Grey wire mod (extend alarm remote range) (2 Viewers)

[RavenTai]

I did this a while ago, last summer I think, did a quickie test fit just straight from the unit, up to the 2nd row handle behind the driver and across to the other on the passenger side and then down to the remainder of the spool loose on the floor, the wire was just hanging free in the cab, well away from the metal of the body, range was amazing, well over 50 yards where before it would barely work standing at the drivers door, same battery and yes holding it to my chin,

I then took the interior apart and ran it up the B pillar across above the headliner and down the other side, range was drastically reduced over the free air test fit which surprised me, maybe 50 foot max now,

Has me wondering about the up the back of the seat method, if maybe that would give the same killer range, but its good enough now that I will not mess with it, 80 is out front and I can walk to the closest window and lock the 80 from inside the house, so much better than before, Lexus RS3000 system, Japan installed not port, but otherwise the same.

 

[Ebag333]

I then took the interior apart and ran it up the B pillar across above the headliner and down the other side, range was drastically reduced over the free air test fit which surprised me, maybe 50 foot max now,

I noticed the same, but like you didn't think it worth it to mess with it too much.

Thanks for sharing your results!

 

[Ebag333]

So it's been almost a year since I posted this, figured it was time for an update.

I replaced my battery in my remote about 2-3 months after I did this mod, mostly because the needed hers replaced.

Since then, while the range has dropped I can still easily un/lock my truck from 10+ yards away (yeah, I didn't run 30 feet of wire and tear apart my whole truck like someone else did ). With the truck, I practically have to be standing at the car door.

An almost 2 year update. The battery in my key FOB is about a year and a half old, and I've decided it's time to get a new one. I have to be standing 5-10 feet away to reliably get it to lock/unlock, though I can still regularly un/lock it from 20+ feet if I try a few times.

Previously I'd have to swap batteries every 6 months or so to keep decent range.

 

[kirkagosto]

GREAT MOD!!!

I just did this and did not even remove the seat. I moved it as far forward as it would go and then I took the 4 pin plug out and cut the wire. I have the SOR seat covers so without even removing them i slid the new wire down the slot where the headrest mounts and then down the back of the seat and tied it into the plug. I then took the other end of the wire and looped it around the plastic part the headrest slides down into and dropped it down about 6 inches. I then plugged it into the box with the plug and bam it worked great. Before it was basically 2 feet from the vehicle. Now its got to be close to 100'. I walked down the street a little and it worked great. I know its at least 80' but i didnt measure to see if it was 100' Regardless well worth the 10 minutes it took.

 

[ppc]

I was poking around looking at antennas for 300 mHz and something dawned on me.

The wire is acting as a single pole antenna and apparently not a bad one at that. If you would want something with more gain, it would end up being most likely a directional antenna. While this could net you much more range, the problem would be that the range is directional.

So lets say you grabbed a yagi or panel antenna (or heaven forbid a dish), you would get killer range in the direction the antenna is pointing, but in the other directions, your range would suffer greatly. We won't get into lobes of the antenna pattern and the gain they provide. So really this isn't ideal for this type of application.

But you say, hey dood, what about slapping an omni up there instead? Those get gain right? This is correct but we have one fundamental flaw. This is a single wire pickup. Most antennas (antennae?) are coaxial. I'll be the first to say I wouldn't be sure about how to wire up a coax antenna into a single wire.

I would think if you really wanted to maximize the mod, you could run the wire up one pillar of your truck, completely around the truck through the headliner to the other side and back down the opposite pillar. To be honest, I think that would be overkill, and to suit the overkill I'd say you might even suffer degraded sensitivity if you get interference from modulation. Of course I don't work with 300 mHz on an everyday basis so that could be completely off too...

Whatever you do, don't drop the $50 on an antenna. You really won't realize the gains that the cost over a simple speaker wire would net you.

Whew.. maybe I shouldn't drink red bull so early in the morning.

An old thread comes back to life!
The wire is just a simple "long wire" type of antenna. To improve the reception:

1. Run it as far as possible from the large metal objects (not so practical in a vehicle)
2. Orientate it in a vertical direction
3. Vary the length to achieve the best results

Typically this type of antenna is going to be close to a quarter wavelength of the frequency and is unity or no gain. As I recall the frequency is around 332 Mhz. Given the FCC ID you can lookup a lot of information on the FCC’s website like frequency. Schematics are even available for newer electronics if you are interested. If you doubled, quadrupled etc. the length the more performance or gain there would be. If you started with a test wire you might try trimming off an inch at a time until the range is acceptable. If you trim to much the range will start decreasing.

Overkill would be replacing the wire with a coaxial cable/wire where you ground the shield of the coax to the ground of the alarm unit at one end and then strip the shield off coax at the other end exposing the center conductor as the antenna again using the ¼. ½ wavelength. I guessing that either 50 ohm coax would be the best to use.

I’ve done the same for garage door openers. Just like rabbit ears on a TV the antenna can be moved around the get the best signal.

 

[jeffro109]

oh man, I got to do this while my front seats are out to clean up the french fries, melted candy, sticky nickles, and trimmed fingernails that came in my new, old cruiser.

The alarm range is pathetic really, 15 ft maybe, I like to be able to hit the button from inside the house, maybe 40 ft away.

Thank you!!

 

[arndog123]

This mod along w/ the chin method works great.

 

[96Cruiser13]

I do


YouTube - HORNBLASTING GONE WIRELESS!!

My dog just went ape s*** when i played this video lol

 

[CEO714]

Anyone know if this mod would work with the 100 series because I have horrible range on my factory alarm...

