Going to DIY car alarm

[devil4u2c]

?

LMAO

OP good luck

[thx1138]

Thanks everyone. I just installed it yesterday. I had to ghetto fabricate a few things but it all works so a big thanks to everyone who helped or gave me encouragement.

[99s10walled]

if its not too hard and i figure it out imma start installing them i get a lot of people asking me to do alarms

[thx1138]

if its not too hard and i figure it out imma start installing them i get a lot of people asking me to do alarms

Yeah that would be a cool way to earn some extra money. I kinda thought about it (and doing custom stereo set ups also) the only thing is if I'm not working on a friend or family members ride I'm basically 100% reliable for any mistakes I make. Like if I accidently break something or if the install causes other problems. Well, good luck.

[Robert8252]

My problem is I have to make everything SO perfect for the install I would take more time then its worth for money.

[thx1138]

Man.... One feature I really wanted to use was to be able to arm the car normally but have it so it pages me when something is wrong but it doesn't trip the siren. I was bored at work so I went through the entire manual. The only thing I saw close to what I wanted to do was 1. I can disable the chirp when arming and disarming but if the alarm is triggered it will still set off the siren and 2. I can disable certain zones but not the siren.

Makes me sad I have a baseball bat specifically for use in conjunction with a silent alarm. Here's a link to the manual. Like I said I went through the entire thing but maybe someone will spot something I skipped over? I don't want to believe that I don't have that option because every other cheapo alarm I've seen has that feature. Thanks.

(Looks like I can't directly link it because its a downloadable pdf, just use google docs to view it. It's Matrix 10.5x)

http://www.clifford.com/Support/Guides.aspx

Any help appreciated.

[The Performer]

Man.... One feature I really wanted to use was to be able to arm the car normally but have it so it pages me when something is wrong but it doesn't trip the siren. I was bored at work so I went through the entire manual. The only thing I saw close to what I wanted to do was 1. I can disable the chirp when arming and disarming but if the alarm is triggered it will still set off the siren and 2. I can disable certain zones but not the siren.

Makes me sad I have a baseball bat specifically for use in conjunction with a silent alarm. Here's a link to the manual. Like I said I went through the entire thing but maybe someone will spot something I skipped over? I don't want to believe that I don't have that option because every other cheapo alarm I've seen has that feature. Thanks.

(Looks like I can't directly link it because its a downloadable pdf, just use google docs to view it. It's Matrix 10.5x)

http://www.clifford.com/Support/Guides.aspx

Any help appreciated.

You wouldn't believe how many people ask to have that feature, when truly it's really not as feasible as you would think. You have to realize that there are so many factors that make a security system prevent theft. The number one reason car alarms work is because they draw attention to the vehicle, and your typical situation would not have your typical thief wanting attention drawn to the car they are breaking into. Sure you can argue all day long that your top notch 2 way responder is going to tell you that your car is being violated, but at what rate? What about that one time that you think you will be in the one mile range so you set it on silent trigger? Then later on you end up just a hair out of that range for the responder? Or say you sleep heavy one night and cant hear the remote beeping and buzzing around the nightstand? Or perhaps it's in your pants pocket, and you sleep right through the robbery? You can make as many excuses as you want and swear up and down that will never happen to you, and you may be correct. However, DEI and other manufacturers have a reputation they would like to keep. And a bunch of people complaining about having vipers but still getting robbed does not look good on a reputation.

Keep this in mind, I had a friend at a party one night got a hit and run on his car. Nothing big, just a scratch on the bumper while someone at the party was leaving. Had he had a loud obnoxious alarm, the small impact of the car hitting his car would have triggered a loud noise that just might have brought attention to the 10 people on the front porch, and just maybe one of them would have looked toward the street and noticed which car was leaving at that moment. Where as my alarm being loud and obnoxious gets the attention of atleast SOMEONE at the party when my buddy is opening the tailgate to put his cooler in my bed.

Point being, you can dream all you want about catching some bastard trying to steal your shit, it's just not a good situation or risk you should take. It's more than possible to install an alarm to work on the principle of silent trigger, however I strongly advise people against it. When asked about it, I tell people that no alarm companies offer that feature, end of story.

