Drone Telematics System Minimizes Worry about Vehicle Theft, Vandalism

A high-quality car alarm or security system is a great way to prevent vehicle theft. With that said, what if thieves decide to ignore the siren and drag your car away with a tow truck? Would you even know if your vehicle was gone before you tried to leave for work the next morning? Drone has two solutions to ensure you’ll receive instant notification if someone is tampering with or trying to steal your vehicle. If you’re curious about keeping your pride and joy safe, then keep reading.

X1-MAX Standalone Security Solution

The Drone X1-MAX is a stand-alone security and vehicle control interface. X1-MAX includes an integrated shock, tilt, motion and glass breakage sensor to provide instant warnings when someone is messing with your ride. A built-in lithium-Ion backup battery will keep the system operational even if someone disconnects the battery in your vehicle. Your authorized Drone retailer can integrate the system into your vehicle so that it will control your door locks and trunk release, and the system is capable of remote starting many cars and trucks. Currently, X1-MAX is only available in the United States.

Vehicle Theft — The X1-MAX can operate in a stand-alone mode that provides excellent vehicle protection features.

Drone X1R-LTE Add-On Communication Module

If you have a Compustar or Arctic Start security system in your vehicle and want to receive smartphone notifications, then you want the X1R-LTE add-on module. Just as with the X1-Max, alerts from the door, hood and trunk inputs will produce a notification on your smartphone in about a second. If your security system features the fantastic DAS or DAS-II sensor, the smartphone alerts will include warnings from the tilt, forward motion and, exclusively with the DAS-II, glass breakage sensors. If you’re worried about someone stealing a set of expensive wheels, this is the protection you need.

Because Drone uses cellular data communication, you don’t have to be near your vehicle to get this information. Your car could be parked at home, at the opposite end of a large shopping mall, or in a city lot a few blocks away from a theatre or stadium. LTE communication technology ensures that you know what’s going on in a matter of seconds.

Time-Based Security Warnings

When you subscribe to the Premium, Premium Plus or Ultimate service package, additional features can help protect your car or truck. Curfew Monitoring is an option that allows you to set a period of time where your vehicle shouldn’t be in operation. For most people, 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. would be an acceptable window. If your car or truck were started up during this time, you’d receive a notification on your phone right away.

If you’re a business owner, then you may want to set the Curfew notification start time to 6 p.m., so you’ll know that your assets are being used exclusively for work use. If your staff members know that the vehicle includes a locating system, they’ll be much less likely to make detours for personal use during the work day. This improved behavior will improve productivity and reduce vehicle-related expenses.

GPS Location-Based Notifications

You can configure your home or office with a geofence so the Drone system will send a notification any time the vehicle enters or exits that geographic area. Should someone try to tow your car or truck away in the middle of the night, not only will you receive an alert from the tilt sensor, but you’ll know when it moves. You can use the GPS Car Finder feature to track its location and notify the authorities. Best of all, you’ll receive the geofence alert even if the alarm is disarmed, so relay attacks won’t disable the system.

Protect Your Vehicle with Drone

If you’re interested in the vehicle theft and vandalism warning options available from Drone, drop by your local authorized retailer. You can find a shop in your area using the dealer finder on the Drone website. Be sure to follow the updates and new releases from the Drone team on their Facebook Page, Instagram page, Twitter feed or their YouTube channel.

This article is written and produced by the team at www.BestCarAudio.com. Reproduction or use of any kind is prohibited without the express written permission of 1sixty8 media.

What Are Jam to Gun and Jam to Kill?

Having a radar detector and laser defense system in your car or truck is a great way to avoid speeding tickets. The success those systems have in helping you avoid tickets depends a great deal on how you use them. In this article, we’ll talk about laser defense systems and explain the Jam to Gun and Jam to Kill terms.

What Is a Laser Defense System?

