opinion on alarm/remote start

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xenon2000

Member - Posts: 25

Joined: May 04, 2005

Location: United States

Posted: May 05, 2005 at 4:24 PM / IP Logged

Well, looks like I am getting the Galaxy 5000RS for $70 shipped. 30 day return policy from X10.com. I can't find any terrible reviews. Has the features I want. It's super cheap, has a warranty. And X10.com customer service. Way better price than anything local. Cheapest thing I could find locally is a super simple AudioVox 1-way starter/alarm for $150 and very OEM looking remotes.

xenon2000

Member - Posts: 25

Joined: May 04, 2005

Location: United States

Posted: May 16, 2005 at 11:09 AM / IP Logged

xenon2000 wrote:

I now have the Scytek Galaxy 5100 remote start alarm installed in my 1991 Geo Metro 4 door automatic 3cyl commuter! Works great so far. I haven't tweaked all the settings, everything is default right now. But it remote starts perfectly via Tach sensing and I haven't even done the tach learning stuff yet.

Added door locks work great (did a 2 stage door lock setup). Dome light supervision setup is so nice. Before this alarm, my dome light was only manually controlled because the car does not come with door pin switches. So now after 3.5 years, I finally have light when I enter the car without having to manually turn it on and off.

I still have to add the power trunk release. And I wasn't able to find the correct main accessory wire on my car, so I still have that wire to connect as well so that I have have heat in winter and A/C in the summer. Manual says it's a black wire, not very helpful. Car alarm wiring guides for my car say it's a blue wire, but that has 12volts hot at all times, so it's definately not that one.

And I put my blue LED indicator in the center of the top of the dash by the defrost vents to mimic many OEM car setups. Visible 360 on the outside of the car. I like how when the alarm is disarmed, any shock sensing makes the LED blink in perfect sync with bumping the car. :)

I personally think the remotes are well built, very strong and solid buttons. And I like the small size of the remote and how the botton panel area is embedded with a raise edge so that the buttons are a lot less likely to be pressed in your pocket. The green LED in the remote is ugly, I would rather have an oldschool red LED in my remote, than green. But I will most likely change that to Blue in the near future anyways. Also, the remotes came with batteries pre-installed and the range sucks, so I am going to try new batteries before I go ranting about crappy range.

$70 shipped was definately worth it for this alarm. Only time will now tell if it's a reliable unit. I almost wish I spent the $110-140 to get a 2-way version of the Galaxy 5000 so I didn't have to listen for the Remote Start confirmation tones. My other alarm would do 1 loud tone what sounded different than normal chirps. And the normal chirps were soft. This one with the way it is by default (maybe a tweak is possible) the chirps are very loud and it does 4 chirps as the remote start confirmation tone. That is really my only complaint so far. But definately just my personal preference. Also, if you care about the look of your valet switch, all alarms I have seen, come with ugly ones, so you will want to buy a different one if you even care about the look of it.

Parts list of my current install so far.

(1) Galaxy 5000RS alarm from X10.com for $70 shipped

(5) relays $8.75 total (10 pack purchased from Asianwolf's ebay auction for $17.50 shipped.)

(5) relay sockets, $5.00 total (10 at $0.99 each from X10.com shipped free with alarm, shipping not free otherwise.)

(4) door lock actuators from ebay for $22 shipped.

Items I had laying around:

(1) Blue LED to replace RED alarm LED , had one already.

Various wires, solder, heat shrink tubing, etc.

So far I really like this alarm and am extremely happy with my setup for only a total of $105.

xenon2000

Member - Posts: 25

Joined: May 04, 2005

Location: United States

Posted: June 01, 2005 at 4:16 PM / IP Logged

Sorry, meant to say I have the Galaxy 5000RS installed, not the 5100. Anyways. I have now had the alarm installed for about a month. And I don't like it. The range is just the worst I have ever had, completely useless for remote start away from home.

And the alarm is inconsistent. I set it for RPM sensing. 1 because RPM sensing claims to be the most reliable way to start the car, yet in this mode it almost never starts on the first try. 2, I wanted it to lock the doors based on RPMs so it doesn't lock right away since passengers often don't have the doors shut before it locks which means the door unlocks when it shuts because as an import is has lame "hold the door handle up" to keep them manually locked. Import owners will know what I am talking about. Anyways, it's not consistent for the door locking, it should only lock based on RPM. But instead sometimes it locks right away as if in the ignition lock mode, sometimes it does it based on RPM and sometimes it does both which is annoying to have it double lock like that.

Also, with the remote start, if it doesn't start the first try it takes forever between cycles. I think about 30 secs between cycles. Doesn't sound like a long time, but trust me, sit there for 30sec waiting for it to try again is forever. My other remote start retrys in about 5 sec and it didn't even have RPM sensing. Seems if it's using RPM sensing it should try cranking for at least 6-10 secs before giving up and then it should be able to see it's not started and retry within 5 secs not 30 sec.

$70 is cheap, but upset because for just $20 more I could have gotten the same alarm I was used to, and from a company that actually replies to emails and phone calls. Scytek in California will not reply to my emails and never calls me back on the phone.

Pro:

CHEAP and does work, but see the CONs.

Cons:

COMPANY IS UNPROFESSIONAL, won't call back or reply to emails, not once even.

Terrible remote range (like 50 feet on a good day)

Remote is slow to react (feel like I have to constantly press buttons)

Remote start is unreliable and has no config options other than RPM sensing or Auto.

Remote start cycle times are way too way apart.

RPM sensing mode gives buggy door locking results

So don't buy this alarm. I wish Someone else had mentioned these things, I would have stayed clear. At least it's just my GEO and was only $70 shipped.

