Accidentally triggered security. How/why?

[Elizabetty]

I've been working on so many other things but learning how the security system works hasn't been one of them.

Tonight I was sitting in my car with the door open. On that side note, I was googling how to work on my car with the doors open so if anyone wants to tell me that tip, that would be great. I want to be sure it's sleeping properly but don't want to disconnect the battery. Trying to verify in case some of my troubleshooting has been wrong so far.

Anyway, when I went to get out of the car, I accidentally hit the lock button on the open driver's door. I got back in, closed the door and attempted to lock and unlock and nothing was happening with the unlock button but I could hear locking with the lock button. I tried starting the engine and I couldn't. The horn was honkin. At some point during this entire process, the security light was blinking on the dash but I can't remember exactly when that started and stopped. I took the key out and used the fob to stop the alarm. I then started the engine with no problem.

I don't know why the alarm was going off when I was using my regular key which should be recognized (no?) and I was also able to stop the alarm with the fob. It was within moments of each other that I stopped the alarm and attempted to start the engine and it worked fine that time.

 

[TJBaker57]

Locking the doors with the door open is one of the ways to arm the security system. Like pressing the key fob lock button twice. To disarm you have to use the fob.

 

[TJBaker57]

Tonight I was sitting in my car with the door open. On that side note, I was googling how to work on my car with the doors open so if anyone wants to tell me that tip, that would be great.

want to be sure it's sleeping properly but don't want to disconnect the battery. T

Get this free app...

Serial Bluetooth Terminal - Apps on Google Play

Terminal for serial devices connected with Bluetooth Classic / LE

play.google.com

open the app,,,,
at top left press the three bars to open menu ,,,
press settings,,,
across the top select "receive",,,,
set "newline" to "CR",,,,
back across the top select "send",,,
at the bottom be sure "clear input on send" is checked ON,,,
back at the line across the top select "terminal",,,
check that "auto scroll to end of buffer" is checked ON,,,,
hit the arrow at top left,,,
open the three bar menu again,,,
select "devices",,,,
tap the OBDII to select your Veepeak that should already be paired to your phone,,,
one at a time type the following lines and press enter,,,
the Veepeak should answer each line with "OK",,,

ATTP2
ATS1
ATH1
ATAL
ATMA

If your key is on you will likely see a whole lot of stuff scrolling up the screen . This is the serial data stream. Right now you do not need to know what each line means.

This can be your window into seeing if the modules in the truck are sleeping as they should.

If everything is asleep, and the RAP function is inactive there will be no messages. If you do something like open a door or press a keyfob button that will wake the network and there will be a flood of traffic for a time.

This is just a start, but is useful nonetheless.

Be CERTAIN to unplug the Veepeak when done. Do NOT leave it plugged in.

 

[Elizabetty]

Get this free app...

Serial Bluetooth Terminal - Apps on Google Play

Terminal for serial devices connected with Bluetooth Classic / LE

play.google.com

open the app,,,,
at top left press the three bars to open menu ,,,
press settings,,,
across the top select "receive",,,,
set "newline" to "CR",,,,
back across the top select "send",,,
at the bottom be sure "clear input on send" is checked ON,,,
back at the line across the top select "terminal",,,
check that "auto scroll to end of buffer" is checked ON,,,,
hit the arrow at top left,,,
open the three bar menu again,,,
select "devices",,,,
tap the OBDII to select your Veepeak that should already be paired to your phone,,,
one at a time type the following lines and press enter,,,
the Veepeak should answer each line with "OK",,,

ATTP2
ATS1
ATH1
ATAL
ATMA

If your key is on you will likely see a whole lot of stuff scrolling up the screen . This is the serial data stream. Right now you do not need to know what each line means.

This can be your window into seeing if the modules in the truck are sleeping as they should.

If everything is asleep, and the RAP function is inactive there will be no messages. If you do something like open a door or press a keyfob button that will wake the network and there will be a flood of traffic for a time.

This is just a start, but is useful nonetheless.

Be CERTAIN to unplug the Veepeak when done. Do NOT leave it plugged in.

Thank you. I got the app the other day and haven't started looking into it yet. Will do.

 

[Blckshdw]

I was googling how to work on my car with the doors open so if anyone wants to tell me that tip, that would be great. I want to be sure it's sleeping properly but don't want to disconnect the battery.

