I wired one of those scrolling blue lights to my alarm. It's been working fine for almost two years. Anyway, now when I disarm the alarm it stays on. Even when I'm driving. Since the light is blue, having on while the car is in motion is a big ticket. Any ideas?

http://www.snappydsl.net/ctoledo/

i have the varad blue one.. its probably the same one.. i don't really know what to say since you said it's been working for the past 2 years.. if i remember correctly they come with 3 wires.. one for ground, one that's powered all the time, and one to get powered when the car is armed.. try to check the wiring to see if its that.. do you have any other led's hooked up to your alarm? do they turn off when you disarm?

My guess is that the light is done for dude, two years is a long time for those to work. I end up getting mine replaced at least once a year for the same type of thing, except for mine shut off after awhile. The installer said it's the led, so that's my guess, but I don't know for sure.

one thing that comes to mind....are you sure the alarm is actually arming? on mine there's a button under the dash that can permanently disarm the system, the remote still seems to activate the alarm but it won't sound if you open the door or put the key in. when my alarm is disabled like this the led stays constantly lit. maybe somehow you tripped this on your car.....if the alarm goes off when it's set and you open the door, then i guess this idea is out the window. hope that was understandable

Travis

^^^^^^
Translation, did you somehow maybe accidentaly put your alarm into valet mode. On most alarms that will cause the LED to stay on permanently until you disable it again. That would be a good guess, kinda forgot about that since I never use mine.

Ok, I figured out what the problem is, I think...

The LED had three wires Black red and yellow.

Black=Ground
Red=Constant power source
Yellow=remote I'm guessing.

The remote was connected to the orange wire on the Starter kill relay. If I disconnect the orange wire from the car, the LED works perfectly fine. It turns off when disarmed, stays on when armed. But the car will start if the alarm is triggered.

If I connect the relay again, the ignition kill works. But the LED stays on constantly. I did some reading and I read that you have to install a diode between the relay and the LED. What's a diode, what does it do, do you think it will fix my problem, and where can I get one?

I assuming I can get one at RatShack, but I'm sure there are different types.

Sorry for the long post for something so trivial, but this is buggin the sh1t outta me.

Thanks

http://www.snappydsl.net/ctoledo/

Yes you need a diode on the alarm's orange wire. This is what is happening: You are getting a ground feedback through the starter kill relay. If you look at the starter kill relay socket, you will see a yellow wire on one side, and the orange on the other. The yellow wire is connected to your ignition wire, and this ignition wire will see a ground when the car is off. So that ground with the car off is going through the relay, and out the orange wire, and then goes to your led and keeps it on, since the yellow on the led is what turns it on when it sees a ground. With me so far? Basically a diode is a one way switch. It lets current go one way, but doens't let it come back the other. Find the orange wire that goes to the starter kill relay. Cut it in half. On the alarm side of the cut wire, you will have 2 connections to it. one will go to your led light's yellow wire, and the other connection off the alarm side of the orange wire will be the diode. Put the end of the diode with the silver stripe on it, on the alarm side of the cut orange wire. Now on the other side of the diode, this will connect to the starter kill relay side of the orange wire. So now when the key is off, ground will still be coming back through the orange wire, but the doide will let it go no further, and not let the ground signal into your led's yellow wire, keeping it fromm coming on. Everything should work perfectly.

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WORKED LIKE A CHAMP!!!

Thanks for the expertise, I knew you guys wouldn't let me down!

One last question to mull over:

How did it work for so long w/o the diode in the first place?

http://www.snappydsl.net/ctoledo/