READ THIS! SKS system... cops almost hauled me off

The Smart Entry/Smart Start system has the following operating frequencies; see attached TSB file:

• Fob to vehicle: 312 - 315 mHz
• Vehicle to fob: 134.2 kHz

Given these frequencies, I see no reason why their system should be pointing to the Prius. Instead, the system should have been pointing to you - if you had a nearby FM station operating at ~100 mHz, and there was mixing of the signals due to rectification.

If the fob to vehicle and vehicle to fob frequencies were reversed then I could understand their system pointing to the Prius.

 

Nice thinking on your feet to throw them off the scent.

How much did you get away with?

 

Hey, at least you have a great story! I have a good one about Zagreb, armed soldiers, a train at 3am and the bullet pock-marked police station.. .but it's actually NOT as interesting as yours!

 

crap. there goes the bank robber gig.

 

Another cool test would have been to turn off the SKS system and see what the police equipment picked up...

 

Yet another way technology is harming our civil liberties. I hope they didn't illegally search your car while they were at it.

 

I wonder if some strange harmonic was involved. I've seen some weird stuff over the years.

Since I have nothing to hide, I don't care if they want to search my car in a situation like this, as long as they don't break anything. I want to do what ever I can to help them catch the bad guys. The sooner they eliminate me and my car the sooner they can get on with the hunt.

Bob

 

Another good one!


ZC1

 

If the bank had an armed guard it would have been easy to find the perp in a pool of his own blood.

 

You're lucky if most cops even have a high school education, and most are remarkably ignorant of technology. Most even refute/distrust any effort by engineers, scientists, and other skilled folks to help them. Unlike Europe, there is very little cooperation here between law enforcement and the engineering community

So no doubt they were not aware of how hard it was to steal a Prius

As far as homing, if they had something like an Agilent E3238S/35688E and - more importantly - knew how to use it, the mixup with you would not have happened. The frequencies are far enough apart that unless they were using a cruddy, poorly built, never-calibrated device, it should never have keyed off on your Prius

Unfortunately, here is what I predict will happen in the near future: thanks to media releases and even sites like this, a savvy bank robber will build and scatter a handful of "crybabies" in a 2-4 block radius around the intended bank. The bankrobber will be careful to use nitrile gloves while handling the components to avoid a possible IAFIS hit

The "crybabies" will be on a simple timer, to coincide with when the robber intends to knock off the bank. Within moments of the carefully planned heist, the "crybabies" all start broadcasting, and the crook most likely makes a clean getaway

Good thing I'm essentially a moral and ethical person at heart. Something tells me that all my engineering training, and work experience, would have *really* paid off if I had started a life of crime

 

Hi Bob,

Good point. The SE/SS receiver in the Prius may have had an oscillator within, operating on the frequency being monitored by the police.

 

Yep, I have the same thoughts. I come up with some great schemes, but have no interest in breaking the law. It's a good thing that most people are basically honest, and it's an even better thing that engineers are too geeky to get involved in this sort of thing. Most of my efforts along this line were used to annoy office mates.

Tom

 

Knowing that you are a ham, if you have a VHF receiver that will tune the 210-220 mHz range, maybe you can try looking for a signal coming from your Prius. A local oscillator makes a lot of sense if you could control the signal with the remote lock/unlock buttons on the fob.

Patrick Wong AK6C

 

Please feel free to explain which civil liberties were harmed.
Reason to suspect, inspection, so what. The people with the most to lose are criminals, for law abiding people it's a couple of minutes and a great story to tell.
Sometimes I wonder why Americans are seen as wankers by the rest of the world then someone comes along and gives me an answer.

 

Oh boy, if only the cubicles could talk. Ever do anything naughty with an office KSU, especially a Hunt Group? Shame, shame on me