Increase the range of your remote

[Jim Itin]

Originally Posted by SAElise

O.K. I just tried this. I couldn't get the damn foam out of the way to see anything. Are you guys just ripping it out and then stuffing it back in later. (I would actually have to rip mine apart I think).

I did manage to cut my hand in three different places, even after taping the bottom edge.

You might be able to just shove the foam block deeper into the hole and then work on the connector / bundle. I was able to pull mine out, but it was a serious PITA.
By the way, the Lotus Group just filed an IPO for a side business in fine cutlery, if you're interested. Seems our dashes were just the R&D phase in the business plan.
Jim

[dma550]

LOL at Imolas! You need to be nicer to your exiges, and they will stop biting you!

IMO, don't even bother with the foam. I layed some duct tape down on the Ronco fingerslicers (tm) and then located the bundle. The black wire is very short, and is outside of the main wrapping of friction tape. Just pull on it hard (pull the loop AWAY from the connector) and you'll see the 4" little stranded wire that comes off of it. I used a butt crimp splice, and 15" of solid core wire from a cat5 cable.

I did fish it up to the windshield frame, but IMO it's not worth it. I gained only about 5-6 feet. AND it is unsightly seeing a wire come up out of the dash and to the windshield. There is also no good way short of a gob of chewing gum to get the wire to sit nicely in the molding up to the windshield.

[Jim Itin]

AND it is unsightly seeing a wire come up out of the dash and to the windshield. There is also no good way short of a gob of chewing gum to get the wire to sit nicely in the molding up to the windshield.[/quote]

Dave,
Well, actually, it's not that difficult. There's a gap between the windshield and the windshield frame (vertical post) that the extended wire can easily fit in. Then just use about three 2" sections of small diameter (about 3/16" O.D.) spaced a few inches apart to keep the wire from popping out. I used clear tygon tubing shoved into the gap, and neither the wire nor the tubing is visible.
Jim

[pdemaio]

I would definately try pushing the foam back. Mine was damaged when I removed it.

My black wire could NOT just be pulled from the wire bundle. I had to cut the tape the held it to bundle...

My range increased, but not nearly to whats described here...

[dma550]

Originally Posted by Jim Itin

AND it is unsightly seeing a wire come up out of the dash and to the windshield. There is also no good way short of a gob of chewing gum to get the wire to sit nicely in the molding up to the windshield.

Dave,
Well, actually, it's not that difficult. There's a gap between the windshield and the windshield frame (vertical post) that the extended wire can easily fit in. Then just use about three 2" sections of small diameter (about 3/16" O.D.) spaced a few inches apart to keep the wire from popping out. I used clear tygon tubing shoved into the gap, and neither the wire nor the tubing is visible.
Jim[/quote]

Unsightly for me, it's blue. I found the gap still leaves an inch or so of wire between the dash and windshield, and as I was using solid not stranded wire, it didn't want to co-operate with me. The part I meant about it being worth it was more as to the alarm's reciever needing a properly tuned length antenna, not necessarily a less obstructed one. I got virtually the same range with the same length antenna (20") without carrying it upside the windshield frame. But, YMMV...

[bluejae]

Originally Posted by dma550

LOL at Imolas! You need to be nicer to your exiges, and they will stop biting you!

IMO, don't even bother with the foam. I layed some duct tape down on the Ronco fingerslicers (tm) and then located the bundle. The black wire is very short, and is outside of the main wrapping of friction tape. Just pull on it hard (pull the loop AWAY from the connector) and you'll see the 4" little stranded wire that comes off of it. I used a butt crimp splice, and 15" of solid core wire from a cat5 cable.

I did fish it up to the windshield frame, but IMO it's not worth it. I gained only about 5-6 feet. AND it is unsightly seeing a wire come up out of the dash and to the windshield. There is also no good way short of a gob of chewing gum to get the wire to sit nicely in the molding up to the windshield.

5-6ft gain? what happened there?

[dma550]

5-6 feet over the way I did install it, wound in lazy loops and fastened behind the panel using aluminum tape.

[Darkness]

I'd be plenty happy with 5-6 feet. If I'm standing directly behind the car, such as after removing something from the trunk, I can't arm the alarm. I can only be triggered if the remote is 1 or 2 feet from the driver side window.

Anyone consider tapping into the antenna wire for the radio?

[Darkness]

Sucess!

Only took two attempts. On the first attempt I cut my hand in three places and retreated, allowing the car to win that battle. On the 2nd attempt I was armed with a roll of duct tape (thanks, dma550), to which neutralized the cars defences.

I cut off the last loop of tape and then pulled the antenna wire out of the bundle. I left it pointed it out the hole, toward the rear of the car, without adding any extra cable. Now I have a roughly 20' range.

The alarm installation manual says:

Antenna
The position of the antenna is of fundamental importance to the operation of the radio controls. The wire must not be cut , wound, connected to other wires or to the bodywork and must be kept separate from the wiring harness. Position the antenna at least 20 mm far from metallic parts.

I'm was willing to give cobra the benefit of a doubt when it comes to this, and got acceptable results by folowing their directions. I guess Lotus never RTFM. If they had just left it loose, nobody would be bothering to cut up their hands....

While I was at it, I enabled beeping on arm-disarm. (press big button within 5 seconds of re-powering the alarm to toggle this) I'm not sure if I like this though, the tone it makes isn't very pleasant, and is louder than it needs to be. I have a feeling it's also going to beep if I mobilize the car while it's disarmed, such as what you end up doing if you take more than 20 seconds getting into the car.

