Printable View
I remember when we purchased our 93 CC, I spoke with the previous owner about the alarm system function. He told me he had the door lock feature disabled (pulled a wire off of the controller) because it had a habit of locking him out.
I've left it that way and lock with the dead bolt when away, use the air lock while traveling. We only have the two!
Mike
Jim, that was an interesting thread, it is a similar problem. Greg, you are probably right, the fob was deprogrammed from the mother alarm. I was able to reprogram it, and it acted like a new fob, rather than finding an old fob again so the problem could have been with the fob or the brain.
A backup/bypass switch is the answer if you have a system built this way.
Peter, was the horn a simple fix?
The horn began going off randomly, not connected to turning the wheel or bumps in the road. it became embarrassing while pulling in and out of the Lake Havasu RV park, other buses started answering the horn calls even. When we left it was on more than it was off.
The horn was simply disabled by removing the wire that leads to the steering column under the flexible rubber part near your knees. The final repair will happen later.
Katherine says it was like the bus had an extreme case of flatulence without the smell!
Quote:
Originally Posted by JIM CHALOUPKA
In that thread: ....... In case you had a monkey or child, you could remove the key. :D
Is it possible to discern which?
Single Point Failure, no more.
Project completed, now there is a back up. Here is the full story.
In the door jamb there is an electrically controlled air cylinder which engages the door and locks it closed when power ( 24 volts) is applied to the solenoid that is attached to the air cylinder. This power comes from either the switch on the dash by the steering wheel, the switch next to the door, or in the case of my Marathon, from the alarm system. If the key fob is used to lock the door, it causes the alarm system to send power to the solenoid and the door locks.
In the case of my problem, the key fob would not unlock the door because it somhow became unprogrammed from the alarm brain. Obviously the same problem would exist if you lost the fob, for example.
Marathon suggested relieving the air pressure from the auxiliary air system, they thought that if there was no pressure, the door would open. But that is not the case, because the solenoid traps pressurized air and keeps the lock locked. You must remove the power from the solenoid to open the lock. They also suggested turning off the 2 chassis battery switches on the right side of the engine bay to kill the power but that did not work either. It would have worked if, say, a dog had pushed the switch by the door while the people were outside.
The lock system was installed by Prevost, but Marathon added the alarm system. And they power the alarm from either the house or chassis batteries directly, if you turn off the 4 main disconnect switches in the engine bay, the alarm is still powered. If I had disconnected the battery cables completely, the lock would have opened. Too bad Marathon or Prevost did not explain that option, but when it is getting dark, about to rain, and no tow car; it is easy to claim the sure answer and remove a window.
Today I spent an hour running 2 wires from the door lock cylinder over the top of the windshields and down into the electrical bay under the drivers window. There is now a switch there which is always in the ON position. If I ever have a problem again, I need only flip the switch to off and the lock will open. I thought this was faster than tracing the wires and finding the source of power to the alarm, and it provided back up to the 2 direct switches as well.
Nice to have one permanent solution.
Am I missing something Peter? Couldn't you just kill the battery power switches to the bus and house to accomplish the same thing?
Jon,
Of course I tried killing both the chassis and house battery switches, but that did not work. Marathon wired the alarm direct to the battery avoiding those switches. I wish they had told me that. I could have unbolted all the battery cables had i known.
Don't be too harsh on Marathon.
On my Liberty my CB power comes direct from the batteries in the rear and turning off the house battery switches does not kill power to the CB. I guess each converter has its oddities.
I would venture a guess that in general you don't want something obvious to completely defeat your alarm system, like turning off the power switches?
Granted generally the switches are behind a locked bay or engine door, but still, I'm guessing that is the reason.
Ray