Also called a laser or lidar jammer, laser shifter or laser countermeasure system, a laser defense system works to prevent a police officer from measuring the speed of your vehicle using a lidar (laser) gun. Because lidar guns can target vehicles very accurately (within a few feet at a range of 1,000 feet) and measure very quickly (often in less than 0.5 second), there’s no time for a driver to slow down once a detector has alerted him. Laser defense systems identify the light pulse pattern from the lidar gun, then transmit a signal that includes additional pulses that prevent the gun from working.

What Is Jam to Gun?

Imagine a scenario where you are driving at 90 mph in a 65-mph zone. When you are 1,000 feet away from the law enforcement officer, your laser defense system detects the lidar signal and starts jamming. In a scenario when you employ a Jam to Gun procedure, you allow the defense system to continue to transmit its signal and prevent the officer from taking a speed measurement.

The problem with the Jam to Gun method is that the officer will be expecting a measurement. When he or she doesn’t get it, they’ll know you are likely jamming the signal and may decide to pursue you in hopes of catching you speeding or doing something else wrong. You may have avoided the original ticket, but you may not get away without a fine.

What Is Jam to Kill?

A much better process is called Jam to Kill. When your laser defense system is triggered, you should slow down quickly but smoothly. You don’t want the nose of the car to dip suddenly, as that would attract attention. Once you’re at a speed that won’t attract attention, you can cancel the jamming signal transmission and allow the officer to take a reading. He or she may know what you’ve done, but without any proof that you were speeding, they will likely let you carry on your way.

React Quickly and Efficiently

If you are traveling at 90 mph, you are covering 132 feet per second. If the officer is 1,000 feet away, you have about 7.5 seconds before you are beside him. You need to respond quickly and efficiently to the laser alert from your defense system while not drawing attention to yourself. Several laser defense systems can be configured to automatically stop transmitting the jamming signal after a predetermined amount of time. Many users opt to set the system for 4 or 5 seconds. Others prefer to press a button to cancel the jamming signal once they know they are traveling at the desired speed.

For whatever method you choose, it’s worth practicing the process to the point that it becomes muscle memory. When the system triggers, check your rearview mirror, brake efficiently and smoothly, then cancel the jamming signal. Given that you’ll likely waste 0.25 to 0.5 second simply reacting to the signal, being good at completing the process is very important.

Protect Yourself with a Laser Defense System

If you find you occasionally (or frequently) exceed the posted speed limit, visit your local specialist mobile enhancement retailer and ask about having a custom-installed radar detector and laser defense system installed in your car or truck. Custom-installed radar detectors and laser defense solutions are something that you won’t want to try to install yourself as it typically requires the removal of the bumper covers and careful placement and alignment of the laser sensors for the system to function properly.
This article is written and produced by the team at www.BestCarAudio.com. Reproduction or use of any kind is prohibited without the express written permission of 1sixty8 media.

Window Tint Goes Beyond Mere Cosmetics To Improve Safety

Did you know that automotive window tint reduces glare so that you can see better while driving? That’s right; tint doesn’t just make your car look awesome and help to keep it cool inside. Reducing glare helps you see the gauges and displays in your vehicle better and can dramatically improve your vision out the front window, making it easier to see vehicles, objects and pedestrians in your path.

What Is Glare?

Glare comes in many forms. The most common in automotive situations is a reflection in a screen or display from light coming from behind you. This light washes out the screen, making it very difficult to see. This can happen to entertainment and infotainment systems in the center console or dash of your vehicle on a bright day.

Another common type of glare is from oncoming vehicles, especially when it’s raining. The light from the headlights is scattered by the water droplets. This wash of bright light reduces our ability to see darker objects in the distance.

Even bright light coming in the side windows or a sunroof on a nice day can change the way your eyes see objects in front of you.

How Does Window Tint Reduce Glare?

In vehicles where the side and rear windows are tinted, the amount of light transmitted into the vehicle is reduced. The amount of reduction depends, of course, on how dark the tint is. Using a specification called visible light transmission, or VLT, tint film darkness is rated by the amount of visible light that passes through. A 40% VLT film allows about 40% of light to pass through and would be considered medium tint darkness. A 5% VLT film is very dark as only 5% of light passes through; this is often referred to as limo tint.

