Date: Sat, 27 Oct 90 11:01:59 EDT
From: ohm.mitre.org!m21373 (Roberto Landrau -- RLL@MBUNIX.MITRE.ORG-- (617) 271-2302)

Dear Mitsubishi Eclipse, Eagle Talon and Plymouth Laser owners:
As I mentioned before, I have a list of the connection points for those who are interested in adding an alarm system to their cars.

First of all, I would like to congratulate each and every one of you on your wise decision and your choice of car. If you don't own one yet, congratulations on your taste.

I have installed an alarm system in my '90 Eclipse GSX. I would like to share the wiring with everyone else in the mailing list, as I promised.

Note: Please make a sketch and a list before you start. Also, get a voltmeter and an ohmmeter to measure voltage and resistance at the points before you make a connection. If you find the smallest discrepancy between what you see and what I claim you should see, please don't hesitate to send me (or the mailing list) a note. It is entirely possible that I could have made a mistake (I have made mistakes in life before, I think...)

... of course, we will call it a TYPING ERROR.

Power
The best place to get power is straight from the battery. Use a 15 or 20 Amp fuse. Radio Shaft has some nice "blade-type" fuse holders for fuses similar to the ones in the car fuse box. Your car spares will work on the alarm too if you use this type.

The biggest problem that I found was going from the engine compartment to the passenger compartment. I poked a hole through the rubber boot that surrounds the steering column. The rubber is very soft, so you may have to poke a hole with an Exacto knife first and then use a sharp object to get the wire through. I used a pen with a 20 ga. wire taped to it. Then I used that 20 ga wire to get the power wire (16 ga THNNoil-proof, 650v-proof, high temperature resistant wire) and the alarm wire(THNN also) through the rubber boot.

Warning: There is a metal edge around the rubber boot in the passenger compartment. Use plastic conduit to prevent the metal from scratching the insulation off the wires and shorting them to ground. Again, Radio Shaft has the plastic conduit. Another advantage is that it will not be obvious to the thieves (and to my dealer) that those are alarm wires (my dealer told me that if I installed a non-Mitsubishi alarm my warranty would be void).

Ignition
Most alarms need a connection to the ignition switch so that the alarm is not activated when the ignition is ON. The best place that I found for this is near the fuse box. You can try one of the three places listed below. The connector references are those used in the Mitsubishi Service manual. Refer to it if you have one. If not, refer to my diagram.

THIS IS A FRONT VIEW OF THE JUNCTION BOX
|-----------------------|
|C-39       .C - 4 0   .|
|           ............|
|                       |
|        C38            |
|  ...............      |
|  .C  -   3    7.      |
|  ...............      |  ..... .....      
|        		|  .   . .   .
|			|  . C . . C .
|   C-36     C 35       |  . 6 . . 6 .
|XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX|  . 1 . . 0 .
|X                     X|  .   . .   .
|X                     X|  ..... .....
|X  F U S E  B O X     X|
|X                     X|  .....
|X                     X|  .   .
|X                     X|  .   .
|X                     X|  .   .
|XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX|  .   .
|-----------------------|  .....

THIS IS A REAR VIEW OF THE JUNCTION BOX

|-----------------------|
| .....    ...    ..... |
| .   .    .C.    .   . |
| . C .    .4.    . C . |
| . 4 .    .1.    . 4 . |
| . 7 .    ...    . 2 . |
| .   .           .   . |
| .....           ..... |
|                       |
| .....           ..... |
| .   .           .   . |
| . C .           . C . |
| . 4 .           . 4 . |
| . 6 .           . 3 . |
| .   .           .   . |
| .....           ..... |   ---> DRIVER SIDE DOOR
|                       |
| .....           ..... |
| .   .           .   . |
| . C .           . C . |
| . 4 .           . 4 . |
| . 5 .           . 4 . |
| .   .           .   . |
| .....           ..... |
|                       |
|      R E A R  V I E W |
|-----------------------|

The best place to get power is at pin 6 of C-37. This is a black wire with a white stripe. Good luck (I couldn't get to it). This point is preferred because it de-activates the alarm when the key is in the ON or when the key is in the ACC position.

The second best place is C-45, pin 1. The wire is blue with a white stripe. An alternative is pin 4 of C46, with a blue wire coming out of it.

