SC430 - 2nd Gen (2001-2010)

Progress on Luxlink: The Test

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Old 10-16-11, 07:19 PM
  #226  
scdroptop
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I'm starting to believe something is wrong with my LL. I am getting it NOT to work much more than it works. The two button tap works flawlessly and the remote start works flawlessly. Not the start and top down.

Is there a day limit/time limit as to your last LL sequence to where it resets itself? Perhaps for us mega garage queens it doesn't keep the programming?

I'm tapping the close button twice, red light stays on, I wait take out the key, open the door, lock it while it is open with my finger and door closes...top goes up, car turns off.

I'm OCD about my headlights being on Auto in my garage for a long time, and I have them on the shortest LPS setting but sometimes I move the lights from auto to off...could that be breaking the sequence?

How about VaisTech??? I am turning off my iPod manually (save charge while it's off) at the phone perhaps sometimes after or in between parts of the sequence---could that throw it off?
Old 10-17-11, 05:08 PM
  #227  
Solman
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Originally Posted by scdroptop
I'm starting to believe something is wrong with my LL. I am getting it NOT to work much more than it works. The two button tap works flawlessly and the remote start works flawlessly. Not the start and top down.

Is there a day limit/time limit as to your last LL sequence to where it resets itself? Perhaps for us mega garage queens it doesn't keep the programming?

Not that I know of. I went so far as requiring a new battery and that had no impact on LL. In our rainy season my SC becomes a garage queen since I don't drive it in rain and never noticed any impact with the LL.


I'm tapping the close button twice, red light stays on, I wait take out the key, open the door, lock it while it is open with my finger and door closes...top goes up, car turns off.

I remove the key immediately after pressing the dash button twice and then open the door and press the power lock button as I close the door. I must say that on saturday I thought I had a problem coming out of target, when I went thru the sequence and the SC did the remote start BUT the top did not go down-I was quite worried. Since then it has worked every time (8-10 times). I now think I was too far away when I did the sequence (probably 40 feet away)

I'm OCD about my headlights being on Auto in my garage for a long time, and I have them on the shortest LPS setting but sometimes I move the lights from auto to off...could that be breaking the sequence?

I have the same worry, but never connected the two issues-I think its unrelated. But sometimes, it really seems to take a long time for auto-turn-off to work. My lights have never stayed on. Fortunately my garage has a service door connected to the kitchen that has a window in it, so its obvious if the lights are left on.

How about VaisTech??? I am turning off my iPod manually (save charge while it's off) at the phone perhaps sometimes after or in between parts of the sequence---could that throw it off?

I too have the vais tech/nav tool that is always hooked up to my DVD player and see no connection to LL. I would first try your remote while within a few feet from your SC and see what your success pattern is. I do find LL sensative, but my success rate is very high, to a point that when it malfunctions, it really surprises me. I think that my problems relate to the distance of the remote and the sequence timing.
I use double tap, remove the key, open the door, and press the power door lock, and close the door in quick succession.
Old 10-19-11, 05:20 PM
  #228  
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Just got off the phone with Steve at Luxury Motor Works. What a cool guy. He had a couple more LuxLinks left and sold me one, will be here next week. Remote start, remote top, quarter window control AND a shock sensor for the alarm. I am not worthy. Woo-hoo!!!
Old 10-19-11, 08:13 PM
  #229  
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Originally Posted by AusTexLex
Just got off the phone with Steve at Luxury Motor Works. What a cool guy. He had a couple more LuxLinks left and sold me one, will be here next week. Remote start, remote top, quarter window control AND a shock sensor for the alarm. I am not worthy. Woo-hoo!!!
Nice! Congrats

I'm two for my last four on LL sequence working. I'm really buggin out about it. Not very good.

I may try coming closer. I'm about ten feet away I guess and not pointing the remote exactly at the car, but if the car is close enough to the key to unlock it, surely it's close enough to start the RIGHT LL sequence???

I just don't understand how the EXACT same exit sequence...double tap, remove key, open door and lock with my finger on the manual lock can cause three different scenarios when I start the car:

1) Just remote start...this seemed to be happening when I wouldn't hold the unlock down long enough or just do unlock, then lock lock-which it is supposed to do.

2) Just top down...I get this like a third of the time! No start, just good ole battery draining top down!

3) Sometimes I get lucky and it does it all.

