Kolk1 Posted December 28, 2012 Report Share Posted December 28, 2012 So im not the remote start guru at work, but Ive done a lot over the years, and after some research, it looks like, with just a DBALL, Ill be able to hook and have a factory style remote start using the stock key fob, all you have to do is press the lock button 3 times in a row. Ben is our guru at work, and he did most the research (i was busy) so I dont have full details yet, but Ill be doing the install, while im off the clock but at work on monday, so if I have any issues he will be there to help me, but the way it looks now, all you need is a DBALL and this will work. No extra fobs, no nothing. Just press lock 3 times on your stock fob and it will start right up. Downside to this system, you are limited to the stock range of the factory remote. For me, thats fine. I can set off my alarm with the panic button from inside the house, and at work it reaches just fine as well. My cost on a DBALL is like $40, and Im guessing this will probably take me about 3-4 hours of my time. Looks like almost all the wires are behind the glove box, and theres just a couple ill need to run over to the SJB over on the drivers side, but it looks pretty simple (on paper). Ill try and take notes, but im not going to set up a DYI because even Im not 100% comfortable on doing this by myself, and im MECP certified. Im sure I can figure it out, but I personally havent done this style before, Ben has done them a bunch of times. My main ability is that ive ran, hidden, tested, and installed TONS of normal remote systems before, just not like this. But ill take notes, some pictures, and if it all works out as planned, a video to show how it works. Guess we will find out on monday. lol :tea: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjhpadi Posted December 28, 2012 Report Share Posted December 28, 2012 Sounds good but what does MECP mean and what do the initials mean? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kolk1 Posted December 28, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2012 MECP is a national certification for mobile installers. Mobile Electronics Certification Program. There are 3 levels to MECP, basic, advanced and Master. Its basically a nationally setup scoring system, to get base line for how technically smart an installer is. I personally, hate the technical side, and prefer custom work, all day long. If you ask around at most retail shops, or mom and pop install locations, MOST are not MECP certified. Best buy over the last year has really been pushing to get at least 75% of all installers to be certified. And went as far as to be a shop lead, you have to be Advanced certified. Ive been Basic for a long time, and renewed my basic a couple months ago. It a 5 part test you have to go to a testing facility, and they give you 4 hours to do it in. If you get under 70% in any single category, you fail everything. My worst score of the 5 tests was 88%, rest were all over 90%. Other initials I used: SJB is the smart junction box, its basically one of the electronic brains for the car. DBALL is a part number for a part made my expresskit. Its the module needed to add remote start to a factory system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tss Posted December 28, 2012 Report Share Posted December 28, 2012 I am soooo interested in how this turns out. I really want remote start, but am not willing to do so if it means two fobs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Echo42987 Posted December 28, 2012 Report Share Posted December 28, 2012 Keep me posted as well. I'm in IL and would drive to get this done, for sure! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tss Posted December 28, 2012 Report Share Posted December 28, 2012 Keep me posted as well. I'm in IL and would drive to get this done' date=' for sure![/quote'] Ditto, but I would drive from MI.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteelBlue402A Posted December 28, 2012 Report Share Posted December 28, 2012 Heck yeah me too!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kolk1 Posted December 28, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2012 Dang, didn't know it would be this popular lol. I know for me it was the same thing, our fobs are huge and didn't want to carry another one as well. That's how this came up with my install manager. Ill keep you guys posted. Expect updates Monday afternoon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteelBlue402A Posted December 28, 2012 Report Share Posted December 28, 2012 I felt the same way about the single fob. Problem is, I work in a giant assembly plant and it is probably 1/4 mile from my dept. to the lot where I park so the stock fob range wouldn't work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kolk1 Posted December 28, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2012 Another thing I could do if this works, is find a best buy near you guys, and see which ones have advanced MECP installers and talk to them personally and see which ones have done stuff like this before. In our computer system we can see who is certified and what level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SHO Rod Posted December 28, 2012 Report Share Posted December 28, 2012 Does the DBALL spoof the transponder key or will you need to program and add another key to use this system? -Rod Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kolk1 Posted December 28, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2012 Some systems the module is programmed like its a 3rd key, but I think the dball just learns one of your current keys, and stays asleep so to speak until you remote start the car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpoolinX2 Posted December 28, 2012 Report Share Posted December 28, 2012 Subscribing as well! My wife is wanting remote start on her '11 A4...does this DBALL thing work on any vehicle? I've been reading up on installing remote starts, and they sound like a nightmare. Nor do I trust anyone at Best Buy or the like to do...read too many horror stories about that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjhpadi Posted December 28, 2012 Report Share Posted December 28, 2012 Thanks for the info, I was not at all familiar with the info you posted, and it is good to know!:thumb::thumb: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kolk1 Posted December 28, 2012 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2012 Quick search on Xpresskit.com's website, remote start with factory fob is not available for the A4. Ill double check at work on sunday to see what our programming says. There is only 1 company as a whole I would I let touch my car and thats JML audio. Best buy, audio express, custom sounds, or any other shop, I would want to personally know the installer before I would suggest going to him. Thats why I figured if somebody wanted me to check out a best buy near them, I could pull their bay information, and see what MECP certifications their bay has, and if one of them was Advanced MECP, id personally talk to him and see if he sounded like somebody I would trust to touch my car. Other than JML audio, I would never send a customer to any shop blindly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goblues38 Posted December 29, 2012 Report Share Posted December 29, 2012 I still have the MECP certificate from when i Tested way back in 1990. It was very rare back then. Less than 20 guys in Missouri had the certification. