Astra 777 paging range
Printed From: the12volt.comForum Name: Car Security and Convenience
Forum Discription: Car Alarms, Keyless Entries, Remote Starters, Immobilizer Bypasses, Sensors, Door Locks, Window Modules, Heated Mirrors, Heated Seats, etc.
URL: https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=64697
Printed Date: May 12, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Topic: Astra 777 paging range
Posted By: dualsport
Subject: Astra 777 paging range
Date Posted: October 19, 2005 at 11:02 PM
Replies:
Posted By: dualsport
Date Posted: October 20, 2005 at 11:56 AM
Is the reason no one's installed these due to some problems with the unit?
Or simply from reasoning that it can't be any good at that price- it does seem to be inexpensive considering all the features... gotta cut corners somewhere
Maybe I'll have to see about getting one just to see how it stacks up against my FM pager unit-
Or simply from reasoning that it can't be any good at that price- it does seem to be inexpensive considering all the features... gotta cut corners somewhere
Maybe I'll have to see about getting one just to see how it stacks up against my FM pager unit-
Posted By: dualsport
Date Posted: October 31, 2005 at 9:12 PM
Got one from buy.com for evaluation, and this is a pretty strange unit. Lots of features seem really nicely thought out, and at the same time, other things are really poorly thought out.
Documentation looks like it's a few revisions back from the hardware, so a lot of things don't match as described. The manual says an LED and valet switch is included, but it's been now combined into the transmit antenna assembly, so the valet switch is out in the open along with the status indicator LED.
Standby draw is about 20mA, with just the shock sensor connected; no microwave sensor is included. It seems to draw about 225mA when actively transmitting a page out.
The pager setup leaves something to be desired; when the alarm is triggered from the trunk trigger input, the pager goes off for a few seconds, displaying the trunk icon, but then it just disappears, with no other indication. If you're not on top of things, you could easily miss it, and think everything is fine. Oddly, the shock sensor display stays on the LCD for a longer time, which seems backwards.
When the alarm is armed and disarmed, the status indication also disappears in a few seconds after it's displayed, again leaving nothing but a blank status indication. Very odd setup- supposedly you're to press button 5 to get a "CON" screen, which gives you the current status of the alarm, but that doesn't retain any trigger event information beyond the very last one. And even if an alarm event occurred, it seems to "rearm" after the alarm cycle is over, clearing the trigger event, and just displays the "armed" status when polled. Hmm.
Haven't checked the paging range yet, since I didn't have an easy way to do it without a range check feature.
It has two aux outputs (three if you use the passenger unlock output intended for dual stage unlocking) that can be configured for momentary or latched outputs, which is nice, but it doesn't have a separate trigger for trunk and hood, it just combines the two. Considering the LCD display is rather lame in its setup, it's not that big a loss, I guess.
All in all, it's pretty versatile in being able to set up as you like, but the pager display is pretty disappointing. If you don't really care that much about the paging feature, it's pretty good.
The Commando FM pager unit is much more impressive in that regard-
For the whole $42 I ended up paying for it though, can't say I didn't get what I paid for-
Documentation looks like it's a few revisions back from the hardware, so a lot of things don't match as described. The manual says an LED and valet switch is included, but it's been now combined into the transmit antenna assembly, so the valet switch is out in the open along with the status indicator LED.
Standby draw is about 20mA, with just the shock sensor connected; no microwave sensor is included. It seems to draw about 225mA when actively transmitting a page out.
The pager setup leaves something to be desired; when the alarm is triggered from the trunk trigger input, the pager goes off for a few seconds, displaying the trunk icon, but then it just disappears, with no other indication. If you're not on top of things, you could easily miss it, and think everything is fine. Oddly, the shock sensor display stays on the LCD for a longer time, which seems backwards.
When the alarm is armed and disarmed, the status indication also disappears in a few seconds after it's displayed, again leaving nothing but a blank status indication. Very odd setup- supposedly you're to press button 5 to get a "CON" screen, which gives you the current status of the alarm, but that doesn't retain any trigger event information beyond the very last one. And even if an alarm event occurred, it seems to "rearm" after the alarm cycle is over, clearing the trigger event, and just displays the "armed" status when polled. Hmm.
Haven't checked the paging range yet, since I didn't have an easy way to do it without a range check feature.
It has two aux outputs (three if you use the passenger unlock output intended for dual stage unlocking) that can be configured for momentary or latched outputs, which is nice, but it doesn't have a separate trigger for trunk and hood, it just combines the two. Considering the LCD display is rather lame in its setup, it's not that big a loss, I guess.
All in all, it's pretty versatile in being able to set up as you like, but the pager display is pretty disappointing. If you don't really care that much about the paging feature, it's pretty good.
The Commando FM pager unit is much more impressive in that regard-
For the whole $42 I ended up paying for it though, can't say I didn't get what I paid for-