Could be distance? I'll move closer. Could be battery? I have a new battery but maybe the programming and repeat use of it caused it to not be as crisp? I will replace just to be sure.

Thanks John for your suggestions. I should call Steve and get some technical help with the end user end of it. Maybe he has some techniques for me. Saw a rare red SI Del Sol the other day and tried to get a pic of it for you but it was zooming by too fast. Original SI rims on it too that were looking pretty good.
Old 10-20-11, 08:29 AM
  #230  
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Originally Posted by scdroptop

I'm two for my last four on LL sequence working. I'm really buggin out about it. Not very good.

This seems odd, since you had a decent success rate before. Every once in a while, I'll have a problem you describe-but it is unusual. I chalk it up to the remote being too far or holding it wrong. My sequence is unlock (long beep)-lock-lock-unlock. If for any reason, any one of those signals doesn't get thru, it changes the results. Thats my unscientific explanation anyway.



Thanks John for your suggestions. I should call Steve and get some technical help with the end user end of it. Maybe he has some techniques for me.

I would definately call Steve seeing that there is a difference in the way your LL behaves now.

Saw a rare red SI Del Sol the other day and tried to get a pic of it for you but it was zooming by too fast. Original SI rims on it too that were looking pretty good.
I'm sure I mentioned before that I had THREE Del Sols and the first was a red S. I'm into low milage cars and that had 16K miles on it when I bought it at 3 years old. My Black SI had 40K miles on it and was 4 yrs old and the green (yes, the really bright one) had 50K miles on it when I bought it at 8 yrs old. The green and black ones and $10K got me the SC--Great deal for me. I sold the 2 Sols when gas was at its highest and had calls from all over the country for the black one- A '95 with 62K miles. I got triple the KBB retail for it. A great trade for me--NO regrets.

John
Old 10-20-11, 03:52 PM
  #231  
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Originally Posted by scdroptop
I may try coming closer. I'm about ten feet away I guess and not pointing the remote exactly at the car, but if the car is close enough to the key to unlock it, surely it's close enough to start the RIGHT LL sequence??? .
While logical, this has not been my experience at all. You must be substantially closer to the car for the LL to activate than just for the unlock. My guess is that the unlock needs just a momentary blip of signal whereas the LL needs a long continuous signal.

It sounds strange, but it works: put the key to your chin while pressing and you get better range. There is a study at this link that explains why that works.

The New York Times got an engineer who explained: “You are capacitively coupling the fob to your head. With all the fluids in your head it ends up being a nice conductor. Not a great one, but it works.” Using your head can extend the key’s wireless range.

Me, I have no problems looking like a dork in the parking lot if my top is down when I get to the car.
Old 10-20-11, 04:23 PM
  #232  
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Originally Posted by JohnnyCake
While logical, this has not been my experience at all. You must be substantially closer to the car for the LL to activate than just for the unlock. My guess is that the unlock needs just a momentary blip of signal whereas the LL needs a long continuous signal.

It sounds strange, but it works: put the key to your chin while pressing and you get better range. There is a study at this link that explains why that works.

The New York Times got an engineer who explained: “You are capacitively coupling the fob to your head. With all the fluids in your head it ends up being a nice conductor. Not a great one, but it works.” Using your head can extend the key’s wireless range.

Me, I have no problems looking like a dork in the parking lot if my top is down when I get to the car.
People are afraid of cell phone radiation but they're not afraid of this killing you? haha
Old 10-20-11, 05:25 PM
  #233  
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Originally Posted by JohnnyCake
While logical, this has not been my experience at all. You must be substantially closer to the car for the LL to activate than just for the unlock. My guess is that the unlock needs just a momentary blip of signal whereas the LL needs a long continuous signal.

It sounds strange, but it works: put the key to your chin while pressing and you get better range. There is a study at this link that explains why that works.

The New York Times got an engineer who explained: “You are capacitively coupling the fob to your head. With all the fluids in your head it ends up being a nice conductor. Not a great one, but it works.” Using your head can extend the key’s wireless range.

Me, I have no problems looking like a dork in the parking lot if my top is down when I get to the car.
Or...you could just tie a cell phone to LuxLink and have virtually infinite range.
Old 10-20-11, 05:31 PM
  #234  
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Called today and ordered one complete LL for me too! I will work on that as well as the side skirts I ordered frommthe vip kit. This forum is great.
Old 10-22-11, 12:45 AM
  #235  
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Originally Posted by Habious
Or...you could just tie a cell phone to LuxLink and have virtually infinite range.
I saw the video. looks cool - how does it work???

