5901 manual remote start

Yeah.  Thanks.  Done that already. 

Here's another interesting fact.  Using a multimeter I checked the pins on the remote start connections on the unit itself.  There is a dead short between the auxiliary output and the wire to the starter relay.  You know, like in the unit itself.  As in it has nothing to do with my wiring.  There are other pins that have shorts between them as well, but I left my notes in the garage.

I may be an amateur when it comes to the remote start install, but I am no amateur when it comes electronics or wiring.  I studied for two years to become a cetified electronics technician and have worked in the field for the past six years.

Thank you so much for offending me!  That really helps with my frustration!  Is this how you treat all who are less experienced than you?  Instead of helping or encouraging you insult them?  That's a pretty poor attitude sir.

Cheers,

Hey, no worries.  I know how you feel (I'm having a bad time with this vehicle).  And in your defense I did fail to mention that I rechecked every single connection.  Thanks.

I will try disconnecting all the plugs and testing for shorts and opens as you say after work tonight.

I have the starter connections done as you say.  As I'm sure you know the BLACK/ white wire runs from the ignition switch to the clutch switch, then to the starter relay.  I cut the wire after the clutch switch such that remote start will not require the starter be depressed to crank, but starting with the key does.  Here's a quick and poorly done scribble of how that is wired in:

https://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s117/Berg9987/Starter.jpg

(Point of interest - that cruise control connection isn't there on my car.  Instead there is a separate switch at the top of the pedal's travel.  My car is an 87 and this diagram is for an 88.)

I believe that the alarm/remote starter was working.  I did have the initial trouble, but that was something that had gone wrong when I did the set up with the bitwriter.  Whether it was a setting I did in error or something else that went wrong I cant tell you because I don't know.  After "zapping" the remote start worked fine the one time.  I tried again and that is when the alrm allerted me that the trunk was open, but as I said the backup battery unit is wired into the same trigger.  After that it held the dome light on so it always thought the door was open and would not set itself up for remote start or pitstop mode (when I pressed the lock/arm button it just turned off the car and gave me a remote start error).  I tried zapping again and the only change was that I lost the remote pairing.

I fear that trying to remotely start the car with a weak battery may have caused some damage.  I jump started the car and about a minute later the remote start kept the starter cranking at all times.  This is why I was wondering if there was a way to manually force a reset of the brain.  But now I'm just repeating things I've already said.

One thing I did do after I posted last night was manually put 12 volts on the pink wire (Ignition 1) and managed to re-pair the remote with the alarm.  Unfortunately it hasn't really done me much good.

Thank you for the help.

Cheers,

Ok, I have followed your suggestion.  I checked every pin on the remote start plug for continuity.  There were only two readings, short or open.

With nothing plugged into the brain:

I then plugged the main harness back in and repeated the test (power to the alarm):

After this test I was fairly sure that something has gone wrong in the brain.  I dont think it was any of my wiring, it was all done and checked before anything was plugged into the brain.  Also the remote start had been acting funny since day one (see first post in this thread).  That was all tested before I reassembled the car so I don't think any pinched wires can be blamed.  So I could be in that 0.01% or I may have made a mistake like shorting a wire when plugging things in or something (though my pride keeps saying its the 0.01% lol).

I decided that as I need my car to get around the best course of action is to remove the alarm and reassemble.  To test the pins I had unbolted the alarm from the car and just had the one harness plugged in.  So I grabbed the alarm and unplugged the harness.  In doing so I noticed that the underside of the alarm was warm.  Not hot, but a definately a little warmer than the temperature in the garage.  Of course this is to be expected, electronics that are shorted tend to increase in temperature.

I have left all the wiring in the car.  I put a jumper between pins 4 and 5 on the remote start harness to re-enable my starter.  I will get a replacement, recheck the connections (again!) and connect the new brain.  I have contacted the seller about this but doubt that they can do anything (I am not an authorized dei installer, nor can I prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the unit came to me faulty).  I'm so confident in this that I have already ordered and paid for another one.  If the original seller can repace the brain I have a second car which I am building that I can do an intall in, so I don't see it as being a wasted purchase.

I will post again when I have the new brain to let you know what hapens.

If anyone has heard of this before and can tell me for sure that I have made an error somewhere please let me know before I fry another unit.

I need a beer.

Thanks for all the help.

