For car alarms, emphasis should be put on hearing the audible alert and identifying it as belonging to your ‘wheels’. Unfortunately, modern car alarm systems seem to have more or less the same alarm sound — especially if they are from the same brand. Also, to comply with legal noise restrictions, the alarm sound is not always loud enough to be heard if the car is parked down the road.
The circuit shown here is designed to help boost the alarm sound by also activating the car’s horn(s) when the alarm goes off.
Internally the car alarm system often provides a signal that activates the (optional) engine immobilizer and/or volume (ultrasound) sensors. This signal usually goes Low upon system triggering and high again when the alarm system is deactivated.
The alarm activation signal is fed to the circuit through D1. When in an idle state, T1’s gate is High and consequently the FET conducts, keeping power FET T2 firmly switched off. When the system gets an active low signal, T1 switches off allowing timing capacitor C2 to charge via R2. About 15 seconds later, when the voltage across C2 is high enough, T2 starts to conduct, and relay RE1 is energized. This, in turn, provides the required path for the ‘lights flashing’ signal to energize RE2 and feed battery power to the car’s horn(s). When the alarm system is turned off the activation signal returns to High. T1 starts to conduct and rapidly discharges C2 via R3. T2 is then cut off and RE1 is de-energized. Diode D2 suppresses back EMF from RE1.
