[Author Index] [Date Index] [Thread Index]
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]

an alarming story about half the number of the beast



  It was chilly this morning, around the lower 40s, not enough for
winter gear, but enough to chill tops of my legs through my jeans.  I
know, I know, I'm waiting for the next paycheck to get something that
will do more than shred nicely should I go down....

  Upon the favorable review from Bill (I think), I went in search of a 
Topeak digital gauge, and found one at rei.com for about 20 bucks.
It's a digital pressure gauge that will display in bar, psi, and
something else that I can't remember right now.  It will do presta
(for those bicyclists among us) and shraeder (car valves) without
disasssembly.  I checked the pressure as the bike warmed up a litte
bit, and both tires were a couplee pounds low, so I rode the six
blocks to the arco to fill them up.

  Upon arriving at the gas station I noticed that my odometer read
333, half the number of the beast!  Chuckling to myself, I pulled up
next to the 25 cent air compressor, checked the pressure to see if the 
six blocks had warmed the tires appreciably (it hadn't) and topped off 
front and back.

  My ride has the alarm installed.  One of the neat and totally aggravating
features of the alarm is that after turning the ignition off, it will
automatically arm itself.  Neat in that you *can't* forget to arm it,
and aggravating in that you have to pull the transmitter out and
disarm it a lot if you are on and off it.

  Anyway, I put the valve covers back on and go to disarm it.  I press 
the transmitter, the little red LED lights up, but the bike sits
silent without the usual chirp and flash that indicates it's
disarmed.  WTF?

  I press the transmitter several times.  Nothing.  I turn the
ignition on, because I am not sure what else to do.  The alarm fills
the parking lot and gas pump area with noise, and I'm standing there
like a moron with the alarm going off, pressing different combinations 
of the transmitter trying to get it to shut the hell up.

  Nothing seems to work, and the next time I turn the ignition on the
dash lights stay dead, but the headlight comes on.  The alarm does not 
go off.  WTF?

  I wheel it over to the payphones and call my fiancee who brings the
spare transmitter with her and the alarm instructions.  If you press
the transmitter enough without disarming the alarm, evidently the code 
sequence between the alarm and the transmitter can get misaligned, and 
the alarm will reject the disarm request.  To re-sync it, you press
both little buttons on the trasmitter for several seconds, and things
are supposed to be fine.

  I try this, and no joy.  I stand there talking to Kristin, for a
while and try to disarm it again.  CHIRP!  FLASH!  Like nothing ever
happened, it happily arms and disarms fine.

  Kristin laughs at me, and I fire up the bike and drive to work.  I'm 
not sure what happened, but I have two guesses:

    1.  The alarm is intermitently hosed.  This would royally suck.
Intermittent electrical problems are the thorn in my troubleshooting
side.

    2.  The codes got misaligned, and it takes some time for them to
re-align after using the transmitter to trigger the realignment.  I
took the not disarming behaviour for busted when really it was still
realigning.

  At any rate, I'll see what happens when I go out tonight to go home
from work....





- -- 
- -jong

     *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
      The ST/RS Mailing list is sponsored by Jack Lilley Ltd.
          http://www.TriumphNet.com/st/lilley for more info
   http://www.TriumphNet.com/st for ST, RS and Mailing List info

=-=-=-= Next Message =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=