Thanks in advance

 

[paj4x4]

Anyone know if this mod would work with the 100 series because I have horrible range on my factory alarm...

Thanks in advance

Same here. Interested to know if this will work in the 100 series. Thanks.

 

[98 SNAKE EATER]

Well, today I goofed

I've been enjoying a longer range for quite some time now, but earlier today, I installed another dash cam and decided to hard wire it to my DVR's power source which is usually hot since they run 24/7, but I do have it connected to a switch on the console if I ever needed to turn it off

Turns out I ran the power wire a little too close to the antenna extension wire (I honestly forgot it was even up there)

Now the remote doesn't work unless it's right up against the body or if I'm sitting inside

Turned off the power switch for the surveillance system and it goes back to super long range

So tomorrow, instead of tearing down all the new wiring I routed, I'm gunna hack the antenna extension and route it somewhere else (like maybe the driver's side all the way back to the rear quarter)

 

[Bella1992]

Awesome modification, can't believe it took me two years to do this simple trick. I did end up removing my seat just for easier access because I wanted to solder the wire on there. I have beautiful sheepskin seat covers so just snaked that wire up underneath the cover.

 

[flintknapper]

Just did this mod today. I've always been able to use my FOB out to about 30', but I needed to clean out from under the drivers seat anyway, so I went ahead and did the mod.

Soldered an extension wire onto the grey wire, ran it up the B pillar and let about 3" hang out the top near the seat belt exit.

Amazing how much farther I can use the FOB now. I walked back about 100' and it works no problem. I haven't tried it from different angles yet (just straight in front of the vehicle), but it is definitely an improvement.

It took me longer than the 'Ten Minutes' some say it took them, but I'm old and slow.

Now IF someone could figure out how to do this on my LX470, it really sucks! Maybe good for 15' max....as is.

 

[96LXtech]

I did a couple of searchs and didn't find anything on this, so apologies if I missed something.

This is about a tenth of a mod that takes less than 30 minutes (if you're moving slow).

The goal of this mod was to extend the range of the "factory" alarm. This applies to the RS3000 alarm.

Using my remote as a test unit (battery is fairly old, I'm about 4-5 feet away typically when it starts working) I was able to extend the range to well across the street, and even further as long as I had line of sight to the drivers side B pillar.

To reroute the antenna:

1. Find some wire that works. I used some speaker wire I had handy. If you had an actual antenna (it would need to be long, narrow, and fairly flat) that would probably work even better.
2. Pull the bolts on the seat (2 front, 2 rear).
3. Tip the seat back and disconnect the wires from the seat. I simply tipped it up on top of the center console to move it out of the way, but you could also move it onto the back seat.
4. On the single 4 pin plug (that has one grey wire in it), snip the grey wire a fair way back and connect your new wire via the method of your choice (solder or mechanical connector).
5. Slide the new wire under the carpet to the door step. I went along the ridge where the other wires were ran to make it easy.
6. Run the wire up the drivers side B pillar. I simply looped it over the top of the seat belt mount, and down a foot or so on the opposite side.

Initially (as you can see from my pictures) I ran a double wire and connected it back to the original antenna. This actually decreased the range to about that of stock.

I did several tests for range:

1. 4 pin completely unplugged (no antenna). About half the range of stock.
2. Stock antenna. About 4-5 feet range.
3. Double wire running up the B pillar and back down, terminating at the alarm. About the same as my final solution.
4. Double wire running up the B pillar and back down, attaching to the stock antenna. Same range as stock.
5. (Final solution) Single wire running up the B pillar towards the front, and hanging down about a foot on the back side.

Your range will be greatly increased no matter where you stand, but I found that the best range was with direct line of site to the inside of the drivers side B pillar.

Which makes sense as the only thing blocking the signal is glass and the soft cover over the seat belt mounts. Any other angle has metal blocking the signal.

Couple of crappy cell phone piccies below.

In the first pic, you can see the entire box. The 4 pin connector with a single grey wire is at the top.

Second pic has a zoomed in pic of the connectors. Note that in this pic I had the double wire hooked back into the factory antenna, which decreased the range. With the way I would recommend doing it (and how I'd do it in the 's rig) is to simply leave the grey wire loose, so you completely reroute it.


An alternate suggestion I found when searching for this was to find the end of the grey wire (ending somewhere around the steering column) and extend it up the A pillar. I found that getting to that area was far more difficult that getting under the seat, and would greatly increase the time to do the mod.
View attachment 249541View attachment 249542

Did you cut the wire and attach the new wire to the end to the box side(RS3000 module) or to the harness side or splice the wire in parallel?

 

[george_tlc]

Just add the new wire length to the old that comes out of the box, it's not like you are matching antenna impedance or anything

cheers,
george.

 

[96LXtech]

Just add the new wire length to the old that comes out of the box, it's not like you are matching antenna impedance or anything

cheers,
george.

And the old piece of harness? What happens to it? Gets forgotten? The pics posted weren’t very clear...

 

[george_tlc]

Whatever part of the original wire exists is just a wire stub, so ignore it. Don't overthink the mod, it is not even a banana skin project

cheers,
george.

 

[96LXtech]

Whatever part of the original wire exists is just a wire stub, so ignore it. Don't overthink the mod, it is not even a banana skin project

cheers,
george.

It’s easy to say that when you’ve done it. The explanation was as clear as looking thru muddy water. I’m not overthinking so as much as trying to measure twice before I actually cut it...

 

[george_tlc]

No, it really is easy

You'll get there.

cheers,
george.

 

[96LXtech]

No, it really is easy

You'll get there.

cheers,
george.

I got it but the explanation sucked. just Asking for clarification.