Siren
You will need a wire from the controller box to the siren. I routed mine the same way I routed the power wire.

Door Sensor
The best place to sense that a door has been opened is at the low potential side of the door ajar light. This will cover both doors and the tailgate. This node is a "normally high" node (12v when all doors are closed, GROUND when at least one door is open or ajar).

You can get access to this node at the junction block. Find C61 and connect to the Green wire with a red stripe. Before you connect, unplug C61 and measure 0V to ground with the door open and 12V with the door closed. Notice that this is NOT the connection used to turn the interior lights on. The switch is located inside the door latch on the driver's door.

Electric Fan
Some alarms have the ability to sense a change in battery voltage. You will find that they will provide a wire to be connected to the radiator fan (many new cars have a provision to leave the electric fan running after you shut the engine off). There is no need to worry about this in the 1990 Eclipse/Talon/Laser: the fan does not run after the engine is off.

Parking Lights
Some alarms have the provision to flash the parking lights when you enable, disable or activate them. Quite frequently, the alarm will have an output to control an external relay to provide power to the parking lights. Make sure that this external relay (it may be internal in some alarms) is normally open when the lights are not flashing. If the relay is GROUNDED, you will fry a fuse, a fusible link, or the llumination relay.

You can connect to the parking lights to C45. Find the green wire with a white stripe on it. This will activate the front clearance lights, the side markers (all four), the taillights, and the license plate lights (quite a show at night). I would strongly advice everyone NOT to connect a new alarm to the headlamps. The high side of the headlamps in the Eclipse/Talon/Laser is connected to the headlamp relay. The low side is connected to the dimmer switch and to the factory alarm,if you have one. Don't come anywhere near, unless you really know what you are doing. Use the parking lights: they work fine.

Starter Interrupt
There are several ways to get to this one. The easiest one (and the only one I found to be within my capabilities/risk-level/patience was to use the interlock switch at the clutch. (Folks with automatic transmission: sorry, but I haven't looked into that. There is probably a point at the shifter where you can connect your starter disable by "fooling" the system and make it think that the car is not in Park or Neutral).

The clutch interlock switch is a normally closed switch. When the clutch is NOT depressed all the way down, the switch grounds the input node. If that node is grounded, the inhibitor relay is activated. This relay cuts the power to the starter. The easiest way that I found to disable the starter was to connect a relay that would ground the input wire to the clutch switch. This wire is GREEN with a blue stripe.

Warning: If you have cruise control, you will find TWO switches at the clutch. One gets activated as soon as the clutch starts to move. This is the cruise control switch. It is located closer to the driver. The switch that you want is the one all the way down. To confirm you are dealing with the right switch, disconnect the switch. If you can start the car WITHOUT pushing the clutch, you have the right one.

Hood Lock
If you have the factory alarm system, you will find there is a switch to sense that the hood has been opened. The switch is normally closed, shorting its input to ground. When you close the hood and push the switch, the connection is broken. The problem here is that the factory alarm puts a 5v AC signal into that node to test whether the hood is open or closed. If you connect your alarm leads to this node, one system can fool the other, or even worse, blow the other. I figured I would not connect my new alarm to the hood and let the factory one take care of it.

If you still want hood protection, install a pin switch and run a wire through the firewall.

Alarm Control/Indicators
Most alarms have a switch that you can use to disable the system for servicing, valet parking, etc. I have a manual transmission and instead of the transmission mode switch (or overdrive switch, I can't remember) I have a coin holder on the console. The thing is useless, anyway, because if you put coins in it, the vibration will make them rattle and drive you crazy. I just cut a piece of aluminum the same size and replaced the coin holder with it. In it I mounted my switch and my status LED indicator. It is quite visible from all the windows and I hope it acts like a good theft-detterent.

As far as the main control box for the alarm, you are going to have to be creative. There isn't a lot of spare room inside the passenger compartment, so it is all a matter of weighing how much you want to take apart vs. how accessible and visible you want your control to be. I didn't care much about visibility because I figured once they are inside the car, I have lost. What they will probably do is open the hood and cut the siren wires anyway. My main interest was the glass tampering sensor that goes off when you try to get a slim-Jim to open the door, or when something strikes the glass.

If you have any questions or comments, Please post them.

Thanks and GOOD LUCK!