Anyone added remote to their central locking?

Hi The way I did it on my P10 Primera was to use another door lock motor (Maplins YD79L 6.80 GBP) on the drivers door linked to the lock bar from the inside lock button so the remote systems is electrically separate from the original system and just operates the lock which in turn operates the original central locking. You may find that your car does not have a lock motor on the drivers door anyway as the key locks the drivers door mechanically and operates a switch that operates the central locking on the other doors. My system is connected to a Maplins alarm but the unit described in the link should operate a single door motor. This way you only have to run a length of twin cable into the door. Hope this helps

Trevor Smith

Yup.

There are several ways to do this.

First, is there a motor in the driver's door? Some just have the switch mechanism. If the central locking works from both front doors then you're ok. If not, you'll have to fit a motor.

Combination units that incorporate both a motor and switch/timer are available, but costly.

Most piggy back a motor onto the switch - but this can be a bit awkward to do. You could simply replace the switch with a motor, and then just rely on the remote to operate the system, but then you'd not be able to lock/unlock everything from the door.

If you can *add* just a motor, then this driven straight from the remote will operate all the locking without altering any of the existing CL wiring.

If space is tight to fit an additional motor, one other way is to buy a complete kit from Maplin (29.99 YD77) - this has motor/switch units for both front doors and two motors for the rears, but uses a separate controller. This can be easily interfaced with the SCL 3000 that Maplin also sell. You can retain the original motors in the rear doors/boot as they use the same operating protocol.

This way you get operation from either front door as well as remote.

This is what I did on my SD1 - although it interfaces with an alarm/immobiliser. More wiring to do, though, so it depends on what you really want.

The Maplin motors are a direct mechanical replacement for the SD1 types made by Kiekert.

Thanks Dave,

The central locking works from both front doors, and the boot. I have a feeling the main control unit is in the driver door, but I'd need to check the manual.

The main thing is, how complicated is the wiring? Will I have to concentrate *really* hard, or just reasonably hard?

Al

I'm only guessing, but I'd not expect it to be in the door - there's no point, given that you'd need to bring wires from the other two sets of switches into it. However, it makes no difference in practice.

If you ignore the feed and earth, there will be four wires to and from the controller.

Two will power the motors - they lock with one polarity, and unlock with the opposite. The controller simply puts out a pulse (a couple or seconds long, or so) of the correct polarity so they don't take any current when not operating.

Two will be the switch lines. These will probably be thinner cable since they'll be carrying little current.

In absence of the instructions for the remote, I'd be inclined to tap into the switch lines to feed the output from the remote - and include a diode in each to prevent current flowing the wrong way and possibly blowing a fuse if the remote and a switch were operated at the same time. Could be the remote already has this option, though. This would also mean the remote needed a lower current supply than if it is used to operate the motors direct.