KarTuneMan

Platinum - Posts: 7,056

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Joined: December 14, 2004

Location: Isle Of Man

Posted: June 01, 2005 at 4:39 PM / IP Logged

Im just wondering what you were exspecting .....for 70 bucks, shipped?

Don't get me wrong......K

Powermyster

Silver - Posts: 962

Joined: April 06, 2005

Location: Ireland

Posted: June 01, 2005 at 4:43 PM / IP Logged

if i want one of those off my guy he charges me over $150

Powermyster

Silver - Posts: 962

Joined: April 06, 2005

Location: Ireland

Posted: June 01, 2005 at 4:43 PM / IP Logged

if i want one of those off my guy he charges me over $150

xenon2000

Member - Posts: 25

Joined: May 04, 2005

Location: United States

Posted: June 01, 2005 at 4:47 PM / IP Logged

KarTuneMan wrote:

Im just wondering what you were exspecting .....for 70 bucks, shipped?

Don't get me wrong......K

Well, to give you an idea. My last alarm, which has been installed for over 3.5 years was and still is only $90 ($20 more). And it works perfectly, insanely long range, fast reliable strong remote, awesome customer support from the company, selectable crank times, etc. And no bugs. Just keeps working and working.

So when a $90 alarm works perfectly and awesome customer supportl then yeah, I expected about the same from the $70 alarm as well. I figured I would try something different because I liked the looks of the remote on the Galaxy and thought I would save $20. But even if I bought ScyTek's $150-$200 alarm, they still don't reply to emails or phone calls. So why buy from a company like that. Sure I can call X10, the retailer I bought it from. But they won't care that the alarm sucks.

But to answer your question, I figured for $20 less, the only thing different should have been packaging and customer support. Quality should have been at least as perfect as my $90 3.5 year old alarm. Which I am going to buy for my next car since I know it works perfectly and the company stands by it.

KarTuneMan

Platinum - Posts: 7,056

Joined: December 14, 2004

Location: Isle Of Man

Posted: June 03, 2005 at 12:06 AM / IP Logged

Dude....you sure can type...

OhioMike1101

Silver - Posts: 343

Joined: August 22, 2004

Location: United States

Posted: June 03, 2005 at 11:03 PM / IP Logged

xenon2000 wrote:

So don't buy this alarm. I wish Someone else had mentioned these things, I would have stayed clear. At least it's just my GEO and was only $70 shipped.

Hmmm, after installing many many of Scytek RS units, I really have to wonder if you have the correct tach wire or have programmed the tach correctly. I have never had one that was programmed to tach fail multiple times on the first attempt. By not having the correct tach wire, that would also make the rpm locks funny. With the combination of those problems, I can only assume the tach is not programmed correctly or you have the incorrect wire.

I read in your first post about how you have it hooked up to tach and it is working fine RPM sensing without any programming of it yet. But that alarm comes from the factory preset to voltage sense. How could it work tach sense if you had not programmed it for it?

xenon2000

Member - Posts: 25

Joined: May 04, 2005

Location: United States

Posted: June 05, 2005 at 3:09 PM / IP Logged

First off, I have a single electronic fuel injected throttle body 1991 Geo Metro G10 3 cyl Automatic 4 door that this is installed on. Required cranking time is anywhere from 1/2 sec to about 3 or 4 sec due to the carb/injector setup. Which is why I choose the RPM sensing mode. I setup Engine type to Gas, Enabled RPM Sensing Mode from the default Tachless mode. Then followed the instructions for "learning" the idle. Even had the A/C on to program for a lower RPM idle. LED status blinked in confirmation, turned off ignition to save programming. And it was obvious that RPM sensing mode was enabled because then the door locks locked with RPM which it wasn't before. I have my RPM sensing wire directly connected at the coil instead of tapping into the existing wire because I wanted a clean signal. I did not extend the RPM sensing wire that is a part of the wiring harness of the 5000RS brain.

I have the right wire and I followed instructions (simple) for tach learning. The door locks work, but I was kind of hoping that the door would lock sooner after a 200 rpm increase, which it doesn't. Seems I have to hit over 1500 rpms before the doors lock. Which if that is normal, I don't like.

My biggest issue with this alarm is the range. I have a really hard time at about 50 feet. Even with new batteries. And my antenna is in the windsheild near the drivers side at the very top. Which is where I always put them. My other RS unit by LogixStart gets 500+ ft easy. Both 1-way setups in case anyone was wondering.

Another thing I noticed about the 5000RS. I disabled ignition locking and kept ignition unlocking enabled. So that for testing it should only unlock when turning the car off with the key. And that it should never auto lock the doors. Well, if I remote start the car, disarm (unlocking), get in and put in the key, turn to on, and press the brakes to drive the car. The doors lock! Yet if I start the car with the key only, the doors never lock as programmed above. Which to me is a flaw in the design of the unit. And which also explains why it seemed random that my door where locking with RPM sensing. It's because it would lock only with RPM when using the key only for starting, but do both when doing Remote Start. So that solves that mystery and only means I like the alarm less.

If only the range was at least 200 feet I would just accept the poor design of this alarm and stop messing with it. If this wasn't my cheap Geo commuter car, I would definately uninstall it and return it. But for my Geo, even with low range and not really using the remote start, at least now the Geo has power doors.

The remote start is so silly with only 40-50 feet range. By the time I am close enough to activate the RS, I am already at my car by the time it even does the first crank cycle. And that is with a slow walk. Takes WAY too long to do the first crank over. Should start cranking within 1 sec after the confirmation tones. Not like it takes that long for the fuel pump to charge the system.

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