Tint Glare — Lighting reflecting off a screen that reduces is visibility is called glare. Image from Ford’s Visual Performance Evaluation Lab.

If you’re driving in a vehicle and the sun is behind you, it will reflect off the display in your dash or center console. Blocking light from entering the vehicle reduces this reflection (which is called glare) and helps make the screen more visible.

Other Ways Tint Improves Visibility

When you’re driving at night, light reflected into your eyes from your rearview or side mirrors can be quite bright. The iris in our eyes will close slightly to reduce the amount of light that reaches the optical sensors. This works the same way as the aperture in a camera lens. Once the iris is closed, it becomes much harder to see objects on the road in front of the vehicle.

Adding window tint will reduce the amount of light from vehicles behind us, helping us see farther down the road.

Night Driving Tip: Turn down the brightness of your dash display, gauges or navigation system and turn off any fog lights that light up the road directly in front of your vehicle. Reducing these light sources will let your eyes see darker objects that are farther down the road.

Protect Yourself with Automotive Window Tint

Here’s a quick test you can do the next time you’re stopped at a traffic light. If the sun is shining in the side window, hold your left hand up beside your ear. Slide it straight forward until your thumb is right beside your left eye. Did you notice how much easier it is to see out the front of your vehicle? Adding window tint has the same effect.

Whether you want to reduce glare in your vehicle so you can see farther down the road or you want to prevent potential skin damage from prolonged UV exposure, having the windows in your car or truck tinted is a great idea. Check with your specialist mobile enhancement retailer today to find out if they offer window tinting services.

This article is written and produced by the team at www.BestCarAudio.com. Reproduction or use of any kind is prohibited without the express written permission of 1sixty8 media.

Popular Porsche Audio System and Accessory Upgrades

When it comes to cars that offer a unique driving experience, few can match the pride of Stuttgart’s Porsche. As amazing as these cars are, specialist mobile enhancement retailers can help make them significantly better in terms of audio systems, safety solutions and electronic upgrade accessories. Let’s look at some of the most popular accessories available.

Porsche Audio System Upgrades

Whether your Porsche rolled off of the assembly line with a radio from Becker, a Bose audio system or one of the amazing Porsche Connect systems with a 12-inch glass touchscreen, you can make that audio system sound better. Automakers walk a balance between delivering features that consumers want and controlling the cost of the vehicle. Premium speakers and subwoofers, when powered by a quality amplifier, can transform a commute to work into a musical experience that rivals world-class recording studios and premium home audio systems.

Porsche Upgrades — Ralph’s Radio in Vancouver installed a Kenwood mutlimedia receiver in this 2010 Boxster S.

Your local specialist mobile enhancement retailer can also upgrade the technology in your car. If your Porsche didn’t come with Bluetooth hands-free calling, a new radio can fix that in a flash. If you are a true road warrior and want to send and receive text messages or make phone calls using the Apple CarPlay or Android Auto voice recognition systems, a new multimedia receiver is a the way to go.

You Can Never be Too Safe

Depending on the vintage of your Porsche, it may not have come from the factory with a backup camera system. This simple and elegant technology is standard issue on most new vehicles because it not only helps to prevent accidents, it can save lives. Kids playing in the driveway behind a Macan or Cayenne may not be visible in the rearview mirror. A high-resolution camera mounted on the tailgate or rear bumper will automatically show an image of anything and everything behind the vehicle.

In many instances, the camera can be integrated into the factory color display in the dash. If your vehicle doesn’t have a color screen, a replacement rearview mirror with an integrated display is a great option.

A dashcam is another great option for adding safety to your vehicle. Whether you witness an accident or are involved in one, a dashcam automatically records everything that happens as soon as the vehicle starts. Premium solutions add rear-facing cameras and include cloud-based connectivity to let you access the camera remotely.

