x50 Woes

[Cracker187]

Okay...I'm curious if anyone else has ever had this problem. I've never seen it posted before. Anyways, the Alert LED on my hardwired Smartcord stopped lighting up one day. I figured somehow, by some crazy miracle, I had actually seen an LED die out. When I went in to check it, the LED was fine. Hmm...so I ripped out the Smartcord. While checking all the components, I found that one of the resistors(a 48.7Kohm) wasn't reading diddly. I figured this might be my problem since it was connected straight to the ONE transistor in the whole deal and figured...maybe that's causing the lack of voltage or really low voltage to the LED. Well...on my way to grab a bite to eat I used the plug in Smartcord. Turns out the Alert LED on this wasn't working either. I've never even used this Smartcord so of course I thought automatically it's got to be my detector. I'm not sure what may have caused it, but right now I'm just waiting for CarToys to call me and tell me if I can have an over the counter swap or if I have to go defenseless while mine is being sent in. Oh...by the way...some CarToys employees are complete idiots. The guy was trying to test it by pluging it up in the back. After telling him 5 different times what was wrong he finally tells me "Is it programmed to light up the Alert LED? I'm pretty sure it's in the programming somewhere and you have to set it. I just can't find it." No numbnutts...it's plug and play... :roll:

[hookem202]

not much on technical feature but could the fuse in the end of the cig lighter be bad?

[twood]

Actually, the fuse in the Smartcord is soldered to the circuit board. If it were blown, the X50 wouldn't power on at all.

Cracker187,
Have you checked the pins in the power jack on the side of the X50? Its possible the one that carries the LED signal may be bent or broken.

[proudNMAmember]

I have had problems w/ a couple of smartcords too.

[Cracker187]

Nope...didn't try the pins. I DID realize that when I pull out the plug from the RD the warning light lights up though. I'm thinking...maybe...I don't know. Haha. Well, anyways, I took it to them. They said they couldn't do the over the counter swap so looks like I'm out a RD for 4-6 weeks. It's a small feature problem, but it's important enough for me to get it fixed. Guess I'll see when I get it back.

[proudNMAmember]

Good luck cracker. I just hate being w/ out one of my rd's.

[Cracker187]

Pfft yea. Definitely a quite-er drive without it. Kidna wish I had a backup er something. My car could use some nice grandma driving for once though. Hopefully this time they actually call. They were supposed to call when they found out what I could do with it. Never did. I guess this time I'll just keep nagging them every week. Hahah...they're going to hate me...ohhhh they are going to hate me. :twisted:

[metroplex]

I used the smart-cord only to test out the detector on a bench, but hardwired it using Cat3 phone wire and a RJ-11 modular jack. The center two wires are the +12V/GND and the Red wire (standard Cat3 layout) is the +12V while the green goes to GND. It is as simple as that. The Smart Cord is definitely cool, with a remote LED alert system and mute control, but all you need is +12V and GND for the detector to operate properly.

Putting your x50 out of commission for a faulty smart cord is like waiting for someone to tow your car in because it is low on gas.

[Cracker187]

Not when you listen to loud music all the time it isn't. I can't always HEAR my detector. It's even worse on the long trips when I listen to music loud the whole way. I need the visual warning to keep me alert to what's going on. Having that fixed is plenty worth sending the unit in.