python 950, 03 ford powerstroke

I recently had a Python 950 installed in my 03 Ford F250 6.0L Powerstroke. It worked fine for the first few days, till today.

I was going to run into a store this afternoon and let the truck run by running the Valet Takover. This is the first time I had attempted this. I stopped at the store and decided to try and use the Valet take-over so the engine would stay running while I ran into the store. I hit the start button twice and shut off they key. The engine shut down even though it should have stayed running.

Being stubborn, I fired the truck up manually again, and tried again except this time I might have held the start button for a while instead of pushing it twice (can't remember for sure). I don't remember the exact sequence of events after this point, but somewhere along the line the exhaust icon stayed lit up for quite a while on the remote (even though the truck wasn't running) and the lights on the truck flashed over and over again till I did something to stop them.

Now my remote start button doesn't work, no rx or tx light on the remote. Nothing, nada, zip. No response from the truck or the remote.

The lock button quickly chirps my door dinger (strange), the lock icon turns on on the remote, and the LED on the dash starts flashing. Also flashing for a short period of time is the trunk icon on the remote (also strange). The doors don't lock.

The unlock button stops the LED on the dash from flashing, and changes the icon on the remote to unlock.

The auxilary button still fires the relay that controls my high idle, just as it's supposed to.

After messing around with things some more and checking to be sure all of the wire harnesses are securely connected to the brain, now pressing my start button makes my lights flash in quick repetition and the exhaust icon shows on my remote until I step on the brake (but does not start the vehicle). My lock button still triggers the lock icon on the remote, no longer triggers the trunk icon on the remote, and still does not lock the doors.

Lock and aux still work the same as above.

I apologize if this is a double-post to the same issue, but I wasn't really sure what to even search for.

TIA!

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Python 950 Remote Starts in our
00 Chrysler Town & Country, and
03 Ford F250 6.0L Powerstroke

Update:

I went through the transmitter/receiver learn routine, programming Channel 5 to the start button on the remote. No change.

However, I noted that the switch that turns the system on and off is set to off. When I hit the start button with the switch set to 'off', the lights quickly flash (exactly the same as before) until I cancel the command by hitting the start button again or step on the brake. When I hit the start button with the switch set to 'on', there is no response from the remote or the system. Could the two-wire connector for the on-off switch be plugged into the brain backwards?

After that, I ran the auto-learn function, which should program the remote as shown on the attached page from the instruction manual. All of the buttons continued to function the same, except my aux button no longer triggered my high idle switch (indicating that the learn procedure had executed properly). I'm pretty certain I can get my aux button to run the high idle again by manually programming the aux button back to channel 4.

So... I'm at a loss. It almost certainly has to be a wire or fuse somewhere, doesn't it? And between those two possibilities, I'm leaning towards a fuse, since this all apparently started when I entered a command into the remote. It would be pretty coincidental that a wire happened to chafe or break off at the same time I pushed a button on the remote.

I looked for the hood switch, but didn't find it. I didn't install the system myself, and I'm an hour away from the installer (or any other DEI installer for that matter). That's why I'm trying to figure it out myself.

So...

What do you think about the possibility of the on-off switch wiring being switched around?

Is there a hood switch/button mounted under the hood somewhere?

Do you have any idea where to start looking for blown fuses? In the fuse box under the dash or in the remote start wiring somewhere?

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Python 950 Remote Starts in our
00 Chrysler Town & Country, and
03 Ford F250 6.0L Powerstroke

Someone please at least tell me which part of the forum etiquette I'm not following, or what is wrong with my post that's causing everyone not to respond.

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Python 950 Remote Starts in our
00 Chrysler Town & Country, and
03 Ford F250 6.0L Powerstroke

does the remote still lock/unlock the doors?

ckeeler wrote:

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does the remote still lock/unlock the doors?

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Hi Ckeeler! Thanks for the reply.

No, it doesn't. When I press the lock button on the remote, the LED starts flashing and the remote icon changes to lock, but the doors don't actually lock.

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Python 950 Remote Starts in our
00 Chrysler Town & Country, and
03 Ford F250 6.0L Powerstroke

okay, give me until the morning? im going to research it. i have a few ideas but want to be sure.

AWESOME! Thanks a million!

