I'll tell you one of my concerns with this unit... It's DESIGNED to be portable - making it a breeze to get out of your car. Or is it? does the unit at least have some kind of lock on it for minimal protection?

-mark

We're putting a PIN code into it, but the fact it doesn't look a lot like a stereo will hopefully confuse a lot of thieves :)

Pulling it out of the dash and putting it under the seat is a big help, even if you don't want to take it with you. If they can't see anything to steal, there's less chance they'll break in and search the car.

Hugo

Now what would be *really* nice would be a lug sticking out of the back of the head unit that went through the slide back, allowing for the mounting of a solenoid on the back of the slide to lock it in place. Perhaps this would be another of the serial port uses, Hugo? A little PIC board on the back of the slide, talks to the serial port while docked, to receive instructions as to when to lock/unlock the unit....

There is a hole in the slide mount with matching tapped hole in the side of the Empeg unit which allow you to screw the two together, so defeating the slide-outability of the unit. You'd still have the handle on the front though so crooks may still break into your car because they think it is pull-outable.

Cheers,

Mark.

There is a threaded insert in the back of the case which you can screw an M2 screw (going through a hole in the slide bay) which will hold the unit in, eg for shop demo units. You could motor-power this ;)

Hugo

Hmmm... You actually could "motorize" this, pretty easily. Screw an eyebolt into the back of the case with the loop sticking out the back, then a simple solenoid secured to the dashboard could have a rod through the eyebolt, locking the empeg in place. Power the solenoid through the ignition switch (ignition off = empeg lock on). You would have to switch the ignition on to remove the unit. Requires a small enough solenoid that doesn't draw too much current or make too much heat since it would be on whenever the car was running.

Normally I would not counsel someone to secure their tape player or cd player in the dash, because the damage a thief will do to the car attempting to remove a well-secured unit costs far more to fix than replacing the unit. But with prices over $2000 on the more desirable empeg configurations, that's different.

How well is the handle secured to the empeg? If a determined thief really pulls hard on the handle of a secured empeg, will the handle break off or will it just rip the empeg to pieces?

tanstaafl.

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

The handle is fairly well secured, but it's CNC machined aluminium. Not sure if the handle or the stainless steel of the case would give way first...

Hugo

Under the circumstances, I would prefer that the handle give way before the case. I would even go so far as to replace the screws (?) securing the handle with ones made of plastic, so that even a moderately vigorous tug would leave a would-be thief with a nice "CNC machined aluminum" handle (pardon me, Brit: Aluminium ;-) and very little hope of getting anything else out of my dashboard. In fact, depending on just how firmly the empeg is mounted in the docking station, maybe no handle at all would be better. Would a suction cup work as a removal tool?

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

Umm, you need more than a suction cup, it docks pretty firmly. The handle flipping down locks it into position too.

Hugo

Sounds like we need to replace the CNC'ed handle with some little aluminum blocks that are anondized black, that mount one on each side, and put hold in them so we take a handle and push it in, and the handle snaps into the aluminum blocks where the handle is normally attached.

Sounds like a descent idea? even if my spelling is off abit.

Okay, after reading this for some time, now some words from your mother of wisdom concerning theft :) ME :)

No, seriously ... my car was broken 13 times now ( last is 2 month ago )and i definately checked out MANY things to prevent myself from this, i talked to the insurances and the police to get away from this ...

( Note, i drive a crappy old Golf now and i did before, so the car does not yell "hi i contain loads of money, break me", and i put more money into the audio inside then i pay for the car :), but i don't put stupid stickers on the window like "clarion" or "cash inside" or even "empeg" , although i will be very fond of it once i get my hands on it )

So what i have learned from this lesson:

There is NO way of protecting your stuff if you leave it inside the car !!!!
( Note, it is a = NONO )
-If you leave your stuff inside, and you don't secure it -> it gets stolen

-If you leave your stuff inside and you build a triple titanium-steel box around it, the thief gets angry and bashes the hell out of the rest of your car, which THEN is not covered by insurance, because it is vandalism, not theft, and you have a hell of trouble repairing the interieur of your car again.

-if you camoulflage your expensive stuff and cover it with a fake front plate from a $50 radio -> it is a good way of reducing chances that ppl break your car, but remember: it is HARD to cover everything else , like speakers and amps ... AND your car sometimes get broken just for the dollar bill that you left inside or even for sunglasses, so the thief gets inside he will surely examine & recognize your fake cover ... -> then all is gone

-Take as much as possible out of your car ( at least main unit -> empeg ) That is the only thing saving it.



More notes:

Car alarm is mostly useless, unless your insurance wants it ...
Thiefs simply ignore it, ripping your stuff out in 1 minute, maybe destroying it, but that doesn't make a difference for you, just for them.
(If they get caught they get a *very* tough "dont do that again, your free now, leave" and do it again ... at least in Germany )
(This is also the reason why thiefes also break your car in bright sunshine, nobody seeing it really cares, and IF someone notices it, the thiefs simply runs away)


IMPORTANT Thiefs ( at least the smarter ones ) REMEMBER your car, so if you cover your stuff, but someone breaks it to get your 50 cents sunglasses, and accidently also gets your stereo, because he noticed the fake cover, he grabs it and then THEY KNOW that you are going to buy good stuff again, so after a month or so, they will break your car without actually seeing anything worthy inside !!!!!!
( *Very* old trick, car audio freaks tend to stay car audio freaks forever, so they can check your car regularly after they learned whats possibly inside )


If you are in that trap -> buy a new car or get a garage, ONLY solution, sorry ...

So i don't like the U.S. way of life & law too much, i don't think it is a good idea for children to run around with firearms etc.
BUT like you may can imagin, i WISHED i had the right to hide in the bushes with a solid pumpgun to watch my car for some nights :)
( Or to install an alarm system in the car that actually HARMS the thief, like gas or high voltage, but in reality i will go in prison for years, and that just doesn't make sense )

So, by now i changed my car and i have a garage, and i take my main stereo out off my car every day.
I learned this lesson, learn it now by reading this or learn it later by crying about your lost empeg.


BTW: most of the thefts that i went through just occured, because they knew my car, there were just 2 cases where i really was so stupid to leave worthy things, visible to everyone, in the car.
So about 6 times they just broke the car and took nothing, because i took my stuff out, 4 times they broke it and took out minor stuff ( sunglasses, some hidden cash, leather jacket, watch, ... ) because i took out the important stuff.
And 3 times they did the full monty ... getting out every single piece of audio eqippment except the cables, 2 times because i was just too stupid ( forgetting to take out my stuff, because i thought that i will use my car another time before i go to bed ) and 1 time in bright daylight, in the middle of our town ...

So this is reality, dislike it or deny it, but thats how it is.
Thank god i got a *very* generous insurance, they recognized that i did not provokate theft, and helped me out, i followed every advice they gave, and by now it is no big deal anymore, within the last 18 month only one minor car-break, thats a new RECORD :)

Take out your stuff or at LEAST cover it, dont even invest a second trying to apply massive armor or whatever securing stuff to it, it wont pay off.

Nils

That would be a nice idea, yes - I have noticed that the angle to which the handle opens isn't really sufficient for my fingers, too.