Alpine 150R motion/radar sensor

I'm having major problems with an Alpien 150R alarm that I just had installed at Circuit City.  When the alarm is set off it indicates which sensor has been triggered, and the radar sensor is triggering the alarm every single time it is set.  Both myself and CC have verified that the sensitivity is set correctly and the sensor is not actually picking up outside the vehicle.  In fact even if I turn the sensitivity down to the lowest setting, it still is triggered with the same frequency.  Although I can't tell for sure, it seems that the false alarm is triggered once, and then the alarm is ok after that.   It is usually triggered anywhere from a couple hours to several hours after the alarm is set.  There's no pattern as far as location where the vehicle is parked, temperature, etc.. This false alarm from the radar sensor happens every single time the alarm is set, as long as it sits for more than an hour or two, although the time requires for the false alarm does vary quite a bit.  I have read about problems with voltage sensing and was wondering if this could possibly be causing the problem, but I don't know much about it.  I have also read that bad connections could cause the problem, and I was wondering if possibly a bad mounting location for the sensor could be the problem.  Does anyone have any suggestions?  I'm getting really fed up with CC because all they want to do is adjust the sensitivity which does absolutely nothing to solve the problem.   One guy just told me they are temperature sensitive, another told me they are sensitive to radio signals,  another set the sensitivity and said it appeared ok, etc.!!!  I had an alarm with a radar sensor in my previous vehicle and it never gave a false alarm in five years that I had the vehicle.  They just don't have a clue.  Oh, and one more thing, I put a car stereo in after the alarm was done (it was having the same problem before I did this), and I found that they left about half the screws out of the dash when they installed the alarm.  I'm thinking of just taking it do a different CC and seeing if I can get a better installer to check it.  I'm going to complain to Alpine too, since they make a big deal about buying from an authorized dealer (which CC is), yet the authorized dealers obviously are not more technically skilled.  The sensor works fine otherwise, and none of the other sensors ever give false alarms.

Did you have a pager installed with it?

I had this happen on a shock sensor once, I put the SS wires in the same bundle as the main power for the parking lights. When the light would flash the SS would think it was hit. wondering is the radars wiring is up against door lock wires,parking lights, siren?

Try this, roll down the windows and arm the alarm. Wait a few seconds to a minute. Turn on the parking lights without setting off the radar. If you have the horn hooked up try honking it too. That might setoff the SS but it's worth a try.

Do you have a cell phone built into the car? some cells will trip the radar when they query their switch (mine).

Wheres the radar installed? Possible something is moving, like a wiring harness or plastic body panel tripping it.

Last, Make sure it wasn't mounted on metal.

If it's under warranty, I would get CC to replace the perimeter & the main CPU and see if it does the same thing.

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Jeff
Velocity Custom Home Theater
Mobile Audio/Video Specialist
Morden, Manitoba CANADA

Well, it sounds like you have a nightmare.

You are just complaining and not giving us a bigger picture of it. In order for us to troubleshoot your problem then you will have to tell us what vehicle do you have.

First, you will have to understand how the Alpine Radar sensor works. The Radar has to be mounted on the centre of the vehicle to work properly. It has a two fields inner and outer zones. If the radar sensor is mounted on the under the centre console than you cannot put any metals on top of it. ie: coins and keys. It will change the sensitive and cause false alarm. The old Alpine Radar sensor is different and three times bigger than this one. The new Alpine Radar sensor is digital.

Second, the three wires and gound wire cannot be cut or twist and those wires cannot be coil beside the radar sensor. All those join installation can cause the alarm to false. Alpine make a great products and usually, problems are caused by installation.

Most celluar phones are digital might trigger the radar sensor.

Alpine offer limited lifetime warranty on the alarm system and you should go to a different CC to double check the installation or have CC to replace the Brain and Radar Sensor.

Center console.....

LOL, my radar will trip the alarm if a drink is left in the cup holder and the ice starts melting and moving around. Annoying as heck

My alarm problems are finally solved.  I knew more about the installation than the installers at the CC in my town.  I  definitely could have done a better job myself, but I got tired of messing with everything after doing my stereo, speakers, amp, sub, etc.. all in 20 degree temperatures.  That was my first mistake, I should have done the alarm myself also.  I did end up calling around in Indianapolis to find the most experienced installer at a CC.  I took it to him and he just about fell over when he opened up the dash and saw the installation job.  Guess where they had the radar sensor?  Right next to the fuse box, on the driver side, also next to the brain, and the backup battery.  The first page of the installation instructions says to install it in the middle of the vehicle, not near any wires.  Anyone installing an alarm for the first time would have known better than to put it next to the fuse box.  Anyway the more the installer looked at it, the more he found wrong.  He mentioned something about one wire being overloaded, and he said the ground was no good.  Overall the wiring job was a huge mess, not to mention the locations that they chose to put each piece.  The installer in Indy basically redid the whole installation from scratch while I watched, explaining why he was doing each thing the way he did, and it was a hell of a lot better job, and looked much cleaner after he got done.  Needless to say I have been using the alarm for three days since it was re-installed the right way, and I have not had a single false alarm.  Before the re-install I never set it once that I didn't have a false alarm.  Anyway, I always here people complaining about false alerts from their alarms and all I can say is if you have false alerts it's not installed right.  I had a crime guard installed by a very good shop, in my old truck for five years, and honestly I never had a single false alarm.  Now with this alarm it appears I should have similar success now that it's installed correctly.  I actually had the one CC tell me that I should just accept that I'm going to have a lot of false alarms with a motion sensor.  That's a load of crap, and if anyone believes that stuff they are getting taken.  I think Alpine and other manufacturers should really get on these retailers to improve their training.  What annoyed me the most about this whole thing is Alpine, like so many other manufacturers, makes a big deal about going through an "authorized" retailer, yet their is absolutely no consistency in quality or skill amongst authorized dealers.   The things I have seen and heard while sitting around in install shops is amazing.  Installers joking about how many installs they have come back, installers not even being able to follow a simple instruction sheet,  installers saying stuff that totally contradicts any reasonable practice (i.e. using thin wire and not running to the battery for a powerful amp), etc.  I spent six hours in one shop and cars were coming back in because of install related problems non-stop all day.  I watched every installer work on stuff and not a single one of them installed anything the whole day without a problem, other than the head guy that was working on my truck.  They would install something and immediately have to drag my guy over to figure out why it wasn't working right.  I know there are better places out there, but you really have to do your homework to find a decent shop.

That's too bad that there are so many hack shops around that do poor installation jobs. Gives other decent shop installers a bad name & chances are it gives the customer less trust in giving their vehicle over to another installer to do other forms of work. Regardless, it's nice to know that you got the problem fixed and that everything is working now.

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Jeff
Velocity Custom Home Theater
Mobile Audio/Video Specialist
Morden, Manitoba CANADA