Radar Detector and Laser Defense Systems

With as much as 690 horsepower on tap and 0-60 times well into the two-second range, going too fast by accident is a genuine reality for Porsche owners. Even a base-model Macan will reach 60 mph in just over six seconds, and that’s no slouch. If you have a habit of letting your speed creep up, adding a radar detector and laser defense system is a worthwhile investment.

Radar detectors are tuned to monitor the area in front of and behind your vehicle for specific radio-frequency signals produced by police radar guns. Even at long distances, you’ll get a warning that radar is in use and have enough time to check your speed and proceed safely.

Police forces across the nation are switching to lidar systems because of their speed and accuracy. A police laser (lidar) gun can target a vehicle and take a speed reading in less than half a second. This impressive speed makes it impossible for you to react. A laser defense system transmits a scrambled signal back to the police laser gun and prevents it from taking a reading. Once you are certain you are driving at a safe speed, you can cancel the transmission and allow the officer to take another reading. Executed properly, you’ll be allowed to carry on with your drive.

Porsche Security Systems and Vehicle Tracking Solutions

Sadly, Porsches are highly sought-after by criminals. In some cities, a car can be stolen and in a container on its way overseas in less than an hour. Nobody wants to walk out their front door to find their pride and joy missing. A security system, especially one with a two-way remote control, will alert you when someone is tampering with your vehicle. Most security systems include shock sensors but you can upgrade with glass breakage sensors and tilt/motion sensors. A tilt sensor is a great way to prevent wheel theft.

If you fear that thieves will simply ignore the sound of an alarm siren and don’t care if you come out of the office or your home to stop them, then you may want to look into a vehicle tracking solution. A small module that combines GPS locating can show you the position of your vehicle to within a few yards, right on the screen of your smartphone. In a time where thieves carry all manner of deadly weapons, it might be safer to let them take your car, then call the police and let them retrieve the vehicle.

Window Tint and Paint Protection Film

Many mobile enhancement retailers offer window tint and paint protection film installation services. Having your windows tinted can dramatically improve the appearance of your Porsche while helping conceal items stored inside. Premium ceramic window films block up to 60% of the UV energy from the sun to help keep the interior of the vehicle cool.

If you take your Porsche to the track, protecting the front of the vehicle from stone chips and rubber debris can be a full-time job. Having paint protection film installed on the vehicle serves as a protective layer between these objects and the fragile paint on the vehicle.

Paint protection film is a thin but incredibly strong urethane that absorbs impacts and prevents scratches. In fact, some of these films have self-healing properties that can absorb small scuffs and scrapes to keep your Porsche looking like new.

Upgrade Your Porsche Today

Hundreds of options, from simple amp and speaker upgrades to elaborate audiophile-grade sound systems, are available to enhance your Porsche. WeatherTech Floor mats, radar detectors, power USB plugs and much more are available from your local specialist mobile enhancement retailer. Drop by today and find out what they can do to upgrade your Porsche.

This article is written and produced by the team at www.BestCarAudio.com. Reproduction or use of any kind is prohibited without the express written permission of 1sixty8 media.

Great Car Audio Starts With High Resolution Music

When it comes to recreating music in our cars, the weakest link in the chain will be the downfall of the entire system. Knowing this, if we start with the best recordings possible, the chances of our music sounding more realistic and lifelike increase astronomically. The equipment required to record, master and distribute high-resolution music helps to ensure that our mobile entertainment systems sound amazing.

What Is High-Resolution Music?

By definition, any music that is recorded with a bit rate (sampling rate) and bit depth (resolution) higher than that of a compact disc is considered high-resolution. This means 48 kHz and higher sampling rates and 24-bit resolution are required. Higher sampling rates capture some harmonic information, but transmitting and reproducing those sounds is extremely difficult.

Where Can I Get High-Resolution Audio Files?

Perhaps the best-known source for high-resolution music is hdtracks.com. This website rightly boasts that it has the widest collection of high-resolution music available. You have a choice of purchasing and downloading albums in AIFF, ALAC, FLAC and WAV formats at resolutions up to 192 kHz/24-bit as well as 2.8 MHz and 5.6 MHz DSD files. File formats vary by album.

