Does anyone have, or heard of anyone having a car alarm that will close your top automatically when you arm it. Is this possible for MINIs? Would it be bad for your MINI (other than wear on the battery)?
Thanks

 

I've not heard of it, but since you can put the key in the lock to put the top up, I would assume that any decent alarm system with an output could do this by tapping into that relay...

 

if anything they need to reprogram the key to CLOSE the top rather than just open it... thinking of when want to open or close in a hurry... most likely to close rather than open.

I mean its a nice thought on a hot summer day you can be walking up and click... top up and cooler... but what about over at a buddys house and cloudburst... stand in the rain with your key in the door waiting for the top to shut...

whats smarter?

 

Outside of safety (clearance) and security (accidental operation) concerns, there is no reason the key could not be programmed for both open and close operations.

Press once, twice, etc.

 

I guess the real question... can, will, or could BMW consider the reprogram?

 

My issue is my key never works that well pressing it once, twice, threes times .... I have to raise my arm, stick the metal part of the key in my arm pit, stand on my right foot and face north to get the key to have any kind of usage!

I think you should have a one touch open and one touch close for the top. And the top should beable to open/close up to 5 miles an hour.

 

I agree in principle, but I understand why the factory doesn't provide this by default. You mentioned the poor signal and got me to thinking.

There are a couple more issues involved. Thinking about this from a dealers perspective....

1. Open-Close operations require a continuous solid 5-10 second signal. (ie. holding the operating button) With the limited size of the key there is little room for a battery and antenna. Adding the close-open features would quickly run down the key battery and due to the poor signal from the small antenna there would be many unhappy customer complaints about bad keys and interrupted opening and closing operations.

2. The rest of the key signals are just momentary relay operations. A couple milliseconds of signal is all that is required.

3. The key body would need to be much larger to add these features.

 

Your observation makes no sense. Your key can be programmed to open up the top, bring down the windows. You have to just keep holding the button, draining the key's battery. A one / twice touch button approach would send one command to the car, and the rest would be history saving life of the battery.

I understand this feature with the key is a program option so you may not have it.

Just FYI.

 

As I said - I started thinking about this from the dealers perspective.

I know about the open option. Not much chance of getting injured during this option... but closing is a different matter.

The once twice option would require a "seal-in" operation. In other words, Once you press the button the top would continue to open/close until the operation completed. How long do you think this feature would be in service before someone or their child was injured? In any court of law this would be a preventable accident caused by the manufacturer. The lawsuits would then commence.

If a momentary signal was a realistic option, it would be used in the manual mode via the top up/down button that's presently installed in the car. You have to hold the button for a reason.

 

When you look at it that way you are correct... only thing is you can rationalize the court concept about anything that is convienient... perfect example is the push start when you don't even have to have the key in the ignition... what if ... and on and on...

 

All that said, I would love to be able to use my key for O/C operations. I hate to have to get in the car to open the top. I am going to ask the dealer to enable that feature the next time I take it in for service.

One of the nice things I have learned about the Mini right here!

Unfortunately my dealer is 100 miles away so I can't just drop by.

 

While opening the top from the key sounds nice in principle, because of the short range of the transmitter and the finicky nature of the receiver, you generally end up standing next to your car waiting for it to finish opening.

Also, you can actually open the top from inside the car faster than from the outside, using the right combination of buttons from inside the car. Doing it correctly from inside the car also doesn't leave the front windows 3/4 of the way up.

 

It is not an option to open the top with the key any longer. I have one of the first Cabrios to hit the States & I had that option until recently when my Body control module was replaced. They COULD NOT & WOULD NOT reinstall that option.

Lois

 

Thanks Lois... Saved me a trip.

So much for that idea.

 

Your welcome

 

I was thinking more about doing it with an after market alarm. Is that a bad idea with the MCSC?

 

There are many 12 volt remote controls available on the market but be careful if this is going to be a DIY project. You will need to find a remotely controlled relay that only remains closed while you press the control button.

A momentary close relay wont do the job as the top down/up operations requires a continuous signal throughout the operation.

A continuous close relay operation brings with it the danger of burning out the up/down motor.

You should look for a remote that only closes the operating relay while you are pressing the button on the remote.

I'm not sure that these are available on the after market.

In any case it will be an extra signal unit on your key chain.

If you get one going - let us know about it...