CompuStar Remotes Programming, But Not Working?

Hi All,

My wife's Vibe has an old CM4200 CompuStar remote starter. Guess it's the CM3 series. I looked into upgrading the antenna and remotes back in the day and was told that's the way to go. Recently I bought a G15 antenna/remote kit and plugged in in today. The learning of remotes procedure went well, got all the proper blinks like expected...but the remotes don't work. I did some digging and perhaps the CM4200 is too old and isn't compatible with the newer remotes, but the fact that everything blinks, it seems to learn the remotes, but they don't function...makes me think that I might be missing something else.

Anyone has any idea? I really don't want to replace the brains if I don't have to. If I do end up buying a new brain, like the CM-900...would I be able to just unplug things from the CM4200 and plug them into the CM900...I REALLY don't want to rewire anything.

Thanks in advance. There seems to be so little information out there for average people, it's pretty frustrating.

do the same thing, cycle ignition on/off 5 times, press the button on the antenna, red light comes on, and then press lock on the remotes.

I tried that. Found those instructions online and someone mentioned that the button on the antenna is the key. Same deal, still doesn't work. It looks promising because it flashes lights once on first press on first remote, again once for second remote, and a few seconds later the double flash, but then never works. If I press the button on the antenna randomly during vehicle being powered off, and then press lock, the green light flashes on the antenna, but nothing happens. If I repeat pressing the Antenna button, but press any other button, the light never flashes, and still nothing happens.

It's very frustrating. When I put the old antenna back in, I repeated the learning steps to relearn the old remote, and it learned it right away. This leads me to believe that despite kind of showing signs of life, it actually isn't sending the signals that the brain can interpret.

4200 dx ? You need the dx for the g15.. is there a black 20 pin “accessory plug” in the front? If they are all white plugs, you need to upgrade the brain .. cm900 is not a plug a play, got to rewire it

Hey, thanks for the info. This is the most precise answer I have seen to date on this. Pretty hard to find this info. No, I have the non-DX version of the CM-4200. The fact that I was getting confirmations from the brain that it was learning the remotes, but the remotes weren't working, made me think that I was maybe doing something wrong. Would the DX be a plug and play replacement if I was able to find that brain, or would I still need to rewire? I looked at the CM900 brain and seems like the main starter plugs are the same, as well as the one with door wiring, but then it changes for the plugs with tach sensor ect. I would have to rewire I think about 5 wires or so, which isn't too big of a deal, but would love to avoid it. Not young anymore, crawling in acrobatic positions isn't terribly exiting :D

This is all I have hooked up on my CM-4200 at the moment and it's been working fine for like 10 years now, just wanted new remotes. Is there an upgrade path for antenna/remote that would work with CM4200 brain? Most original remotes are long gone, and I am not a fan of them either. I like the G15 remotes but would love to know my options.

honestly if it's only 8 wires you have to change to upgrade to a new compustar brain.. If you are in calgary I might have an old 1Wshr-1600 in my tool box that still works. (4 button am remote, with the red lock button)