Where can I get a cell phone activated remote car starter?

Factual Questions
1

Does such a thing even exist?

The terms “cell phone” and “car starter” are difficult to search on google because of the many hits to places selling both things seperately.

I did come up with this page which somebody does it themselves. It seems a bit to technical for my tastes.

What I want to know is why these car starters aren’t being sold with a cell phone number as standard?

I park in a garage a couple of blocks from my house. I have an older car that I would like to warm up for 10 minutes before driving. If I could just call up a special number that started my car, I would gladly pay for this added feature. Am I the only person to think of this? Do these items exist? If not, why not?

Only thing I can think of is that cell phone batteries run low pretty fast. Doesn’t seem to be too much of a problem. I would gladly accept the feature even with the caveat that it will only worked on a vehicle that has been parked for less than two days. This would mean ample power would be available and it would still be useful most of the time.

2

Sorry, wrong link.

Here is the proper one: homade cell phone - car starter

3

Who’s in the market for this besides you and the person in the link?

I think you’ll find there aren’t enough people with a situation like yours to generate much demand for the product. That, coupled with its being technically more complicated that than a traditional remote starting system, doesn’t offer a real incentive for someone to try to bring one to market.

4

I used to know a guy who was trying to bring an advanced remote car starter/alarm manufactured in Brazil to the United States. It had a built-in numeric pager receiver used to control the thing. Pager signals tend to have longer ranges than cell phones and the receivers consume far less power. By dialing the appropriate pager number and entering the appropriate codes you could arm/disarm the alarm, remote-start the car, and other nifty things. This unit also incorporated some sort of keychain transponder which had the effect of automatically arming the alarm once the driver (carrying the keys, presumably) walked far enough away from the vehicle. It was really very slick. I don’t know if he ever succeeded in getting these things imported, though.

I know I’d be interested in such a product. I’m sick of trying to remote-start my car and having it fail because the transmitter’s range is so pathetic. I’ve actually been considering hacking a pager onto it myself just so I can do this. It wouldn’t be as sophisticated as the one I was talking about above - it would only start or shut off the car - but hey, that’s all I want.

5

Is it legal to have a car running with no one in it?

6

You might check with Hamas.

7

Leaving a car running is fine, if done with a car starter, Handy. After researching this a bit I have found that most car starters have a feature to remove the keys but leave the car running while you make a quick stop. If someone tries to put a car in gear while the keys aren’t in it turns off.

8

Gary T I see no reason why everyone wouldn’t be in the market for this.

From what I am seeing the problem isn’t the distance at which they work its a line of sight thing. If you are leaving the mall, you can’t use the starter until you can see your car. This seems basically useless to me. If you call up 10 minutes before leaving the mall you can have a nice and warm/cool car by the time you reach it.

Many people work in office buildings and must go outside to use the car starter, then go back in?? Seems nuts to me.

9

You could use it in the south just to get the damn air-conditioner running.

10

Here in Alaska, where the temperature can stay below zero for weeks, many people leave their cars running with the doors locked in parking lots all the time. It is not unusual to see dozens of cars in the supermarket parking lot with their engines running.

11

I’d be in the market for something like this. I park in a grage across the street from my buidling and would love to be able to start it before I leave the office.

12

Well, that settles it Fear Itself, we need an “Ask the Alaska guy thread.”

BTW, Alaska isn’t the only place that the temps stay below zero for weeks. Here in Boston it’s been under zero for quite some time, which is probably why I have been thinking about this.

13

I have to third the opinion that the market for such a feature would be considerable.

GM is adding a remote starter to its key fob as an option.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/automotive/columnists/chi-0211110022nov11,0,7233171.column

Putting it on a cell phone seems an even better option as they could be used on any vehicle.

That said, I don’t know of any phones here in Canada that have that option.

14

Seems any found are home projects.

http://aeinnovations.com:8080/projects/carstart/

15

It wouldn’t even really have to be a cell phone merged with a car starter. If you think about it, it’s more like a pager attached to a car starter. Pager technology is simpler and has been around longer than cell phones. Also, they use much less batteries.

16

Hey, that was my thread, but I can’t be of any help here.

Where I’m at in Alaska it hasn’t even snowed this yr(or has it). At any rate if it did it’s only been a light dusting that hasn’t sticked.

