Re: Where To Get A Cheap Alarm?

Try this . Finishes in 14 minutes though. I expect there are more!

A piece of flexible wire formed into a long thin coil, one end attached to a piece of wood with a contact running up the centre will do suitably.

Oh I forgot to mention don't believe the ebay sent from UK boolox the despatch is from Hongkong still takes less than a week Derek

The trouble with deals like that is it look a bargain.. Then you spot 15 quid P&P. That put me off the first time I spotted it :(

I trust my ability to start messing with delicate electricals less than I do the chavs round here. Think I'm best getting an off the shelf solution this time, but I'll bear that in mind :)

I'm way down south, like coastal!

I don't (yet) have central locking on this car, although I'm thinking about fitting it. At some point I want to go for a better alarm, maybe with an immobiliser circuit, but that'll be when the car's better, or I've got another one in better condition. This thing was only 100 quid, not much point spending 100 alarming it really!

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I wouldn't bother fitting CL it works out quite dear by the time you have bought all the gear and there is a lot of work to do unless the kind car maker has used the same loom on all the range, even so taking off door trim cards is a bugger.You lose half the clips (Ford want 80p per) and routing the wires to the tail gate no not my idea of fun at all btw that Pete linked alarm has an immobliser circuit as well, just make sure you have a soldering iron handy Derek

I'm not too worried about having the boot on the c/l, and I've got 4 doors to lock - I've gotten lazy having c/l on my recent daily driver I suppose. I had each of the Metro motors off to fix the c/l when I got it, and that looks like a very simple system, so I can't see there being too many problems. My trims have to come off so I can get at things like dried out mechanisms, replacement trims and so on, so that doesn't put me off too much. The doors are very upright and lines where the motors would need to go, and they'd sit nicely in line with the linkages, which is a bonus Price wise, it's whatever is required off a Metro, and if I find one with good bits at the breakers. From what I can tell it's a very simple circuit, I'd need to drill a hole in each door to run the wires, a bit of fiddling through posts/ sills (possibly) to tuck them away, and a fused permanent live feed. I don't really care for remote locking, and the Metro seems to be controlled purely from the drivers door, from what I can deduce from wiring diagrams and taking it apart :)

The car's an auto with an out of adjustment selector lever, so half the time it's got to be popped out and rammed back into park before the inhibitor alloys the starter to run - Don't need an immobiliser if they manage to get into the car and ignore the alarm! ;)

Maplin do a kit quite cheaply. 20 quid.

So this gave locking from either front door or the remote for my alarm which had relays for central locking built in. And two other relays for immobilisation. I used those to inhibit the pump and starter circuit when set. And if you disconnect the battery, those relays are open, so reconnecting the battery leaves then open until the alarm is re-set. So should discourage the average joy rider who's unlikely to have an intimate knowledge of the SD1 wiring loom. ;-)

Chances are it's the same system as the SDI so needs modification to operate from a remote - as there's no motor in the driver's door, merely a switch/controller. Some simply piggy back a motor onto that switch and operate that from the alarm interface. But that can be considerable mechanical work. I think some later Rover Group cars used a suitable combined unit, but when I enquired it was about 200 quid. ;-)

The Metro has a motor on the door, but as far as I can tell, it houses any other gubbins needed for the other locks too - I certainly can't find any sign or reference to a control box anywhere. The thing to do will be find half an hour to drop the motors off my car and wire them up to test if it works how I think it does. Then go see if the breakers will be sensibly priced (ie less than 20 quid that you kindly pointed out Maplin do a kit for :) and start the job. The alarm is priority right now though. Not bothered about wiring any sort of remote unlock system in, I've still got to use my hand to open the door, so why not use the damned key at the same time?

Ouch! Still, there's not exactly a shortage of fairly modern Rovers in the breakers now, with good bodies, interiors, and electrics. Can't think why they were sKrapped....

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The one in the driver's door is the master - it provides a 2-second pulse on the pair of wires. It reverses the polarity to get the lock/unlock choice.

To make it operated from the alarm, you can either piggly-back another motor on top of the existing one in the door and drive that to drive the master to drive the slave (naff but quick) or you can remove the driver's thing that looks like a motor but isn't and replace it with a proper motor and drive the whole system from the alarm.

The fun starts when you find that the alarm will only drive 5-wire motors and have to fudge up a pair of relays to take the lock/unlock wires and convert it to a 2-wire voltage reversing system. Not hard, and much neater. However, it removes the ability to lock the doors from the driver's door, leaving only the remote to do it with.

Thing is the switch/controller unit looks identical to a motor but has 5 instead of 2 wires. If you turn the key very gently can you feel/hear a motor taking over? If not, I'd say it hasn't got one.

Yup.

Yup. How easy it is to piggy back a motor depends on clearance within the door. The other problem is manual operation of the system may get the remote out of sync.

Mine has all the options built in via DIL switches. It will give negative or positive pulses and you can vary the pulse length. Will also work for M-B etc air systems.

This, to me, was an issue. I'd need to retain the 'anti-hobo' ability to lock the doors when in the car. Hence using some of the Maplin kit for front doors only, retaining the normal motors for the rears and tailgate. And using their controller. Of course it would be possible to add a rocker switch somewhere to do the same thing. As my BMW has. Probably more tamper proof.

The SD1 might have been a special case, though, due to the long cable runs. I was getting voltage drop problems which made the system unreliable. The feed went to the driver's door, and went all the way round the car via the back for the tailgate to the front passenger's door and simply didn't work reliably - even with good motors and all the plugs cleaned. Crimped joints in the connectors giving up, I'd say. I mounted the controller in the boot where there is a heavy duty permanently live feed for the fusebox there - and incidentally the earlier c/l system - and all is now sweetness and light. And the c/l can be operated from either front door which is how it should be. ;-)

Oddly enough, no, there's no "assistance" when turning the key. But I'm sure I've used a drivers door box on one of the other doors with no problems at all, just using 2 of the wires. It's really all irrelevent for my needs, but now I'm wondering if I'm remembering wrong or there's something amiss with the Metro motor. I'm even tempted to see if in my pile of crap there's another drivers unit I could dig out and put across a battery, might take a look tomorrow.

I don't want to get carried away with the c/l with remote option though, I've got my mind set on that Argos alarm, and I don't think it works the locking too. Really don't want to go looknig for something else and get carried away spending pennies on fancy bits!

The message from "Stuffed" contains these words:

Even the elCheapo ones BSM used had remote locking, so yes, probably.

Ahh, case closed for the remote locking aspect then! And explains how one of my doors locks using a drivers motor :)

I still don't want remote locking though!

No you are right its a very simple bit of kit no cl interface just a voltage drop trigger and a rock sensor the only reason I didnt fit mine is because I prefer the extra bits on the Giordon -nice bit is if you dont enter the car in a 1/2 a minute or so it resets and it beeps if you leave it unset plus the cl interface and anti hijack thingy that locks the doors once you take off

the downside is the chronic translated instruction fitting manual with gems like "the warranty does not cover illegitimate damage" Derek