[thx1138]

You wouldn't believe how many people ask to have that feature, when truly it's really not as feasible as you would think. You have to realize that there are so many factors that make a security system prevent theft. The number one reason car alarms work is because they draw attention to the vehicle, and your typical situation would not have your typical thief wanting attention drawn to the car they are breaking into. Sure you can argue all day long that your top notch 2 way responder is going to tell you that your car is being violated, but at what rate? What about that one time that you think you will be in the one mile range so you set it on silent trigger? Then later on you end up just a hair out of that range for the responder? Or say you sleep heavy one night and cant hear the remote beeping and buzzing around the nightstand? Or perhaps it's in your pants pocket, and you sleep right through the robbery? You can make as many excuses as you want and swear up and down that will never happen to you, and you may be correct. However, DEI and other manufacturers have a reputation they would like to keep. And a bunch of people complaining about having vipers but still getting robbed does not look good on a reputation.

Keep this in mind, I had a friend at a party one night got a hit and run on his car. Nothing big, just a scratch on the bumper while someone at the party was leaving. Had he had a loud obnoxious alarm, the small impact of the car hitting his car would have triggered a loud noise that just might have brought attention to the 10 people on the front porch, and just maybe one of them would have looked toward the street and noticed which car was leaving at that moment. Where as my alarm being loud and obnoxious gets the attention of atleast SOMEONE at the party when my buddy is opening the tailgate to put his cooler in my bed.

Point being, you can dream all you want about catching some bastard trying to steal your shit, it's just not a good situation or risk you should take. It's more than possible to install an alarm to work on the principle of silent trigger, however I strongly advise people against it. When asked about it, I tell people that no alarm companies offer that feature, end of story.

Oh yeah, I get what you're saying. Makes a lot of sense and I definitely wouldn't rely on myself to be able to keep an eye on my remote 24/7 or to always stay in range. And of course I think we all dream of beating some one down who's stealing our stuff but that was just a joke. Mostly I can think of times when I am home and in range and would like to use a silent alarm even if I know it wont be 100% effective. My friends evo 8 has a factory alarm that can do that and I remember someone offering the option to me when I was going to get an alarm installed by a shop. I did some range testing when I was at school and I'm only getting like 200 ft with my car in plain view, no obstructions. I have the antenna mounted on the top of the windshield above my rear view mirror and the wire stretched out as much as I could. Sucks I'm not getting very good range but I'll have to make due with what I have.

[thx1138]

Going through the manual again and I see that I do have a wire to detect when the hood is open. Its a negative wire and I don't know of any wires that would supply a (-) when the hood is up. Can anyone tell me what a common way of hooking that up is? Also is seems the way I did the trunk the wrong way so how is the trunk usually wired? I can program it to detect either a normally closed or normally open connection. Should I hook it up to the light in the trunk or something?

Also decided to hook up the horn honk wire, I wasnt going to at first but I changed my mind. So what is the best way to do that?

Thanks for the help.

[The Performer]

Going through the manual again and I see that I do have a wire to detect when the hood is open. Its a negative wire and I don't know of any wires that would supply a (-) when the hood is up. Can anyone tell me what a common way of hooking that up is? Also is seems the way I did the trunk the wrong way so how is the trunk usually wired? I can program it to detect either a normally closed or normally open connection. Should I hook it up to the light in the trunk or something?

Also decided to hook up the horn honk wire, I wasnt going to at first but I changed my mind. So what is the best way to do that?

Thanks for the help.

The (-) means you present it with a ground. If your alarm came with a hood pin you just need to mount it under the hood so that when the hood is open the spring pin is completely extended which allows the base of the pin touch the mounting ring. When you attach it, put it in a place that when the hood is closed the pin is pushed down and the connection is broken. Make sure when you mount it it's to metal and the metal is clean so that it makes a good connection to the vehicle ground.

This connects to the hood pin zone on the alarm and will trigger that zone, as well as should be a remote start prevention when the hood is open.

Hooking your trunk up would work on the light signal. You just need to meter if the light has 12v to it when the trunk is closed. If light is getting 12v while it's closed then the trigger will be a (-) input the same as your hood pin. If the trunk light doesn't get 12v until the trunk is open then the trigger will be a (+) input.

The horn wire will be a (-) output from the alarm. Same scenario as the trunk, you need to find out if your horn has 12v at it already and upon pressing the horn you present a ground which completes the circuit. (this is pretty typical of most vehicles) if upon pressing the horn you you send 12v to the already grounded horn, then you will need a relay to convert the signal from a (-) output, to a (+) output.

http://www.the12volt.com/relays/page1.asp#n2p

From the looks of it, it seems like you haven't had much experience with alarms before. If your electrical theory isn't up to par, then you might want to consider learning a few more basics before diving into this project.

Also curious, have you looked up your vehicle's wiring diagram? That site I linked to has a good database of wiring code sheets for many vehicles you might want to check out. They usually tell you what your trunk, and horn trigger wire color is, location, as well as what polarity it is.