Here it rains mostly, unlike The Kenai peninsula which is quite a bit further north.

Buffalo NY gets way more snow and gets colder than here…

17

I like the concept. We have two cars - one in the lot behind the house, one in a garage. I’d love to call one or the other, or both some mornings and have 'em all toasty for us on days like today. But - what if someone calls a wrong number and gets your car one night? You come out to drive it and it’s out of gas. Hmmm how to get around such a problem?

18

This would be the least of the problems. My cellphone (Ericsson T20) has an option called “Accept calls only from <list of numbers>”

You can then easily program your regular numbers onto that cell phone. It will reject all other calls automatically.

19

The pager seems the best idea. Wrong numbers could be handled fy a timer; if you want the car to run for 10 minutes, set the timer to switch off after 15.

20

Mobile electronics installer checking in here. This is a fascinating thread; I have a little information and a lot of comments.

Directed Electronics, Incorporated (DEI), maker of what is probably the the biggest-selling remote car starter in our industry, used to make a product called CarCom that would do the job; it also required a monthly fee. If you read about halfway down this www.carsound.com post, you’ll see that CarCom is no longer made. Other folks there also hint that it would be possible to use some other telematics (satellite tracking) system and build your own interface.

Audiovox, another popular brand (which I install), made a similar device called URL=http://www.carjunky.com/online_car_information/cars_trucks_motorcycles_safety_news/newnews/fcjt.shtml]POSSE. I’m pretty sure it’s been discontinued, though.

New cars equipped with OnStar have a nifty feature: If you’ve locked your keys inside, they can send a satellite signal for the car to unlock its doors. A smart installer could set your car up so that the remote starter will come on when the doors unlock, and then it could re-lock them just a second afterward for security. But I rather doubt the OnStar people will be happy when you’re calling them every day at 4:50 PM for “lockout assistance.”

If you ever talk to that guy again, see if you can any more information, please.

This is a great feature; I wish it was more common. Some early Nineties Corvettes had it from the factory. Also, a fairly new company called Powerlock offers such a system.

handy, I don’t have any cites to directly answer your question. I’ve heard that in some locales it’s illegal to leave your keys in the car—but under remote start, the keys are removed, the shifter won’t come out of Park, and the steering wheel can’t be turned—one would still have to go through the usual car-theft procedures to drive the car away, roll it down a hill into a crowd; etcetera. I will admit, though, that many rest stops and truck depots post signs limiting diesel-engine idle time to five minutes.

Thanks for the interesting link. The aftermarket has had a monopoly on remote starters for a long time now; I’m surprised it’s taken the OEMs this long to react. Remote start installs are a huge chunk of my income, probably 90% of it in this season, and this’ll mean a major change. But my industry has always survived by bringing new products to market faster than the OEMs until they catch up, and mobile video seems to be getting stronger and stronger. I can’t wait to see what’s next.

Every remote starter I’ve seen has its own timer. DEI units run for 12 minutes, but can be programmed for 24. Audiovox offers 5, 10, 15, or 20. Even without making the unit work from a pager, you might simply activate your ordinary remote by accident-----in any event, the car will shut off again when the time expires.

Now, back to the original project at hand…

I like the project that Debaser linked to, but I don’t think one needs to go to the trouble of opening up the remote control and connecting wires to it. Most (but not all) remote starters also have an activation input—if the activation input sees a ground, the remote starter is activated—the device could simply be set up to send -12 volts directly to the activation wire.

I haven’t had a pager in years, but if I remember correctly, most models light up when a new page is coming in. I’d imagine that this light is probably 1.5 volts, since it must operate off the pager’s AA battery. But all we’d need to do is take the 1.5 volts going to that light, and make it trigger a relay—the relay would be set up to ground the remote start’s activation wire. I don’t know how to set this up, but I think the idea is a good starting point.

I’ll also tell my friends at www.carsound.com about this thread; they may be able to offer more than I have. Also, the forums at www.the12volt.com are a good place to ask about automotive electrical projects.

Debaser: Sorry about the long post and all the minor hijacks. To answer your original question, it appears that CarCom and POSSE are dead, but I may be wrong. Also, you mentioned you’re in Boston. I live in Worcester and work in Middleton, and I’m always up for challenges like this. Contact me if you ever want to try this, or even just if you have any questions.