Cheetah wireless fitting kit for Blinder

SheltonJ · #1 (**permalink**) 2008-01-30

I have had my Blinder m-25 installed with the Cheetah wireless fitting kit and stealth node. The wireless link seems a bit twitchy, the green link light goes on and off (mostly off) on it's own. The stealth key fob seems to be able to turn the Blinder on and off, even when the wireless remote is being weird.
As set up, there is an LED attached to some wiring near the Blinder control unit (under the hood). Sometimes it is red and sometimes it is green. I have had the remote unit go off, indicating a laser hit, while just sitting in the driveway with the car running (headlights on, at night, shining at another parked car).

Overall this makes it a little hard to tell if my Blinder is on or off and if it is working correctly at any particular point in time.

The blinder manual seems to indicate that the led should be green if the unit has power and red if it has detected laser.

How can i tell if my wireless node is defective?

Veil Guy · #2 (**permalink**) 2008-01-30

SheltonJ,

Good to see you...hope you've been well. How's your Carrera working out for you?

Expect an official response from Speed Cheetah GPSmirror support to tackle your query...

Veil Guy

steagall1000 · #3 (**permalink**) 2008-01-30

SheltonJ,

Hey

sorry to hear your having a problem with the wireless Node. To answer your question on the Blinder LED light, Yes the green light will come on after you have powered up the unit, then you should hear the unit make one beep after 30 seconds, letting you know it has run through its testing cycle. When the LED goes red you are jamming!! It will always stay green until them Good ole boys fire their laser gun at you.

GB

SpeedCheetahAl · #4 (**permalink**) 2008-01-31

Hi SheltonJ

The FAQ's in our support section is here: Wireless Fitting Kits

You should read them to understand more about the kit works so you know what you've got there.

Can you give me more information about the wireless link symbol being weird? It's unlikely there is a actually anything wrong with the wireless kit. It's pretty straightforward really. It either works or it doesn't - it's not going to drop in and out for no apparent reason. The Cheetah wireless kit does not do anything to change or interfere with the jamming operation. It's only listening to the audio output coming from the Blinder system and then it interprests and transmits that audio wirelessly to inside the car, so you get an easier instal.

If the Blinder jammer is emitting an alert while you are sitting in the driveway it's the Blinder jammer part that's alerting/falsing. There is a known fault on Blinders that they can sometimes get stuck on in the first 30 seconds - you just switch them off and on again to cure it.

With regard to the wireless kit, please let me explain what should be happening and this should help you further with faultfinding. This is a full answer so it's all here for posterity and the benefit of future users too.

1. The Cheetah power supply unit, that you hooked up to the battery, senses when you start your car and it only applies power when the engine is running. (The point of if it is so that anyone can fit it and you don't have to figure out a safe point to hardwire anything into your car electrics.) So the whole Blinder assembly in your engine bay is going to stay switched off until you start the car. No flat batteries and a safe instal, even for a complete novice to car electrics.

2. The remote control relay that's part of the engine bay setup is "Always Open" so when you start the car your blinders come on. You don't have to turn them on each time with the keyfob.

3. Then you've got the little in-car Cheetah warning unit which you have inside the car somewhere. When you turn that on you'll get a red LED appear which indicates only that the in-car warning unit is getting power (not the engine bay.) You won't get any other lights appearing until you start the car.

4. When you start your car, the Blinder kit in the engine will automatically power up and very shortly after you'll get a green LED with the wireless link symbol appearing automatically. You'll also hear a confirmation beep from the Cheetah warning unit. (YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PRESS ANY BUTTONS.) When this green symbol appears, it means that your Blinder system is powered up, and communicating correctly with the in-car warning unit. It will stay lit for as long as the Blinder system is on and working.

5. The green symbol will flicker every 20 seconds or so. That's normal - it's a self check on the wireless link. If the green symbol does not appear or it goes off and stays off, it means that the wireless link has been lost for some reason becuase the Blinder system is not working properly. You'll need to investigate but it's always best to check your connections to see it's getting power through.

6. If there is another technical problem, for example you don't have cables connected together properly, the Cheetah Kit will alert continuously to let you know there is an issue.

7. That little red/green LED you're describing on the Cheetah cable in the engine bay is just a secondary status LED that gives you a back-up way of telling what the Blinder system is doing. It mimics exactly what the original Blinder LED would have done so you can tell independently what the Blinders are doing. Some people like to put this little LED in the shade at the top/back of the hood, so they can see it outside through the bottom of the windscreen.

8. You can then turn the Blinder off using the Keyfob (and back on again.) The Keyfob turn the power to your jammer off and on again instantly but please note that it is normal for there to be a small delay for the wireless link symbol to disappear when you turn the jammer OFF. (This is the green light on the Cheetah in-car warning unit.) There are tehcnical reasons for this that are explained in the Wireless Fitting Kit FAQs

Come back to me and let me know how you get on.

Ally

SheltonJ · #5 (**permalink**) 2008-01-31

I will continue my testing of the wireless interface. At this point I don't know if it is a tething problem or not. It seems that the wireless link comes and goes, though it seems to be getting more reliable - perhaps there is a loose wire somewhere. Oddly, pressing the gold button on the Audio node, will cause the link light to return - at least for a little while. My understanding is that the button shouldn't do anything unless the unit is connected to a special radar detector sold only in the UK.
Perhaps that behavior indicates a mis-connection between the Blinder and the LASERnode? I think the lasernode has an extra wire coming out of the long side of the unit.

In any case I have been able to verify (by watching the LED attached to the Blinder control unit) that the fob does turn the Blinder on and off reliably.
So I think the Blinder works ok, just the wireless announcements are weird.

In any case I plan to test it with Steagall1000 and that will tell me for sure.