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kolk1 Posted January 1, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 1, 2013 Long day for other reasons, ill reply more when I get home. http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y71/Kolk1/4722A260-03A6-4864-A2A3-F2E2BB696A3F-14850-00000EB854BCEC39.mp4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGFOOT Posted January 1, 2013 Report Share Posted January 1, 2013 awesome. as soon as you can, make a post for a moron like me to understand how i can do this...or more importantly WHO can do it for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kolk1 Posted January 1, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 1, 2013 To show you how to do it? No. This is something where, if you need a how to, You shouldnt even attempt it. Just being blunt, thats my personality. If you want me to find a installer at Best Buy near you, I can contact a store in your area, and talk to the installers, and see who sounds most confident in doing it, or has before. Besides a best buy, I couldnt be much help in finding some one for you. Ok, so I was supposed to show up at 10am, do my setup, and go home. I get there and a HUGE customer issue comes up, and I end up rewiring a factory amplified system is a Chrysler Pacifica. Fun fun. Get done with that around 1am, and then pull my car in to work on it. Do some more research, call up my tech support, ask a couple more questions to get some clarification on a couple items, and double check Im not missing anything. First off, the DBALL will do remote start on the factory key fob, BUT a 2nd keyfob has to be wired up as a dummy under the dash, that only activates when you remote start. Screw that. BUT the FLCAN module can do it, but you need to also install a remote start brain(this is how it normally works). So option A) Use a DBALL, basically lose a keyfob through install process, and dont have to buy a RS brain. Option Use a FLCAN, buy a RS brain, and dont lose a key. I chose option B. Since I had to now buy a Remote start brain, I didnt feel like going with the basic Avital 4111 (would work just fine and a lot cheaper) But I decided if Im going to do it, im going to at least do a system with 2 way paging. 2 way wont work on the factory fob, but if I have the viper remote with me, ill have WAY better range, and ill get confirmation on the remote that the vehicle received the signal and started, on the viper fob. So my parts list is now a Viper 4204, and a FLCAN bypass module. Also needed later, a standard bosch relay to get the factory fob to activate the viper system. Parts all layed out, before I start getting rid of the wires I dont need, and hooking the 2 systems together. Small black box is the FLCAN, large box is the Viper, Not shown is the antenna, its already installed at this point up on the drivers side of the rearview mirror. This is my bench prep all done, wires going the direction, all the extra wires I dont need are cut off and removed. This is behind the glove box, that black box is the main control panel for everything that needs tapped into. On the bottom there are 4 or 5 different color plugs, that go to different parts of the vehicle. And this is the harness that has about 98% of the wiring you need to tap into. The parking lights, and a couple others are not in this harness. To the right of that box, there is a big enough gap to fit the brain, I dont have any more pictures at this point. I got everything wired up, ran into some programming issues, turned out one of my viper remotes was bad, swapped that out, got it programmed properly, and then came home. All I really need to do now is ziptie the wires, loom them to look factory, then hard mount the viper brain. Wires are all cut to length, and so on, just need to the final assembly since everything works, but ill do that tomorrow. Couple cool features you can do on the 4204 and FLCAN setup. There is a temperature sensor on the side of the Viper brain, so you can set it to do certain things at certain temps, this reads next to the brain, not outside, so if your car is toasty inside, and you just got done driving, the brain wont read 20 for outside, it reads cabin temp, but if its been sitting for a couple hours, it should basically be the same temp as outside anyway. You can program temperatures for the heated seats, and air conditioned seats if you want them to automatically turn on when you remote start. I left the heated seats option off, I didnt want to have to turn the rears off every time I got in the car, and they heat up quick. The air conditioning seat controls, I set at 82*, next option was 90, lower option was like 74. And I dont have to worry about turning the rear seats off, so if I dont have any passengers, I can easily turn off the passenger seat. I also have the Brain set to automatically turn on the rear defroster if its under 32*. All of these are adjustable, but you need the proper computer program, and a Bitwriter to program the system. Ill post more pics tomorrow, when I get out there, and do final assemble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kolk1 Posted January 1, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 1, 2013 Couple pics from wrapping it up this morning. Only took about 1/2 hour. How it looked when I stopped working on it last night. Final mounting and wrap up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SHOdded Posted January 1, 2013 Report Share Posted January 1, 2013 Coming along very nicely. Is it working now as expected? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kolk1 Posted January 1, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 1, 2013 Everything worked perfectly when I left work yesterday, just had to clean it up and put the car back together this morning. Only thing I'm not 100% happy about, to set up the remote start for double pulse so it would work with the factory key fob, while this works perfect on the factory fob, double pulse on the viper since its a 2 way system takes a little timing to get used to it. If I never used the viper remote, everything is perfect, if I never wanted to remote start it with the factory fob, then I'd just leave the viper system set to single pulse like normal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobback Posted January 2, 2013 Report Share Posted January 2, 2013 Are you able to use 1 key fob? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kolk1 Posted January 2, 2013 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2013 Are you able to use 1 key fob? What do you mean? For programming? Yes but you have to use a different method than I used, its called KLON and is more difficult to get to program. But do-able. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobback Posted January 2, 2013 Report Share Posted January 2, 2013 Was meaning 1 key fob to run the vehicle; from using remote start to unlocking the doors. I was thinking that 2 key fobs would be needed; one for the remote start and the original. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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