Cheers,

Good to know.  That makes more sense than my assumption.  So 85 is connected to the grounded when armed output and this is why when the anti-grind feature is activated the grounded when armed remains grounded until the driver takes over right?  (The second half of that sentence was lifted straight from the manual).  This thing is a very well thought out little unit, and you obviously know pretty much everything there is to know about it.  I appreciate you sharing your knowledge with me.

I'm still waiting for the new alarm to clear customs.  I'm expecting it to be here sometime next week.  Then its a final check on the wiring (again), and I'll try again.  I'll post up the results here.

On a positive note, you imply that the remotes aren't the most reliable, and I'll have four just in case!

Cheers,

My new alarm has arrived.  I am hoping to find some time this weekend to put it in. I will be going through all the connections again.  I'll let you know what happens.

Cheers,

anyone knows how to set up the clock on the viper 5901? authorized dealer installed the system in my car  yesterday (1/13/2010) take it home but the clock time is wrong and I can't set up.

- step by step settings please -

your help is deeply appreciated

Okay, thats a little different than the thread topic, but here goes.

Clock time is set up on the remote as such (taken from pagea 23 to 27 of my user's manual):

Access menu items

So step by step just for the clock (I did this right now with the remote in my hand):

Cheers,

Alright, update time.

I received the new alarm last week and today I spent some time with the car trying to figure things out.  I checked every single wire for connection.  I then checked all of the wires that control systems in the car (dome light, rear defog, etc.).  The ones activated by a ground I tested using my multimeter and tieing it to ground.  This is where I found the mistake I had made.  I am embarrassed about it because I know better and I have been shaking my head since I figured it out.  Remember back in my first post I mentioned that it did work once, then went funny.  Well the reason it went funny was because the alarm had gone off (triggered by the backup battery circuit when the voltage dropped).  The horn honk output was set to honk the horn when the alarm was triggered.  Well the horn honk output of the alarm can only handle 200mA.  I failed to check what it actually drew the first time.  I checked it today and it required 4A!  I can't believe I didn't check that the first time.  I'm just glad I didn't plug the new one in without checking it.  Everything else checked out fine.  So I removed the horn honk wire and connected the alarm.  I think that I may have damaged the backup battery circuitry as well.  When the remote start tried to engage the backup battery circuit didn't like the drop in the battery voltage and set off the alarm.  So the engine cranked for a split second then stopped and the alarm went off.  Thinking that it may have been that the battery might be low I connected a jump starter and tried again.  Same problem.  I disconnected the trigger wire from the backup unit and it started fine.  I'm alright with how this is.  The battery is in the front trunk so the alarm would be going off anyway if someone tried to cut power, and the battery part of the backup still works.  If I do decide that I need this voltage sensing trigger I should have enough spare parts at work to build my own circuit.

Now it is working, it's not perfect but its close.  I still have to do some setup like sensor sensitivity.  I do have two more issues.

1.  When setting up the alarm to remote start (brake, handbrake, press button, remove key, get out, lock the door), the remote start sometimes tries to start the car while its still running.  I can tell whether or not it will work by the number of times the parking lights flash.  If they flash five times then stay on, I'm good.  If the flash a different number of times I have to press the brake before it tries to engage the starter and try again.  So long as I'm paying attention it seems fine.  It doesn't seem to matter whether I activate the ready state by alarm or by the momentary button I mounted in the car.  Also if I remote start the car and then shut it off by remote it sometimes turns off and then starts up again, without disengaging the starter.  Pressing disarm while this is happening stops the car, but it also takes the remote start out of ready mode.  Any insight as to why it's doing this?  Would this be a tach sensing problem?  This isn't the end of the work because usually if I start the car then I am intending to get in and drive away.  I have yet to test what it would do when runtime runs out in either smart start or timer mode. 

2.  The dome light supervision.  When I press the button set up the remote the alarm turns the dome light on as though I have removed the key.  If I get out of the car and close the door and then lock it, It still thinks that the door is open and gives me the "remote start error".  Two ways to deal with this:  Take the key out of the ignition and then wait for the light to go out before getting out of the car (not pratical, but works for now), or use two diodes and a length of wire to move where the dome light output is connected to isolate it from the door triggers (I would have done this today, but I simply ran out of time).

Thank you for your help.  It will be much easier with the colder temperatures now.

Cheers,