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I was wondering how many people would be looking at adding an alarm system to either their GS or other bike as there are a few related questions/opinions.
I bought one of these cheap Chinese alarms off of E-bay. Even this cheap thing has a lot of features.
Basically I wanted to see how they integrate into a motorcycle to see how applicable this might be to a GS or even other motorcycles. The are primarily a motion sensitive alarm system with a remove control for various functions from alarm to locating your bike. They also include remote start but I'm not sure I'm sold on that yet.
Generally they are pretty easy to install but they are not without some short comings which I'll describe below:
1.) The unit must power the entire electrical system by jumping around the ignition switch. That means to needs to carry 11+ amps for a GS and the internal relays seem to be only rated at 5 amps (there are 5 so two could be ganged together in parallel but I have not checked into that). So I'm not sure if it is even capable of 11+ amps. With the Solid State Power Box this is probably a non issue as the ignition switch no longer carries any supply current and neither would this alarm need to do that.
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2.) The unit has an active high disable line which is intended to disable the ignition; presumably by a CDI that accepts such an input. I don't think a GS has such a thing. So there is a general need for an Engine Immobilizer of some sort to make the alarm capability more effective. This is something I'm looking at designing to hid in the harness to disable the ignition. It would be small enough that you would really have to be looking for it because it would would just be wrapped under the electrical tape to kill the ignition when not powered.
3.) The remote start feature should really only be enabled by the neutral ground signal on the bike (i.e. only allow engine cranking when in neutral). This safety feature is not currently part of the alarm system and something would need to be added to create this functionality.
4.) More expensive system have RF proximity sensors in addition to the accelerator based motion sensors. Others have RFID security chips to create a much more secure system which this also does not. There are some others that have voice recognition and other frills such as remote key fobs with graphic displays.
At some point the Chinese will probably be creating cheap alarm system with these added features and those system will be more effective as security alarm system. The cheap remotes are apparently not that hard to defeat if you have any experience with them.
As an example of a hook up this is a diagram that I cobbled together from various sources on the net. There are several derivative alarm systems that have very similar connections and color coded wiring.
The conclusion of all this is that while the alarms are going to get more feature rich, I don't see item 3.) above (remote start neutral enable) now but it is possible to add, and item 2.) above, the engine immobilizer, doesn't seem to be on the horizon at all. There are engine immobilizers for Autos using RFID but the would include EFI as well as ignition immobilization and seem to be fairly large packages and except in the most high end systems are not yet integrated into the alarm systems.
So if you have any interest or maybe have already added an alarm system give me your comments and thoughts.
I bought one of these cheap Chinese alarms off of E-bay. Even this cheap thing has a lot of features.
Basically I wanted to see how they integrate into a motorcycle to see how applicable this might be to a GS or even other motorcycles. The are primarily a motion sensitive alarm system with a remove control for various functions from alarm to locating your bike. They also include remote start but I'm not sure I'm sold on that yet.
Generally they are pretty easy to install but they are not without some short comings which I'll describe below:
1.) The unit must power the entire electrical system by jumping around the ignition switch. That means to needs to carry 11+ amps for a GS and the internal relays seem to be only rated at 5 amps (there are 5 so two could be ganged together in parallel but I have not checked into that). So I'm not sure if it is even capable of 11+ amps. With the Solid State Power Box this is probably a non issue as the ignition switch no longer carries any supply current and neither would this alarm need to do that.
2.) The unit has an active high disable line which is intended to disable the ignition; presumably by a CDI that accepts such an input. I don't think a GS has such a thing. So there is a general need for an Engine Immobilizer of some sort to make the alarm capability more effective. This is something I'm looking at designing to hid in the harness to disable the ignition. It would be small enough that you would really have to be looking for it because it would would just be wrapped under the electrical tape to kill the ignition when not powered.
3.) The remote start feature should really only be enabled by the neutral ground signal on the bike (i.e. only allow engine cranking when in neutral). This safety feature is not currently part of the alarm system and something would need to be added to create this functionality.
4.) More expensive system have RF proximity sensors in addition to the accelerator based motion sensors. Others have RFID security chips to create a much more secure system which this also does not. There are some others that have voice recognition and other frills such as remote key fobs with graphic displays.
At some point the Chinese will probably be creating cheap alarm system with these added features and those system will be more effective as security alarm system. The cheap remotes are apparently not that hard to defeat if you have any experience with them.
As an example of a hook up this is a diagram that I cobbled together from various sources on the net. There are several derivative alarm systems that have very similar connections and color coded wiring.
The conclusion of all this is that while the alarms are going to get more feature rich, I don't see item 3.) above (remote start neutral enable) now but it is possible to add, and item 2.) above, the engine immobilizer, doesn't seem to be on the horizon at all. There are engine immobilizers for Autos using RFID but the would include EFI as well as ignition immobilization and seem to be fairly large packages and except in the most high end systems are not yet integrated into the alarm systems.
So if you have any interest or maybe have already added an alarm system give me your comments and thoughts.
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