You can use a screwdriver to "close" the latch inside the doors to trick the modules into thinking the doors are shut while you leave them open. I needed to do this when trying to check for a parasitic drain a while back. Just have to remember to lift the door handle to open the latch again, before closing them for real, so you don't damage anything.

 

[Elizabetty]

You can use a screwdriver to "close" the latch inside the doors to trick the modules into thinking the doors are shut while you leave them open. I needed to do this when trying to check for a parasitic drain a while back. Just have to remember to lift the door handle to open the latch again, before closing them for real, so you don't damage anything.

I used the screwdriver latch close method before and that's what led me to googling because after doing so, I could not get them to open again. It took me some finagling with the door handle and praying while trying to move the latch again. Eek. I'll give it another go and go from there. Good to know I was at least on track with that!

 

[TollKeeper]

What happened for you is completely normal. The only 2 ways I have found to get your alarm to stop blarring is to either use the FOB as mentioned, or to use your key in the drivers door, and unlock it.

 

[Elizabetty]

Be CERTAIN to unplug the Veepeak when done. Do NOT leave it plugged in.

Is this in general or after having done the steps you indicated? I assume you mean in general?

The list ran for quite a while and eventually stopped. Is there a resource to decode what I'm looking at?

 

[TJBaker57]

Is there a resource to decode what I'm looking at?

Yes there is, you are talking with him now

That specific exersize was meant to be only an introduction to the serial data stream. We see it mentioned a lot but few have actually seen it go by on their screen.

Now then, someone with a good deal of experience fiddling with these sorts of things, a smattering of programming and the like could go and buy the specifications for a few hundred dollars and dig in and learn how the messages are constructed and how to decode a majority of the data.

But for folks who just want or need to know enough to be able to get some really useful diagnostic data it is not neccesary to go to such great lengths. The essentials one needs to know for doing things like reading codes or asking for and getting certain data in the serial data stream that you don't get by code readers or even expensive scantools are not so hard to learn.

I have been thinking about perhaps posting a series of short, basic exersizes with the Veepeak similar to what you just did. I hesitate to call them tutorials. Each one covering a specific subject task like reading a single PID or DTC (code) or maybe just how to eavesdrop or ping a certain module like the TCCM.




For now I will explain how to tell what module sent each message....

The stream of data that scrolled up your screen had 2 characters then a space then 2 more characters and another space and so on across the message. Each set of 2 characters is called a byte. The first byte in each message describes the type of message and the priority (importance) of the message. The 2nd byte of each message is the address of where (or what) the message is sent TO or FOR. And the 3rd byte is the address of what module SENT the message. I think I have a related screenshot here somewhere that shows what address is what module. Not all modules are shown here.

Here below looking at the third byte:: 97 is Onstar, 60 is Instrument Panel, A1 is passenger door module, A7 is Rear Seat Audio/HVAC, and so on down the line. And all these particular messages shown here are the messages sent by every module about each 2 seconds announcing that they are awake and ready for business on the network.

 

[TJBaker57]

this in general or after having done the steps you indicated? I assume you mean in general?

For security reasons I would say to not leave it plugged in. With that adapter plugged in I can open the locked doors with my phone Now granted, there are not a whole lot of folks out there that know how to do this but it is possible.

Another reason relates to using the Torque Pro app. Many Many Torque Pro users will just hit the "back" button on their phone to exit the Torque App. Doing that actually does NOT close the app. Torque stays active in the background if you do this. And if your phone is close enough to your vehicle and the Veepeak adapter is plugged in Torque will keep trying to connect to the truck and under certain conditions this has the possibility of keeping your truck network active and running your battery down.

Even without any app connected to the Veepeak it still draws a little power and why add another power draw while the truck is off?

 

[Elizabetty]

This is closer to how my brain works. I was a data analyst for some time.

 

[TJBaker57]

The list ran for quite a while and eventually stopped.

Was your key in RUN or ACCY or OFF?

If in RUN or ACCY I believe the data should keep going and not stop for a long time. Eventually I think battery rundown protection should kick in and shut down everything. Maybe.

If the key is turned OFF while all doors are closed the data would run for a while and then appear to stop, but ten minutes later there would be a short flurry of messages when the BCM stopped the RAP function.

 

[Elizabetty]

I should have been clearer. It was running for a few minutes and I realized I had the key in but not turned. I took the key off and it ran for a few more minutes and stopped entirely. It basically did what I expected it to do from your post.