Another popular source for buying high-resolution albums is Acoustic Sounds. Acoustic Sounds Super HiRez specializes in DSD format. The itrax.com website is another great source.

If you’re into streaming, you will definitely want to check out Tidal.com and Qobuz.com.

Why Should I Buy High-Resolution Music?

Some people will tell you that humans can’t hear audio above 20 kHz and that we don’t need more than 16 bits of resolution to accurately recreate a listening experience. Let’s say these statements are completely accurate. Why then would we want to buy high-resolution music? The answer is noise and accuracy.

The effort required to build a microphone that records to 40 or 50 kHz requires serious attention to detail. Capturing the upper end of the audible range is child’s play for products of this caliber.

High-Resolution Music — The Sennheiser MKH 800 P48 is rated to capture audio to an amazing 50 kHz while providing exceptionally low background noise performance.

The second benefit of high-resolution recording is a reduction in noise. This reduction comes from the fact that there’s an increased number of bits to work with (65,536 vs. 16,777,216) and the fact that the equipment used must be of a higher performance specification. Digital interfaces capable of working with high-resolution microphones from companies like RME, Presonus, Apogee and Focusrite deliver amazingly accurate digital conversions of the analog signal from the microphone. If you’re a numbers geek, as many of us are, here are some specs from the best studio-quality interfaces:

Frequency Response: 2 Hz to 92 kHz at -1 dB
Signal-to-Noise Ratio: 113 dB unweighted
Total Harmonic Distortion: <0.00032%
Channel Separation: >110dB

How to Reproduce High-Resolution Audio in Your Car

Buying great music is one thing, reproducing it in a vehicle is another challenge. Companies like Audison, Sony, Brax, Zapco and Kenwood all make audio components that will output or process high-resolution audio file formats. Of course, to hear that level of detail, you’ll need amplifiers capable of playing to at least 40 kHz and speakers with similarly impressive specifications.

Finally, and most crucially, how these components are integrated into your vehicle is also very important. To make the best use of the high-frequency information audible from high-resolution recordings, your tweeters will need to be mounted on-axis with the listening position or bounced off the windshield from a dash-mount location. If not, the directivity characteristics that are inherent in every speaker will make those sounds inaudible.

A Great Source Helps Ensure a Great Performance

If you’re passionate about your mobile audio system, drop by your local specialist mobile enhancement retailer today and ask them about upgrading your car stereo to support high-resolution audio formats like FLAC, DSD, WAV, ALAC and AIFF. We know you’ll be blown away by the accuracy and detail.

This article is written and produced by the team at www.BestCarAudio.com. Reproduction or use of any kind is prohibited without the express written permission of 1sixty8 media.

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Drone Telematics System Minimizes Worry about Vehicle Theft, Vandalism

X1-MAX Standalone Security Solution

Drone X1R-LTE Add-On Communication Module

Time-Based Security Warnings

GPS Location-Based Notifications

Protect Your Vehicle with Drone

What Are Jam to Gun and Jam to Kill?

What Is a Laser Defense System?

What Is Jam to Gun?

What Is Jam to Kill?

React Quickly and Efficiently

Protect Yourself with a Laser Defense System

Window Tint Goes Beyond Mere Cosmetics To Improve Safety

What Is Glare?

How Does Window Tint Reduce Glare?

Other Ways Tint Improves Visibility

Protect Yourself with Automotive Window Tint

Popular Porsche Audio System and Accessory Upgrades

Porsche Audio System Upgrades

You Can Never be Too Safe

Radar Detector and Laser Defense Systems

Porsche Security Systems and Vehicle Tracking Solutions

Window Tint and Paint Protection Film

Upgrade Your Porsche Today

Great Car Audio Starts With High Resolution Music

What Is High-Resolution Music?

Where Can I Get High-Resolution Audio Files?

Why Should I Buy High-Resolution Music?

How to Reproduce High-Resolution Audio in Your Car

A Great Source Helps Ensure a Great Performance

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