Stuck in the Simpson...Maybe

Submitted: Wednesday, Jun 29, 2005 at 18:08

ThreadID: 24294 Views:2094 Replies:4 FollowUps:1

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WheelTravel

Hi all,

Funny thing happened last nite. I jumped in my truck, turned the ignition and my Black Widow car alarm/immobilizer went off, and could not be turned off. I have a key that silences the alarm soas notto annoy people,and then called the RAA. He just attached a jumper lead to his batt. and it worked fine.

Apparently my cranking battery is on it's last legs, and the voltage drop caused by cranking the car set the alarm off. Why it wouldn't then turn off with the remote is beyond me. Glad it happened then, coz in 4 weeks we are heading off to do the Simpson, and ,I wouldn't have thought to attach jumper leads from my 2nd batt.

The RAA guy also suggested I talk to Black Widow about how to overide the system if it does malfunction. I wonder how many people head remote without knowing this?

And while we're on alarms, water killed my siren a while back.(Black Widow replaced it under warranty so a credit to them) How do people overcome this. Black Widow suggested a plastic bag, but I imagine that could/would melt under the bonnet.

Cheerio

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Reply By: Willb - Wednesday, Jun 29, 2005 at 18:39

Wednesday, Jun 29, 2005 at 18:39

Hi WheelTravel, the standard regarding alarms now recquires all wiring to be black.
When the installer connects the alarm the wires are labelled with where they are to be connected and then the labels are torn off.
So if you have a problem in woop woop you are stuffed.
So make sure you have a good battery before you go because alarms work on voltage drops, and dont flatten your battery.
And dont be tempted to rip wires out because it will only make it harder for some one who can fix it.
And dont go swimmimg with your remote.
Will

Always planning the next trip. VKS-737 mobile 1619

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AnswerID: 118098

Reply By: Mike Harding - Wednesday, Jun 29, 2005 at 18:40

Wednesday, Jun 29, 2005 at 18:40

Personally I'd take it as a warning to exercise caution before buying this particular Black Widow product (and probably some of their others too).

I'll give you an educated guess that the reason you couldn't stop the alarm was because the electronics in it were confused by the low battery voltage and went into a mode the designers had not catered for - a bad situation with any motor vehicle component. Wildly varying voltage is quite normal in motor vehicles and should be properly handled.

As for the water killing a siren!? Even non 4WD cars get rained upon and go through huge puddles – again, the motor vehicle component designer should anticipate and cater for this.

Mike Harding

AnswerID: 118099

Follow Up By: Member - Troll 81 (QLD) - Thursday, Jun 30, 2005 at 10:49

Thursday, Jun 30, 2005 at 10:49

I had the same problem ages ago in my old truck and the problem is that siren had a backup battery attached to it for in case someone went in under the car and cut the wires going to the alarm. I went through 2 sirens on the old car and then went to a siren that did not have a backup battery...was just to much hassle

FollowupID: 373379

Reply By: WheelTravel - Wednesday, Jun 29, 2005 at 18:47

Wednesday, Jun 29, 2005 at 18:47

Hey guys,

Appaently, most alarms can simply be tunred off by diconnecting the control box. Or, on some, there is even a switch to press in certain succession. This is what Black Widow has. This is what RAA said, and that all alarms are crap, even the $8000 ones. I just have it for peace ofmind when all my gear is in there.

Oh and the water...well it was sort of sprayed like kinda with..sorta a high pressure jet at the carwash...hmmm.

AnswerID: 118103