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Hi All,
My Auto-Trail (2010), has an "Autowatch" cat. 1 alarm system fitted, but now regularly, rearms itself a few minutes after entering the van through the habitation door.
There are three magnetic sensors, 1 on the hab. door and one on each of the garage doors.
There is also a movement sensor on the interior roof.
I have tried arming the system, and then unlocking the hab.door with a key, and the alarm activates when the door is opened.
Has anyone any ideas how I can pinpoint the fault to avoid having to take the van back to the dealers?
When you disarm/unlock the system just open and close one of the cab doors. Thats the ONLY way of telling the system you have entered the vehicle. It re-arms because it "thinks" you have unlocked the doors and then forgotten to enter it, so it re-arms to protect your pride and joy!!
Most alarms will re-arm if the cab doors are not opened within a short period of time, the system on my Autotrail Dakota certainly does .
Thanks Mrplodd.
I know it has the Auto re-arming/locking system if you don't open any doors. I've had no problems with it until now but will try opening/closing the cab door as your suggestion.
Thanks.
sennen523.
Hi. Arm the alarm and let it set for a minute. After this minute has passed open the hab door. The alarm should sound. If it does not the magnetic contact on that door is faulty. With the new auto watch alarms they are set to recognise the magnetic contact and not rearm if a door with a contact is opened. There was an initial problem where the alarm would not count the magnetic contact as a door circuit and would rearm the alarm if you didn't open and close a properly wired door(like cab door). However auto watch fixed this very early on. If the contact is a wireless type then when these are programmed into the alarm the fitter needs to assign the contact into a zone. Either a independent zone or a sensor zone. This can also affect the system. But if the problem has just started I would suspect a faulty contact. How long has the alarm been fitted? If it has not been too long the contact should still be covered under warranty.
This is the problem with fitting a car alarm onto a motorhome. You'll find that the problem doesn't exist when your on the road and in and out of the drivers door.
Get the dealer to fit a contact switch on the drivers and passenger doors and to disable the Normally Open switching (done through the CAN system on a 2010 motorhome)
Such things as auto re-arm are fine on a car but useless on a motorhome!
This is the problem with fitting a car alarm onto a motorhome. You'll find that the problem doesn't exist when your on the road and in and out of the drivers door.
Get the dealer to fit a contact switch on the drivers and passenger doors and to disable the Normally Open switching (done through the CAN system on a 2010 motorhome)
Such things as auto re-arm are fine on a car but useless on a motorhome!
Eddie
Eddie, totally disagree, if there is a faulty switch on the hab door as suggested, once that has been fixed / replaced, the alarm will function correctly.
What you are suggesting about fitting a contact switch on drivers/passenger door just will not work.
when you come back to your MH you dont want to open and close your passenger/drivers door, just use the Hab door as normal.
Auto re-arm is designed to work on the drivers door. The caravan door should be on a totally separate alarm circuit to the cab doors.
Auto re-arm on a motorhome is a useless function that is a cross over from the car market and shouldn't be on a motorhome, along with other useless things like ultrasonic sensors.
No problem in a car, but then in a car you wouldn't expect heating or Air Conditioning to kick in a cause problems, but anything that senses air movement is bound to be unreliable.
I have seen examples of couples in their eighties having to climb in through the cab doors to avoid their system re-arming.
Also there is nothing wrong with fitting contact switches, your just thinking about the big white things that are fitted in houses. We keep over thirty variations in stock, some as small as a match, different colours and kept both in Normally Open and Normally closed.
We even have some made exclusively for Van Bitz, but with some where in the region of twenty thousand motorhome alarms installed over the last two decades that is what you'd expect from us.
Hi All,
Thanks eddievanbitz and steco1958 for your help.
As Steve says, you usually want to enter the van through the Hab. door, especially on sites and when you may have a screen cover on as well, which makes the cab doors difficult to open.
My alarm is still rearming occasionally (usually when on a campsite!!) but I'll be getting it checked out at the supplying dealers in January.
The alarm was fitted when the van was new, (May 2010) and has only recently, started giving problems.
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