Flashlight detection inside cars

[palomino77]

I have been reading about thieves detecting laptops by detecting batteries. Does any one know about this? Because if they can detect a laptop battery they can detect a flashlight battery also.

 

[Sgt. LED]

How do they do this?

 

[NutSAK]

I'm not sure how you could do this without a laptop being powered on. If it was powered on with bluetooth visibility activated, you could detect it with a bluetooth-enabled cellphone.

 

[Sgt. LED]

Well yeah that would be easy.

But detecting the battery?

 

[Marduke]

It's a myth that has been perpetuated for years. As with most urban legends/myths, it's complete BS.

 

[Cataract]

You might detect RF signals if the laptop is on... but I never heard how someone could detect a battery... and if they could detect just batteries, all cars would be a target, since the big 12V 180 amp+ acid-lead car battery certainly is the most powerful one in a car...

 

[palomino77]

Thanks

Then I can leave my flashlights inside trunk and not worry about detection?

 

[TheInvader]

laptops only emit bluetooth (like for phones, the headset thing people wear on their ear).
bluetooth is emitted because the laptop is searching for a device to connect to.
flashlights don't emit anything except light lol.

 

[Ajax517]

You could also track a laptop down with wifi but battery tracking is just absurd.

 

[choaticwhisper]

Now that would be some high-tech criminals walking around with Lithium detectors.

 

[balou]

It's a myth that has been perpetuated for years. As with most urban legends/myths, it's complete BS.

Well, the thieves could theoretically wield a nonlinear junction detector (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonlinear_junction_detector). But this detects semiconductors, not batteries. So, it's theoretically possible, but in practice, a simple crowbar and some profiling (business car yields business laptop) would be simpler. Also, with a crowbar you don't have to worry about loosing your eyesight due to the microwave radiation of the NLJD.
So yeah, like every myth it has a grain of truth - a theoretical possibility - but it's not detecting batteries and it's not practical.

laptops only emit bluetooth (like for phones, the headset thing people wear on their ear).
bluetooth is emitted because the laptop is searching for a device to connect to.
flashlights don't emit anything except light lol.

Now thats BS times two. As NutSAK already said: only when it's on. And most people don't leave their laptop on in the car. Btw, no Bluetooth in suspend. Further, you'd actually have to active Bluetooth support.
And flashlights do emit other things than light - if they have any kind of regulator in them. I've just tested it - set my Akoray K-106 to blinking mode, and tuned my radio to about 260kHz (other frequencies might work even better. My laptop power supply totally swamps out radio reception at about 160kHz btw). And there you go, you can actually hear the flashlight blinking through the radio.
And of course if the flashlight has a regulator, you could also detect it with a NLJD. You could even detect the LED itself - after all it's also just a P-N Junction.

 

[Pummy]

Realistically there are more expensive items in more abundance to pinch from cars than flashlights.

Usually done with Bluetooth being active AND visible to allow a thief to trace a close proximity of cars to then target for a possible electronic piece of equipment.

Would not bother to be honest, and anyway, you would only ever keep a small emergency light in the glove box and a big one in the boot, with a Mag fitted into a roof mounted fitting for quick access?

 

[palomino77]

Well, the thieves could theoretically wield a nonlinear junction detector (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonlinear_junction_detector). But this detects semiconductors, not batteries. So, it's theoretically possible, but in practice, a simple crowbar and some profiling (business car yields business laptop) would be simpler. Also, with a crowbar you don't have to worry about loosing your eyesight due to the microwave radiation of the NLJD.
So yeah, like every myth it has a grain of truth - a theoretical possibility - but it's not detecting batteries and it's not practical.



Now thats BS times two. As NutSAK already said: only when it's on. And most people don't leave their laptop on in the car. Btw, no Bluetooth in suspend. Further, you'd actually have to active Bluetooth support.
And flashlights do emit other things than light - if they have any kind of regulator in them. I've just tested it - set my Akoray K-106 to blinking mode, and tuned my radio to about 260kHz (other frequencies might work even better. My laptop power supply totally swamps out radio reception at about 160kHz btw). And there you go, you can actually hear the flashlight blinking through the radio.
And of course if the flashlight has a regulator, you could also detect it with a NLJD. You could even detect the LED itself - after all it's also just a P-N Junction.