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Python 950 Remote Starts in our
00 Chrysler Town & Country, and
03 Ford F250 6.0L Powerstroke

BTW- I left the batteries to the truck and pulled the remote batteries all night last night. Same things going on when I put them back together this morning.

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Python 950 Remote Starts in our
00 Chrysler Town & Country, and
03 Ford F250 6.0L Powerstroke

can you find where the alarm brain was installed? have you seen it yet or looked at it?

Yes, I know where it is and can get at it fairly easily. Everything seems to be plugged in tight to it.

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Python 950 Remote Starts in our
00 Chrysler Town & Country, and
03 Ford F250 6.0L Powerstroke

the first thing i was thinking of trying is: remove the battery from the remote, then unplug only the antenna from the brain for 10-15 seconds, then plug it back in and reinstall the battery in the transmitter.

Alrighty. I'll give it a go. Looks like the top connector on the left side in this pic..



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Python 950 Remote Starts in our
00 Chrysler Town & Country, and
03 Ford F250 6.0L Powerstroke

FIXED!

I climbed under the dash and unplugged the antennae from the brain. To make more room for me to fit down there, I pushed in the e-brake pedal. After waiting nearly a minute, I plugged the antennae back into the brain and put the battery back into the remote. Low and behold, she started up with the remote!

So then I thought I would drive my truck back to work and the first thing I did was release the ebrake pedal. The second I did that, the truck shut down and the lights started flickering again, so I was right back to where I was before. Quite discouraging.

I climbed back down under the dash to get a better look at the ebrake assembly. There was a black wire that was getting pulled by the assembly when the ebrake was released. I found where this wire was grounded to the wall, and it had very nearly pulled out of it's crimped o-ring connector! Once I re-routed and regrounded the wire, everything is fine.

If it weren't for the fact that you encouraged me to climb under the dash to unplug the antennae from the brain, and that I pushed the ebrake pedal to make room for myself under there, I/we would still be scratchin my head on this one.

Thanks a million Keeler!

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Python 950 Remote Starts in our
00 Chrysler Town & Country, and
03 Ford F250 6.0L Powerstroke

PS- That's what I get for letting someone else do the install.

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Python 950 Remote Starts in our
00 Chrysler Town & Country, and
03 Ford F250 6.0L Powerstroke

WOW! cool how that one worked out. no problem by the way. when you went to do the stop and go take over you must have set the e-brake then before you got out of the truck huh? thats when all your trouble started.

Yeah...

I think after failing at the valet take-over on the first attempt, I must have thought that the ebrake may need to be engaged... or something like that anyway.

It's unbelievable how important just one of those 87 wires are for that system. Although, as crazy as the system was acting, I'm not the least bit surprised it was a ground issue.

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Python 950 Remote Starts in our
00 Chrysler Town & Country, and
03 Ford F250 6.0L Powerstroke

I'm a casual joe who just bought a new bitwriter so I can tweak the wait to start times on my diesel depending on the season. The 15 second minimum is just too long!

However, the bitwriter won't communicate with the my system, which is a Python 950 (remote start only). The Bitwriter says "for DEI systems ver 1.2" when I turn it on. Then when I hit the read button it says "not a valid system".

I don't know how to determine if I need a firmware update on my bitwriter, or if my 950 is just too old of a system (however, the 950 instructions say it's supposed to communicate with a bitwriter).

In case it is just too old of a firmware, I went ahead and bought the version 2.6 chip. Should be here in a couple of days. However, I hope it comes with installation instructions. It looks like I have to take the bitwriter case apart to install it, and it appears to come with a 4-wire harness that I have no idea what to do with.

Any advice or answers to my questions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Wade

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Python 950 Remote Starts in our
00 Chrysler Town & Country, and
03 Ford F250 6.0L Powerstroke

it will tell you on the instalation manual which version is required and version 1.2 is way too old. bitwriter chip upgrade is pretty simple. just unscrew the back cover and you will see the old chip, it looks just like the new one just make sure you put the new one in the same way and you should be good as gold

Thanks soundnsecurity! You're right. It said in a tiny little footnote at the bottom of the table of contents that I need version 2.2 or newer. I've got version 2.6 coming, so I should be good to go.

Thank you!

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Python 950 Remote Starts in our
00 Chrysler Town & Country, and
03 Ford F250 6.0L Powerstroke