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Comment by macintux | Hacker News Reader

I’ve been researching OBD-2 port physical locks, since I drive doorless most of the summer. Not much available.

Just rewire the pins and build your own jig that reverses it (or undo rewiring as needed).

Might be able to short the right data pins from behind to ground and rip that out as needed. Or a hidden switch that does that.

I’m reluctant to mess with the wiring on a brand new vehicle; a lock would make me much happier.

Also reversing pins would be something that is very easy to forget - you end up shooting yourself in the foot!

Couple of vampire taps bridging together the right data lines to ground can be easily removed without too much evidence.

I understand a lock, but just have a hard time seeing how it would actually lock (well), especially as a universal device.

Rewiring the pins doesn't necessarily do much these days as there are devices which will figure out the input pinout and route signals to the proper output pins. Think of it as a MITM device.

A better way is to use a different kind of connector but you'll have to build yourself an adapter and to keep in your place or something.

Remember to put a standard-looking dummy ODB2 port where the original was, so any would-be thief has a convenient place to plug in their dongle.

https://autocyb.com/shop/ is this the leading contender?

I don’t think I’d come across that one. It probably would be, but the website sends me to some 3rd party spam site every time I click a link.

Pretty sure their Wordpress site is compromised, it tries to load a malware domain sometimes. I accidentally lost the domain off my clipboard, but my uBlock rules caught it once. It had the word 'great' in it.

May be worth trying Amazon-- it shows if you search there. Not going to give Bezos the satisfaction of the actual link to the product page, though.

Does the hood or hood latch lock? If so just disconnect the battery negative after parking. Anyone that plugs anything into the OBD-2 while you're gone is going to get an unresponsive system. I doubt they're going to take the time to troubleshoot, pry open the hood and reconnect the battery, etc.

Hood doesn’t lock, and the dual battery setup (for ESS) is much too failure-prone on my Jeep.

Having to unlock and crack your hood every time you park takes away some of the coolness and convenience of a doorless Wrangler.

Could rig up a switch somewhere inside the car near the driver's seat pretty easily. I had an old motorcycle with some kind of electrical issue that would drain the battery if I left it off for more than a day at a time.

But instead of spending days and weeks chasing it down, I spent maybe $30 on a battery cover with a little hidden flip switch. It was originally designed for turning on (illegal in my state)under lights, but I modified it slightly and had the switch connected to the ground terminal instead, so whenever I got off the bike I'd flip the switch and boom, problem solved, no more dead bike.

As a Jeep owner (an older one), get used to chasing electrical gremlins now and just put a battery kill switch on it. :)

Amusingly, you can and probably SHOULD lock a doorless wrangler. On a JL and even on the JK, the alarm system still locks out some functionality. And most people don't take the tailgate off, which when locked, kinda keeps people from getting at the little compartment under the cargo floor. It's not really an effective safe place, but just a neat thing.

You can also put a lock on the hood, which is a good idea since that way nobody can disable the security system lol.

Edit: Also of note, the JL wrangler uses an RFID chip for the ignition startup itself. It's separate from the rest of the keyless go system.

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