I am asking because sometimes I like to carry many for showing off. In order to detect regulator the flashlight has to be on,, Correct?:thinking:

 

[deranged_coder]

I am asking because sometimes I like to carry many for showing off. In order to detect regulator the flashlight has to be on,, Correct?:thinking:

If you looked at the wikipedia article which was linked, there was a subsequent link to how to use a non-linear junction detector. Of note is this quote:

Proper operation involves slowly brushing or sweeping the antenna over every surface in the suspect area. The procedure is very slow and time consuming, typically involving 2-5 minutes per square yard of surface area. A small 15 * 15 foot office will typically require four hours to sweep with such an instrument.

I somehow doubt thieves will spend money to purchase / build a detector just so they can subsequently spend hours in the proximity of single car to see if they can detect something that may or may not be of sufficient value to warrant theft. :shrug:

 

[balou]

I am asking because sometimes I like to carry many for showing off. In order to detect regulator the flashlight has to be on,, Correct?:thinking:

Nope, flashlight could be off if you had a NLJD. Has to be on if you just had a frequency counter/scanner or the like.
But as already said - no thieve is gonna carry one. They're hard to find and hard to produce, and the soviet ones you probably could find have such massive microwave radiations that you'd go blind very fast.
deranged_coder, that's probably refering to a safe NLJD. Crank the energy up to soviet level and you'd be done and done for much more quickly.

But... we're not talking about robbers anymore, we're talking about obscure $15'800 counterintelligence equipment (http://www.tscm.com/orion.html)

 

[deranged_coder]

But... we're not talking about robbers anymore, we're talking about obscure $15'800 counterintelligence equipment (http://www.tscm.com/orion.html)

And anyone with the resources to get one of those is probably not going to use it to steal laptops or flashlights from cars.

IMHO if you want to make sure your flashlight collection is not stolen, store it (and all other valuables) out of sight. I had a flashlight stolen from my vehicle (Surefire K2-MS) but that was because I had foolishly left the GPS mount in plain sight on my dashboard and my mp3 player was also plainly visible so both items were stolen along with whatever was easily reachable from the window the thief broke to get in (the flashlight was in the center console). Lesson learned, now I make sure to store everything out of sight in either the glove compartment or in the trunk, where thieves walking past my vehicle cannot see them.

Also, if you are carrying your collection with you, keep it in something nondescript (like a school backpack) and not in some expensive looking case that just screams "come steal me, I am valuable!".

 

[TooManyGizmos]

I am asking because sometimes I like to carry many for showing off. In order to detect regulator the flashlight has to be on,, Correct?:thinking:

Showing them off may eventually cause your trunk to be broken into with a crow bar by a previous admirer .

These days .... you just never know .

You better put a Low-Jack in all your lights .
.

 

[Cataract]

Even a non-linear junction detector would redflag every car: all cars have computers and all computers have semi-conductors in them. Nope, I'm not sold to that Idea. Plus modern cars have computer chips all over now, so your laptop might be even more secure inside your car if that was the only thing you where trying to hide it from.

Your flashlights are safe from detection in your car, unless you leave them on and not in the trunk. I know I would wonder what the heck is that light!

 

[ampdude]

The only flashlight I keep in my car is the cheap 6V lantern light that goes in my console. Why keep an expensive flashlight in the car?

 

[balou]

Even a non-linear junction detector would redflag every car: all cars have computers and all computers have semi-conductors in them. Nope, I'm not sold to that Idea. Plus modern cars have computer chips all over now, so your laptop might be even more secure inside your car if that was the only thing you where trying to hide it from.

Ok, let's dive deeper into the realm of theoretical possibilities
With collimated beams and/or digital signal processing techniques and/or multiple emitters and/or receivers, you could implement something akin to a synthetic aperture radar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_aperture_radar), even a 3D one. Then, with that system, you could easily differentiate between the built-in car electronics and other electronic devices by location. You could also differentiate between many different kinds of consumer electronics by chip count, size, and distribution in 3D space, including Notebooks and flashlight drivers.

Too complicated and totally unlikely you say? True, but any resemblance of 'likely' has gone away the second I mentioned NLJDs