[dvaders]

OK, so I peek into the small access hole and there's foam and the plastic bag over the alarm box. But, I see that one of the black wires from the alarm is not wrapped by the black tape for several turn of the black tape and I figure this must be the antenna wire. So I grab the wire and try to pull it free from the tape wraps that are holding it and it comes free. My worry is that the end of the wire is stripped like it was spliced into a crimp connector in the harness. Is the antenna wire stripped on the end or did I just yank apart some other important splice like a ground wire or something?

The foam over my alarm is wedged in super tight and will take a major dissection effort to remove so it's not easy to check the connector numbers to see if I got lucky. Anyone know if the antenna wire is pre-stripped?

Dennis

[reganfin]

I did mine this past spring and can activate the system from 20 to 25 feet away from the car. I ran the wire all of the way up to the hinge for the visor. I can't show pics because I traded the car in for an 06 exige but the car is at FVMC if you want to try it out.

[Jim Itin]

My worry is that the end of the wire is stripped like it was spliced into a crimp connector in the harness. Is the antenna wire stripped on the end or did I just yank apart some other important splice like a ground wire or something?

The foam over my alarm is wedged in super tight and will take a major dissection effort to remove so it's not easy to check the connector numbers to see if I got lucky. Anyone know if the antenna wire is pre-stripped?

Dennis,
I had the same panic attack, but at least on my car (early '05 model), the antenna wire was only about 6 inches long, and the end looked sorta
stripped (definitely not cleanly cut). I extended it about two feet, and got much better range. So it must not have caused any problems. Although I was able to pull the foam out (huge effort), I think that some have had some luck with just pushing it back into the cavity further.
Jim

[bluejae]

would the wires from a telephone work or is it too small/thin? i has 4 colored wires in there... black red green yellow... i would assume i would get better range if i used a larger wire...

[Darkness]

In conventional antenna theory, the diameter of an antenna wire doesn't matter. You could use magnet wire if you wanted to.

[blondie]

Originally Posted by 05EliseNM

I have the immobilizer deactivated. Here is what I did: I armed it and then disarmed (a few times actually to test the range of the remote). I NEVER OPENED the door during this time. Then I went into the house to pee and grab another beer, play with my cats a little and came back out to the garage. The car is unlocked (as expected), but I noticed the immobilizer was flashing (which was unexpected since I deactivated it). I then went to open the door, and the alarm went off and scared the remaining piss out of me!

I think that if you arm/lock the car and then unlock/disarm the car WITHOUT opening a door, after a few minutes it rearms the car, but does not relock it. So if you or someone else walks up to open the door the alarm goes off. I think this is done for the reason I mentioned earlier. If you accidently hit the button and are close enough to unlock/disarm it unknowingly, then it assumes you made a mistake and rearms the car if you do not open the door (not sure what opening the trunk will do). This way at least the car is protected, even though someone can still open the door and steal something inside the car. I will test this later today and report back; there might also be something in the manual about this.

Yup, mine does this also, and I have my immobilzer disabled. I think the two are related- I never noticed this behaviour before I disabled the immobilizer, but it has happened to me 3 times since.

Still worth it, though. The immobilizer is a very annoying feature. Nice to have for insurance purposes though.

Q

[Baysailor]

In the alarm manual they mention an "Automatic Arming" and an "Auto Re-arm".

[bluejae]

well i did the mod today... and before i did anything... i tested the range first... my car was kept in the garage and i walked outside...

i got to a certain point where it stopped working... so i went to work...

i opened up the panel... and saw some wires tied together with some clear wrap on it... i pushed the wrap back a little and i saw a black wire on top of the bunch... so i gave it a few tugs... although not sure if it was the right one... but then... it came loose...

the whole time i was wondering if i got the right one... anyway... i added the wire i had... and tested it... and it worked from the spot it didn't work before... sooooo... i think i got some range... but won't know for sure until i take my car out...

but first... i have to put the rear panel back on

[Jim Itin]

bluejae,
Well, good for you. That wasn't so bad, now was it? Gotta love this DIY stuff (at least, when it works out all right).
Jim

[bluejae]

the easy ones are really easy... but for this particular mod... i was scared from all the bloody stories...

so i put on a long sleeve and gloves... turns out i barely had to reach in there... picked on the first black wire i saw... and pulled... the end of the wire that came out was from a taped up part on the left side of the bundle...

i was kind of expecting it to come from behind the foam and clear wrap...

anyway... the end i got wasn't striped... so i would think that's a good sign... but man.. it sure was a PITA to strip it at that weird angle and such a short piece of wire...

[ZJChaser]

ok so while waiting for the China GP to start I installed my micro mirror then came across this thread and hated the fact that I had to hold the remote next to the passanger window for it to work for the most part. so I popped off the panel, put on my mechanics gloves, grabbed a flashlight and went to work. WOW, I could do this in about 5 minutes or less, very simple and effective. I saw the one semi'loose black wire, tugged and it popped free. I grabbed a wire"beanie" and some cross connect wire(telecom people know what I'm talking about), I clipped on a random amount, probably about 2 feet and loosly coiled it in the spot. Tested and found that I can now stand 10 to 15 feet behind the car in the driveway and it WORKS. Thats on a downsloping driveway too so I think level ground would be better range. Now within close range it works flawlessly where before it still took a couple tries within a foot or two to get any response.

good day, two VERY simple and effective mods with the micro mirror and the antenna extension.