Viper 5901

[dereileak]

I will have to try the range with it setting off the keyfob, I know the 1 mile is pretty close for me sending commands to it, but I imagine if someone breaks in that the antenna could reach very very far, idk, also I love viper, I actually work for best buy and install these, all depends on the shop for how good of work you will get, the rules are they are supposed to solider and tape, but I have seen one shop that only taped and tied with zipties. Some shops are full pro, where they do amazing jobs, and some mediocre, see if you can find out how the shops are around you. Also, glass break sensor is a must, maybe an external shock sensor, I have never been big on shock sensors honestly, if they want to get in my car they will either break a window, glass sensor, or open a door or trunk, which will also be picked up. Also if it were me pick up an extra siren or two, the one that comes with it is wicked loud, but the more attention you can draw that better

[dereileak]

I have a 5901 and it is the best damn unit i have ever used. 1 mile range is a lie, i have gone almost 2 miles and was in a brick building and it didnt have any windows and it still paged me on my remote that the shock sensor went off, turns out that the jackass cops gave me a parking ticket and slammed my wiper down so hard that it set off the alarm but hey it still reported it to me.

Pros:

1.) 1+ mile range of the remote to vehicle (not sure if its that much for the secondary unit that doesnt have the screen since i never tested that one out too much other than for mechanics to have)

2.) Very easy to setup and reconfigure options to customize your remote and alarm system to your preferences.

3.) There are so many features and add-ons you can get for this unit its ridiculous.

4.) Lifetime warranty FTW. They even cover the remotes as long as they werent abused!!!

5.) Extremely easy to operate (now the addon features with the remote is kind of a pain but once you use them it isnt hard to memorize the hot-keys to get into the menu to turn on/off the feature you want. (for example i commonly use the temperature check, silent arm/disarm, rear defroster commands)

6.) The main remote with the lcd has a rechargeable battery so its very nice to not have to waste money on batteries for the remote.

The cons about this unit to me are this...

1.) i had to get an extra module to make the rear defroster work with this unit but my installer gave me a damn good deal on it all

2.) You do not have anything for sensors but a shock and door sensor so you should get upgraded sensors like the glass shatter sensor and multiple door add ons. (now for the multiple doors im not too sure on, i had my 5901 setup so that as soon as i took the key out of the ignition and shut my doors i had 30 seconds before the truck would automatically lock and arm the vehicle. Now this setup is in the manual so its nothing custom but it has the 30 second timeout and if you open up a door it will shut off that timer from counting down. Well i noticed that with mine if i left one of the rear doors opened it sometimes would stop the counter, sometimes it wouldnt so idk what is up with that. I also noticed that in my truck if you were to arm the system and open up the rear doors sometimes it would set the alarm off, sometimes it wouldnt but my front doors and rear latch had a 100% working where as soon as you trip them, the alarm will wail.

3.) It would be nice if it had a shock sensor to place in the rear of your vehicle as mine isnt really good at the rear of the vehicle. even if i turn the sensitivity all the way up, i could tap the glass and set off the alarm but in the rear of the vehicle i could hit it with a sledge hammer and not even set off the warning chirps but it may be due to not being installed in a good location so idk for sure.

But to me, the cons are just more things i found to be picky about, its nothing that would ever prevent me from getting another viper product. Viper has so many add ons you can get such as the smart start which allows you to control your vehicle from your droid, iphone, blackberry and not have any limits on how far it will work (not too sure how it works and i dont plan to get this since i dont think its good if someone steals my phone that they can disarm my car and steal it) and the shock, tilt and glass sensors you can get plus all the amazing things it controls. I really love this unit and i would say to get it from sonic electronics since thats what i did and it came to me in 3 days.

Note: If you get this unit, one thing i would recommend to do is enable button locking on the secondary remote (the one without the lcd) because the secondary remote is very very easy to accidentally hit a button and disarm or start your car. I programmed that into mine and after a few seconds of inactivity it locks the buttons up so that no matter how many times you hit them ,unless you hit FN+unlock it will not make the buttons actually emit a command.

I find it interesting they needed a module, all you usually need is a relay. I guess it all depends on the car, but some you can go right to the switch and you can find the wire that triggers, oh well

[Chaise]

This thread has made me want to order one. Pretty much no cons about it (other than really small things that are easy fixes).

Think I'll pick one up here in a week or two. Gotta find out how much the shops around here with charge for the install.

[kickass audio]

Yea for the module it was only 19.99 so it wasnt the end of the world for me. Im sure it was a relay or something but hey it works perfect for me and thats what i want. And i imagine that the distance is even greater for it to page you about emergency alerts/alarms. I have had it where i was like 4 blocks from my truck and i couldnt lock or unlock anything but when i had my dad set off the alarm it paged me and told me and let me silence the alarm too so im not sure about how it works but the 1 mile is a load of crap if you ask me. It can and has always gone more than 1 mile.

[dereileak]

Yea for the module it was only 19.99 so it wasnt the end of the world for me. Im sure it was a relay or something but hey it works perfect for me and thats what i want. And i imagine that the distance is even greater for it to page you about emergency alerts/alarms. I have had it where i was like 4 blocks from my truck and i couldnt lock or unlock anything but when i had my dad set off the alarm it paged me and told me and let me silence the alarm too so im not sure about how it works but the 1 mile is a load of crap if you ask me. It can and has always gone more than 1 mile.

im excited, I wanna try it on mine now, and see how far it goes!

