door trigger question

is it better to connect the door-trigger of my alarm to the door-lock detection or to the door-pin switch? If you ask why, there is a difference here. Door pin switches only trigger when the door is physically opened, but the unlock detection triggers when the key is opened either with key or forcible entry even without door-pin activated. as a last alternative, they can also be connected to the domelight voltage/ground which also has its advantages and disadvanges. So which is the best way to connect?

Hitting the door pins themselves or the domelight is the best way in my opinion. Main advantage using the door pins is that you avoid the domelight delay when arming and there's no way for the customer to turn off the door pins. Most cars you can turn the domelight off which would make the door trigger useless or cause the alarm not to arm at all. Not sure exactly what the door-lock detection your referring to is, but I assume the latch wires or key cylinder wires. (You lost me with "unlock detection triggers when the key is opened either with key or forcible entry") This would work but I don't see the benefit of it. Most likely you would have to go into each door for the wires or if not would still be a pain to find them. Not to mention I'm not sure if those wires would even get a signal should the theif NOT mess with the key cylinder at all. I would stick with the door trigger or domelight wire.. Good luck, Mike

NowYaKnow wrote: Most cars you can turn the domelight off which would make the door trigger useless or cause the alarm not to arm at all.

Hey Mike, thanks for the response, but I think you are making a small mistake. When you turn off the domelight, your trigger is still active. The switch only cuts off the supply to the light, whereas your trigger picks up the voltage or -ve coming to the switch which is still available when the light is switched off. If you still are doubting me, I can put up a simple diagram to make things clear. Please don't mind my correcting. (Personally, if I am wrong I always like to be corrected.)

what you've described is indeed possible, you just need to diode or relay isolate that door unlock wire if in case it is the same wire leading to the unlock wire of your alarm. not sure what type of vehicle you're planning to do this on, but just like NowYaKnow said: you're more than likely going to need to go into each of the door panels to do this, and it's almost more trouble than it's worth. after all, i would imagine that the whole purpose of a thief unlocking your door would be to open it, right? good luck!

"The switch only cuts off the supply to the light, whereas your trigger picks up the voltage or -ve coming to the switch which is still available when the light is switched off" Maybe I should've gone into a little more detail. Normally when you tag the domelight wire it is picked up between the switch and the domelight itself. In that case the trigger would not be active unless the switch itself is on the domelight instead of on the dash somewhere. If you picked up the trigger before the switch then your correct the trigger should still be active being that it is the switch cutting it off from the domelight. Another option not discussed is to pick up the wire going to the icon in the cluster for your door trigger. Many cars use just 1 icon in the cluster to show if any entrance is open rather than isolated icons for each entrance. Good luck, Mike

I just did that today and it still ain't working. Maybe I did something wrong. I put 2 diodes parallelly. It was so cold I could not continue after all the soldering and cutting I did for the rest of the sensors. Why did this not work? I will try removing 1 diode, then both if it still wont work. How are the voltage and current affected by putting 2 diodes in parallel? The diodes were IN4003, 1amp diodes.