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Electronic Lost Key Finder Gadget

Sonic or Radio Locator Saves Time and Mad Morning Searches

Mar 19, 2009 Richard Mudhar

Use a sonic key finder to keep tabs on errant keys, wallets or other small items that are essential to daily life but are so easy to lose from one day to the next.

Lost key finders work by emitting an audible trill in response to a stimulus. Attach the key finder to a bunch of keys and they can be found in seconds by looking for the sound, in the same way as the easiest way of finding a mobile phone that has gone AWOL is often to ring it from the landline.

Radio or Sonic Electronic Key Finder?

There are two types of electronic lost key finder on the market. One type, the sonic key finder, works by responding to a particular sound, like a clap, or whistling. These have been on the market for some time, and the advantage is that the source of the stimulus is always with you.

The downside, of course, is that the range of the stimulus is limited. The lost item has to be in the same room before it can be found, which is not always the case with things like keys, though it is a reasonable assumption for something like a remote control for a TV set. The other downside of the sonic key finder is that the stimulus sometimes occurs naturally. Dropping an object onto a hard floor can set off clap-triggered sonic key finders, and there is something embarrassing about having one's keys trill as the applause dies down after a concert.

Radio key finders solve this problem - the stimulus is triggered by an electronic remote control device. Some models have several channels available, which can trigger a trill from one of many key fobs. The range of a radio key finder is much more than that of a sonic key finder, typically covering the whole house.

These often operate on the 400MHz band, which is the same frequency range as that used by many car remote door locks, and they achieve the same sort of range. So if there is not too much background noise then it is possible to locate the keys anywhere in the house and which room they are in. Of course, this does now introduce the problem of knowing where to look for the radio remote transmitter to activate the sound from the lost keyring. There is much to be said for attaching the transmitter to a fixed object with a piece of string so that it is always in one place.

Keys and wallets lost in the house are one of the small occasional frustrations of life, and an electronic key finder in a known place addresses this problem. Search ebay or gadget stores for them

The copyright of the article Electronic Lost Key Finder Gadget in Home Management is owned by Richard Mudhar. Permission to republish Electronic Lost Key Finder Gadget in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.