Living in LA gave me the opportunity to have my Luxlink installed by Steve himself - it works perfectly (except when I push the wrong buttons - enough said, don't want to embarrass myself any further...). In my mind it paid for itself in the month since it has been installed - that 30 second hold the button is too annoying! And getting out of the car and walking away with the car running is too cool! It turns off every time....
Old 10-22-11, 11:00 AM
  #236  
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Originally Posted by axel
I saw the video. looks cool - how does it work???
Here's the post with the details of the hardware side of things...

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/5933982-post22.html

And here's the post with the detail of the software side of things (apps running on an Android phone)...

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/5935853-post25.html

I do wish there was someway to slightly increase the range of the factory remote. Being able to reliably activate the LuxLink from, say, 100 ft. away would just make it perfect!

(our above solution is a little bit of overkill, but it was a lot of fun to create!)
Old 10-22-11, 03:05 PM
  #237  
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Originally Posted by huy33
People are afraid of cell phone radiation but they're not afraid of this killing you? haha
While today's cell phones only put out a very small signal (greatly reduced from the 3 W car phones of the '90s), the key fob transmits just a fraction of the radiation and at a different frequency.

Originally Posted by Habious
I do wish there was someway to slightly increase the range of the factory remote. Being able to reliably activate the LuxLink from, say, 100 ft. away would just make it perfect!
You actually can boost the fob transmitter but it would be a bit of a challenge. You could add a PA (post amp) to the output of the transmitter to give it a stronger signal. However that task is a little beyond the majority of folks to take on. Of course, making it fit inside the fob would be another challenge... (There are other ways to boost the signal once you know what the circuit looks like also, but nothing simple.)

I believe that the security folks intentionally limit the range of the fobs to prevent unintentional unlocking of a car by an action similar to what in the cell phone world is known as pocket dialing.
Old 10-22-11, 03:58 PM
  #238  
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Habious,

There was a way to increase the range of factory remote.... I believe it was done back in 1985...or was that 1955? I understand it's the reason for releasing the SC430 as a convertible....
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Attached Thumbnails Progress on Luxlink: The Test-2m4q1cy.jpg  
Old 10-23-11, 08:49 AM
  #239  
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LOL you guys are killing me. How about I just wrap my key in aluminum foil? Or but some rabbit years on it?

I am going to try to be closer to the car as well...so much for sitting in starbucks and dropping the top/remote start!

I'm still way below 90% like Solman on getting mine to work. I'm at 50%. It works literally half the time. I will call Steve at LM to get some help.
Old 10-24-11, 08:21 AM
  #240  
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Originally Posted by scdroptop
LOL you guys are killing me. How about I just wrap my key in aluminum foil? Or but some rabbit years on it?

I am going to try to be closer to the car as well...so much for sitting in starbucks and dropping the top/remote start!

I'm still way below 90% like Solman on getting mine to work. I'm at 50%. It works literally half the time. I will call Steve at LM to get some help.
scdroptop,

When you're having these problems...is it that you're getting the talkbacks (lights and beeps) from the car, but the LuxLink isn't doing what it's supposed to do? Or are you having problems getting the remote to get it's signal to the car?

When you press-and-hold the unlock button, if you don't get the long beep, followed by the windows starting to roll down, tha'ts not the fault of the LuxLink, that's the car not receiving the signal from the fob.

The sequences...like the Unlock-Lock-Lock sequence, to make the car remote-start...are VERY picky about timing. The two "Lock-Lock" button presses have to be RIGHT AFTER the "Unlock". If you miss, or the car doesn't "hear" the signal the first time...it will almost never work on that try.

Also, I know it's been mentioned before but, it bears repeating...

When you're exiting the car...you HAVE to turn the car off THEN open the door. If you're like my wife, and you open the door, find your purse, pick up your water bottle, look for your keys in your purse, realize your keys are still in the ignition, turn the car off, get out, and close the door...the LuxLink will NOT work the next time you try it.

You have to get into the habit of taking the key out THEN open the door. This applies both to when you're doing the double-click to close the top (double click, take out the key, open the door, exit the car) and when you're just parking the car (take the key out to shut off the engine, open the door to get out).


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