Whell I have thourt about some waye to make the unit less ideal for teifs:
empeg keeps an record ower hwo the owner is raido ID=owner´s name
eatch unit save it owner´s name in the flash, normal upgrads dont change the name.
you will neet a special change name file from empeg to change, the file is sent to the registred owner of the unit.
if ID in file dont match the unit´s id name is't change
the unit cut alsow be protected by a password that will prohibit download to the unit, ther by making the unit usles

the name is shown at eatch boot

Mark
emaks rouls

I wrote it before ( check archives about theft issues ) and i write it again :

--- All of what you do is useless, because FIRST the thief takes the unit away, THEN everything smart that you think of comes into action, still annoying for the thief, but totally useless for you, the unit is away, the damage is there.


Forget it.
Take it out when leaving the car.

Thats all.


Nils

The only effort which is worth a try is the following :

Put a sticker or label on the unit that says something like this:


"Dear thief, this car stereo is very important to me, so do not hesitate to contact me after you got it, Then we can think about a way to get it back to me, and you will be rewarded with no less then $500, maybe just send me an E-Mail to XXXX, using an anonymous E-Mail account like Hotmail.
This way you are not in danger of getting caught and we can talk about things ...
Thanks, i was stupid enough to leave it in the car, now lets make a deal ! "


Or similar.
Only chance.

Nils, whose car(s) were raped 13 times by now, because of stupidity, bad luck and relying on so called "prevention systems" .

yes I know that you poste somthing like that under general but I think it belongs under new fratur.
but to make the theif more instred, if he cant sell it, he migth be instred in sell it back :-), the name in the display make it more dificult to sell and when you cant add music to it, it is worthles for enybotty else than the right owner

But the idea of selling it back is nice, fx an official stikker saying that you can contact empeg to get the name of the real owner "the police will love that"
fx by auto e-mail send reg and the reply is the name of the owner

Mark
emaks rouls

ive got to agree with nils. i had one of those fancy kenwoods that has the MASK thing on it. when you turn the car off, the face opens out, turns around, and just leaves a blank face showing. in addition, if the head unit is interrupted from a power source (like when someone steals it), whenever it is reconnected, it opens up and will not do anything until you put in a 4 digit PIN that you set up when you first installed it. i thought that this was a good idea, but it dosent work. someone stole mine, and the PIN function does me no good. he got a useless radio, but i am still out a radio, and have to pay a $100 insurance deductible to replace it.

like nils said, any feature like that (pin/password protected) does you no good after the thief has already stolen the unit. he will either throw it out, or sell it to someone else who does not know about the security feature. those features only work when the thief knows beforehand that the radio will be useless. obviously, the guy that stole mine was ignorant of the security. all i can think of is making a little sign that explains that this radio has such a security feature, and if you steal this radio, it will be useless to you.

jeremy

oh, i wish i wish i had an empeg...

Yes yes, you always have to bare in mind, that those guys breaking in cars are no rocket engineers, otherwise they would earn good money, engeneering rockets, instead of stealing our toys :)

And they are also ... in a kind of hurry ... when they break cars, so they are not going to check if they actually can use the stuff they steal, or if they damage it, they just rip it out ...
But they are still greedy, so maybe a note, giving them the opportunity to contact you without risk, will make them asking friends what an "E-Mail adress" is, and what an "anonymous Hotmail" is and so on ... like i said small chance but only chance.
TAKE IT WITH YOU WHEN YOU GET OUT OF YOUR CAR, this must become a reflex, like it is for me now.

Well well, that was my ~4 Pfennige ( around 2 cents ) :)

Nils

well the password wasent mant to prohibit playing only downloading
and yes they probaly steal it enyway :-(
but atleast he will have dificulty selling it.

Mark
emaks rouls

Actually it is a myth that those codes lock out thieves from using the stolen equipment. The best way to secure the unit is to remove it of course, but that isn't always possible (say you're driving to the beach to go surfing, etc.) In that case, a locked box in the trunk would be ideal (except if they steal the car.) A vented box and IR repeater (do they make those in 12 volt?) would allow you to control the player, too. Just some thoughts.

In some cars, when you advance the automatic stick into "park" ... it is so close to the dash that you can't slide the player out. Wouldn't depend on that, though for security.

My ex had two flip front Kenwood stereos stolen in a row, along with autochangers full of CD's. They used a crowbar to get them out of the dash, as the stereo inserts security bolts into the side of the cage when in "secure" mode. The equipment the thieves got away with was useless, but they didn't seem to care, assuming it was the same ones that came back for the second one.

I've known other friends to get their stereo stolen whilst the face was removed, thieves will hope the face is in the glove box, but if it's not they'll take the stereo anyway incase they get a face another time.

The only security that really works is to remove the player. At least empeg make it easy to do this (carry cases coming soon!)

Rob

Goody! I'll have one straight away. And a Mug. And a tee-shirt (Large).

Yep - I still have the face from my pioneer stolen a few years ago :-( I now have an old cd unit that you can take out completely. Thats one of the things that i like about the empeg. None of this detachable face only stuff. Sure didnt work for me!

Hehe :)
I also got a face from a pioneer unit AND i got a head unit from sony, where the morons only had time to steal the face unit :)

Nils

actually the latest theft attempt of my car was foiled by the detattchable face. in addition to saving my stereo, i now enjoy a ripped cloth top, and a busted glove box where they thought the face might be. o well. i guess thats what insurance is for...

jeremy

oh, i wish i wish i had an empeg...