[kickass audio]

It went pretty far for me. At my college i park in the outskirts of the parking lot most of the time and i was suprised to see that it went off and paged me.

Another downfall that i noticed (again im just picky but id still buy another 5901) is that if you were to unlock your vehicle or do anything with it by using the spare remote, it wont update the status screen on your main remote. So for example if i locked the doors with my main unit and unlocked the doors with my spare remote. The main unit will still show the status as being locked until you transmit another command to the unit with the main remote it will stay un-updated. Even if you have the auto update/paging feature turned on it still lacks to tell you if it was disarmed with the other remote.

I still really love my unit though. One thing i would recommend for this is to go to radioshack or somewhere and get some screen protectors for the remote. I took the screen protector for my droidx (it came with 3 screen protectors) and put that on the remote because it is very easy to scratch the screen on the remote. I also am a fan that there is no antenna on these remotes so you dont have to worry about snapping one off. I have snapped the antennas off on my old remote i had for an omega remote starter system i had and it was a pain.

[dereileak]

It went pretty far for me. At my college i park in the outskirts of the parking lot most of the time and i was suprised to see that it went off and paged me.

Another downfall that i noticed (again im just picky but id still buy another 5901) is that if you were to unlock your vehicle or do anything with it by using the spare remote, it wont update the status screen on your main remote. So for example if i locked the doors with my main unit and unlocked the doors with my spare remote. The main unit will still show the status as being locked until you transmit another command to the unit with the main remote it will stay un-updated. Even if you have the auto update/paging feature turned on it still lacks to tell you if it was disarmed with the other remote.

I still really love my unit though. One thing i would recommend for this is to go to radioshack or somewhere and get some screen protectors for the remote. I took the screen protector for my droidx (it came with 3 screen protectors) and put that on the remote because it is very easy to scratch the screen on the remote. I also am a fan that there is no antenna on these remotes so you dont have to worry about snapping one off. I have snapped the antennas off on my old remote i had for an omega remote starter system i had and it was a pain.

thats weird, because on mine when I did that it did update me, it was just a delay of about 10 seconds, but it did show up, I am pretty sure, I will have to test it again, I need a battery for my spare remote, thats another plus of the 5901 or 5902, rechargeable keyfob I will say also, the screen does scratch, I also have dust going under my screen, I rma's my first remote after about 9 months cause of the dust, got a new one no issues after sending mine in, but this one is starting to do it too, oh well when I sell my van, I am going to keep this remote, and get another 5902 and then I will have 2 remotes for it, just in case, or I could get a 5901 and save some cash, I am going to leave in the remote start and alarm as a selling point, as far as a private sell, it should help

[kickass audio]

thats good to hear. Im not sure if its my unit or what because the temperature update where it is supposed to alert you what the temperature is inside the car when it changes a certain amount never comes up for me to alert me. I can hit the function button once and hold it down to find the temperature so its not a big deal but im thinking something may not be configured right but idk and to be honest i dont really care. It serves its purpose, to arm my truck against the pussy thieves who are afraid of an alarm system. lmao.

I sometimes wish i bought the window roll up module like Meade has because that would be pretty cool but i was wondering about how secure that would be if i accidentally rolled down the windows and all that, ya know.

And thats another thing, even the man himself has a 5901, so just goes to show you its a very popular and great unit.

[dereileak]

thats good to hear. Im not sure if its my unit or what because the temperature update where it is supposed to alert you what the temperature is inside the car when it changes a certain amount never comes up for me to alert me. I can hit the function button once and hold it down to find the temperature so its not a big deal but im thinking something may not be configured right but idk and to be honest i dont really care. It serves its purpose, to arm my truck against the pussy thieves who are afraid of an alarm system. lmao.

I sometimes wish i bought the window roll up module like Meade has because that would be pretty cool but i was wondering about how secure that would be if i accidentally rolled down the windows and all that, ya know.

And thats another thing, even the man himself has a 5901, so just goes to show you its a very popular and great unit.

hell yea, also as far as the temperature report, its just something you have to program the module to do, you can use a bitwriter which is like $70, or you just use the valet button and you have to turn on something called "vehicle temp auto report" its a nice feature, the only thing I like more on the 5901 remote is all the colors that the remote can do

[kickass audio]

oh yes me too, i love the colors you can choose for it. And i do have the temp reporting turned on but oh well like i said idc. And OP sorry to somewhat post dump but i thought it would be nice for you to know everything that we have experienced. I really would say get it and the install depending on what you want done with it will be around 250-300 but i really think its worth it. If it wasnt for me having that 99.9999% chance of screwing up the wiring i would have done it myself since the programming is mad easy to do but i do want my alarm system to serve a purpose and actually work. I dont want to Tim Allen anything like this. lmfao

edit: and dereileak, you can easily take the remote apart, just undo the one screw and it comes straight off then you just pull the motherboard off the remote and you have access to the screen. Its a 2 second fix but its up to you.