MatthewP

I did get Ryan from Commando on the phone this afternoon. Big thumbs up for his help. If you call commando, ask for him by name. xt. 202. He got me straightened out.

My biggest problem was with the diodes. Turns out that you really do need to use the right ones. My reward for not checking this first was doing alot of my work twice (aaaand that's how we learn). The IN4003 are the right ones. Ryan says you can use 4004 also. Using the wrong ones caused some funky things to happen, or didn't work at all. Example: my hood pin worked when telling the alarm that the hood was open when you tried to arm it, but it didn't trip the alarm when opened after system was armed. cut the wrong diodes out. used the right ones. Works fine.

I did find the hatch trigger (commando diagram pegged it, and thanks for the confirmation, birdman). However, when I tried to test it, I pulled the plug apart to make a connection with the wire. Tested both sides of the plug, but nothing. was beginning to think it was the wrong wire. reconnected the plug and stuck my probe into the back of the plug (where the wire enters) - and the wire was behaving the way it was supposed to. DUH! Guess who won't be testing wires that way anymore.

Last lesson of the day (ryan helped me with this one): the stripes on diodes don't always face away from the alarm brain. From my previous searches on this board and others, it seemed like that's what I was reading in all cases. My non-functioning door unlock trigger was due the WRONG diodes being wired the WRONG way. For the unlock trigger wires (there are two) the diode stripes are toward the alarm brain. Put the right diodes in the right way and bingo!

everything is working. I haven't programmed the remote start yet, but that'll be tomorrow. Thanks everyone, for your pm's and replies.

Churnd

We should email Ryan a copy of this thread so he can show his boss and get a raise. Good customer service is hard to come by these days.

garrett1478

okay, i just finished the install of this system a few days ago, but mark's comment makes me wonder. does the door trigger wire need to somehow be spliced into two different wires, the dome light and the cargo light? because im pretty sure that when you open the rear hatch, the main dome light does not come on. what did yall do for this...?

midiwall

Mine's just tied into the main dome light. I figure that the shock/audible sensor will catch anything that actually's happening in the truck. Plus, I don't put a lot of faith in alarms anyway. If someone want's it, they're gonna take it.

If you want to tie the line to both lamps, then you'll need to use a diode at each of the main dome and hatch dome ends. This will stop the lamps from being tied together electrically, unless that'd be a side benefit for you.