I have an old Clifford Concept 50 alarm and we're getting really fed up with it locking out when we unwittingly park near a phone or other aerial mast that interferes with it. I'm getting wise where not to park, or when to be pro-active with the valet code, but is there an easy or inexpensive way to overcome this problem? Gaz
not really. powers that be have dictated the the frequencies permitted for use on alarm approved for use in U.k. unfortunately it shares the same frequeny as a lot of radio transmissions used by emergency services taxis and the like. some alarms do have better range on their remote than others, but when the're being bombarded with signals still lock out.Things to try are holding the remote fob to your chin as you operate it, this uses your body as an aerial and extends the range of the remote. no bullsh1t, it really does work. other thing to try, is to get the remote as close as possible to the alarms main unit if you know where is mounted. that being said ,I got "locked out" outside pizza hut at West Wickham(a known black spot) and nothing was working so I had to resort to using the valet switch. 20yards up the road no problem.
I sometimes have similar problems in the car park I use at work. If I hold the remote close to the scuttle above where the alarm unit is, this usually lets me in! Stud, would it be worth extending the aerial wire on the alarm? I was thinking of running it up a windscreen pillar or something?
Thanks Stud and Mr Ben. Stud - having a valet code I can use is magic - cheers for the brain! The battery in the fob was okay, but putting in a new one has inproved the situation, so I'm wondering...if I connect up a submarine battery, could I have the first fob that obliterates all other signals momentarily in south east england?! It's an interesting point about extending the aerial wire Mr Ben. The wires on my two alarm head units (I have a spare) are different in thickness, so extending the thinner one should involve little more wire than the fatter one, if that makes any difference. I'll be interested to hear what Stud thinks. Gaz
Did try extending the aerial on mine as an experiment. had a bit of wire hanging from rear view mirror just to try it. Didn't make the slightest bit of difference. Clifford did use to do a range extender but not sure if it's still available. there is a similar type of thing now on all the G4 range as standard but you can't successfully utilise it on the older alarms, and here comes the but, even the new stuff has been known to suffer from lockout in some areas anyway.
An aerial has to be a set length of wire for the best performance, ie 1/4 wave, 1/2 wave, full wave. if the antenna is allready fullwave (if the length of it is the height of one full wavelength cycle extending it wobt help, infact this might even caue more interference problems as you could possibly open the transmiter to pick up other frequencies. I used to study electronic engineering and a bit of Radio Am, Perhaps the clifford range extender was an ATU (antenna tuning unit) a box of tricks used to tune a wire antenna so be suitable for a certain wavelength. Does anyone know the frequencey used by the Clifford, or Toad alarm plippers as I could then calculate the length of wire need for 1/4 1/2 and full wave antennas. That said we replaced the wire (due to corrosion) on my mates car alarm using one of a cordless phone base station but we mesured the length of it first. though he still has problems outside his flat (mobile cell site above)
new G4 range uses 433MHz. prior to introduction of it was 418MHz. 433 is the exact same frequency used by dolphin telecom. dunno if dolphin are still about though.
well i had a toad put in my car a few months ago and to be honest its worked fine all the time, but every now and then it wont unlock with in the range it normally does and sometimes i have to walk around the car a couple of times b4 it unlocks this only happens very rarely tho is this the lockout thing you are talking about or is it different? are the alarms not digitally encoded now it seems strange that they are not because that way each wave would have its on digital signal and the alarm could easily ignore other signals??
Yep, I guess that's the locking out I'm talking about. Except we've had it a couple of times when there's absolutely no joy at all and needs manually disengaging with all the keys and the valet code. Blowed if I know about the digital encoding. Way beyond my level of knowledge. Presumably not so though, otherwise the problem shouldn't exist.
