New to installing alarms.

Hi, I have been working at a dealership installing alarms.  I have been doing this a little less than a year now.  Prior to working there, I have never installed alarms. If I had to rate myself or describe my skill level I would definetly rate myself as a beginner, but I guess that is so obvious.  The reason I am posting is because I want to learn more about installing alarms.  For intance I want to be able to know when I need to use diodes and relays and resistors and stuff like that.  What are the Ignition 1,2,3 wires all about.  What I means is what is the purpose of each one.  Stuff like that.  I have been reading in the forums and reading stuff that pertains to alarms on this site and I must say I am still confuse on this stuff.  Are there any other sites that I can look at or books  that would teach me the basics.  How did you guys learn about alarms? 

If your STRICTLY installing alarms, you don't need to worry about the ignition 1,2,3 etc. You only need those when you get into remote starters. For an alarm you always want to tap into the main ignition 1 wire. Depending on the alarm, connecting the ignition wire has a few purposes: 1. Ignition Controlled Lock/Unlock - Ignition on, locks lock. Ignition off, locks unlock 2. Starter kill. If the alarm is armed and it sees the ignition come on, it activates the starter kill relay making the car unstartable. 3. Some alarms double the function and use it as a trigger as well so should the thief somehow get that far without the alarm going off, it will go off when the ignition is turned on. 4. Also some alarms once it sees power on the ignition wire, the alarm basically goes dead so that you can't be using the functions on the remote control while the car is on. There may be some other uses, but I would say that is the main purposes of connecting the ignition wire on an alarm system. In a car, at the ignition switch you will often find multiple ignition wires and accessory wires. Basically instead of running a single ignition wire, they run a few seperate ones. This allows them to run a few smaller gauge wires rather than 1 8 gauge ignition wire or something like that carrying a lot of power. Also they are usually fused seperately meaning should one blow the others should stay powered up. The ignition wires fire things up like the ignition system itself, computers, transmission controllers, etc. There is no set in stone purposes for multiple ignition wires every manufacturer uses them for different things. The accessory wires (not used for alarms) commonly power up things like the radio, a/c, power windows, etc. By the way what kind of information are you using for wiring diagrams and specific car info? That really is the most important tool available today for installers. The information will likely tell you when your going to need a relay, resistor (and it's value), diode, etc. Not that you should rely 100% on the information either you still need to confirm everything yourself. The car security section on this site gives a good overview of resistors, etc and when to use them. There isn't a lot to know about alarms. If you know the basics of 12volt electricity and the basics of the components (relays etc), then alarms are pretty easy to figure out. Plenty of info available on the net just search and read. Good luck, Mike

NowYaKnow wrote: By the way what kind of information are you using for wiring diagrams and specific car info? That really is the most important tool available today for installers. The information will likely tell you when your going to need a relay, resistor (and it's value), diode, etc. Not that you should rely 100% on the information either you still need to confirm everything yourself. The car security section on this site gives a good overview of resistors, etc and when to use them. There isn't a lot to know about alarms. If you know the basics of 12volt electricity and the basics of the components (relays etc), then alarms are pretty easy to figure out. Plenty of info available on the net just search and read. Good luck, Mike

Thanks for the reply.  I work at a Toyota dealership and I have access to their EWDs.  But I only use them when I have trouble finding a certain wire.  I mainly rely on testing the wires to see which one is the starter wire, door trigger ect. and from there I just write down my notes on a sheet of paper.  Seldom do we get a non Toyota for an alarm install, so when I do get one, I usually get a sheet with install notes attached to the work order.  I think they get them from wiremagic.com.  I usually have to call this guy who supplies the alarms we use for help.  He guides me through the install and tells me when I should use a relay or a diode.  He is the one that gave me a link to this site.  I was hoping that I wouldn't have such a hard time understanding the stuff I have been reading here but I guess it will take time.  Thanks for explaning the ignition wires.  Take care. :)