Simulate the Appearance of a Car Alarm with a Blinking LED

Many automobiles come equipped with a built-in car alarm, the presence of which is usually indicated by a blinking red LED light on the dashboard. If your car does not have a built-in car alarm, and you do not want to spend the money to have one installed, you can simulate the appearance of a car alarm by installing a blinking red LED light in your dashboard. A blinking LED light can serve as a deterrent to thieves who would break into your car.

The easiest way to install a blinking red LED light into your car's dashboard is to use the Radio Shack bright red blinking LED module (Radio Shack part number 276-299). This module consists of a red LED light attached by two wires to a small battery pack housing two AA batteries. Once you install batteries into the battery pack, the red LED light will blink at an even rate, simulating the appearance of a car alarm indicator.

The difficult part about installing a blinking red LED module is deciding on the placement of the LED and the module. It is best to drill a small hole into your dash, and mount the LED light directly into the dashboard. This helps create the appearance of realism and gives the impression that the blinking LED light is factory-installed. You must then also hide the blinking LED module battery pack in an inconspicuous place.

If you find that you need to hide the battery pack farther from the LED than the included wires allow, you can solder or splice additional wire to increase the distance from the battery pack to the blinking LED light. If you are feeling brave, you could even wire the LED light directly into the car battery so you do not have to worry about changing the AA batteries periodically. If you do use AA batteries, you should consider using Lithium AA batteries because they will last many times longer than conventional alkaline AA batteries. Rest assured that a blinking LED light will consume a very small amount of electricity, which means that it should not appreciably affect your car battery life, should you decide to hard-wire the blinking LED directly into your car's electrical system.

In conclusion, if you want to simulate the appearance of a factory-installed car alarm without spending hundreds of dollars on a new alarm system, you should consider installing a blinking red LED light into your car's dashboard. A blinking LED light is easy to install and can serve as a deterrent against break-ins and theft.