful thing myself?
 

cmartinez

Joined Jan 17, 2007
8,220
Has anyone here seen something like this? Does it exist?
I've never seen anything of the sort. And now that you've mentioned it, I'm surprised it's not a common sight.

Or must I make every useful thing myself?
That seems to be the case!


On a side note. I have no idea what you want out of this thing, but have you considered using a bluetooth device and a smartphone to get the results you want? ... as opposed to having a dedicated gizmo for a single purpose.
 

Thread Starter

strantor

Joined Oct 3, 2010
6,782
I've never seen anything of the sort. And now that you've mentioned it, I'm surprised it's not a common sight.


That seems to be the case!


On a side note. I have no idea what you want out of this thing, but have you considered using a bluetooth device and a smartphone to get the results you want? ... as opposed to having a dedicated gizmo for a single purpose.
Bluetooth range is pretty limited for my purposes. My purposes are... an alarm, remote start, power door locks & etc for my truck. It's a '93 chevy truck so not much CANbus stuff going on, which is how I think most of these aftermarket systems are designed to interface with a vehicle. And i want to do some unorthodox stuff with it too. I have a camper on the truck in which I want to keep a bunch of expensive tools. I want to put electric door locks on the camper and switches to register the doors open/closed. I am often several hundred feet from where my truck is, and I want to know if someone gets in there.

Perhaps there is an aftermarket alarm which has plenty of customization available and would meet all my needs. I started to investigate but it feels like the entrance to a rabbit hole that I wouldn't need to go down if this super useful thing would just exist as it's supposed to. I could roll my own system faster than figuring out how to implement someone else's, and I've already got everything else I would need. I can't justify putting a $1500 alarm system on a $500 truck.
 
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