Troubleshooting a Hornet Auto Alarm

Listen for four chirps--this indicates tampering.

Directed Electronics owns the Hornet, Viper, Python, Clifford, Astroflex and Polk Audio brands. Distributors include Circuit City and Best Buy. Hornet's auto alarms include shock sensors, six-tone sirens and starter-kill systems. Keyless entry is also featured. Arming and disarming diagnostics, coupled with system status chirps, help in identifying issues. Troubleshooting a Hornet auto alarm consists of following diagnostics steps.

Instructions

1. Listen for the chirps. The pattern of chirps reports the Hornet alarm's status and will help you identify issues. One chirp indicates that the system is armed; one chirp with a three-second delay and another chirp indicates that the system is armed but is notifying you of a bypass. Disarming is notified by two chirps, and four chirps indicate the system has been disarmed, but has been tampered with. Five chirps indicates the system is disarmed with nuisance prevention circuitry (NPC) enabled.

2. Arm the system and listen for one chirp, followed by a three-second pause, and another chirp. This indicates a Bypass notification is active. "Bypass" means that the system ignores the input that was active when the system was armed until that input ends. When the input ends, normal monitoring takes place. An example of this would be if you armed the system before the interior light delay extinguished.

3. Disarm the system and listen for four chirps. This indicates tampering and that the system has been activated while you were away. Insert the ignition key to cancel this trouble alert.

4. Turn the ignition key on if NPC has been enabled (five chirps). NPC causes zones to be bypassed and to not work--but it does help in preventing false alarms like those that can be caused by building construction noises, thunder and certain types of motorcycles driving by.

References

• Directed Electronics: Hornet 742T Owner's Guide