Hey Guys and Ducati,

First off, I'm not bashing or trying to blame ducati in any way. This guy has donated a ton of time to this forum, designing brilliant bypasses, and made a cost effective and a very high quality product.

So the weirdest thing has happened. I had to take my 2005 F150 to the dealer b/c of a vibration problem in the steering wheel. They hooked up something which plugs into the truck diagnostic port and sends current through out the truck, then helps identify the source of the vibration while driving.

Long of the short of it, I went to drive home and the security bypass won't work anymore but everything else on the Z1 does.

Thinking they may have accidentally disconnected one of the bypass wires I took off the electrical tape on my bypass wire connections (hot red wire, white wire which goes to OEM harness dimmer wire, orange wire which goes to z1 ill wire, and the black ground wire).

All the connections were and are perfectly good and still sodered.

So I disconnected the ducati white wire from the OEM dimmer harness blue and red wire (For the F150), and disconnected the ducati orange wire from the z1 ill wire. Then I connected the z1 ill wire to the OEM blue and red wire to check to make sure that was working. The z1 dims when i turn on the lights now and I can bypass the security when flashing the headlights on startup. Thus the bypass function still works on the z1.

So I've narrowed it down to the ducati bypass. I took the hard shrink wrap cover off the ducati bypass to see if anything possibly came undone or broke. (That stuff is tuff by the way) Well nothing 'looked' disconnected.

So what the heck is going on?

My ground wire for the ducati flasher is good, the red wire is connected to a good red power wire which I tested by putting it on the wire that was connected to power the steering wheel controls; and I made sure the white wire is securely touching the blue and red dimmer wire, and the ducati orange wire is securely going to the z1 ill wire.

Could the current they were sending through the truck have somehow blown my ducati bypass unit?

Thanks,

Duke

Here is what makes it even more confusing. I have the ducati flasher setup appropriately.

The headlights are turned off and the unit is on with the key in the "on" position.

I'm in the connection status screen.

1. I turn the headlights on and the unit will not dim, nor will the illumination say "on", it still says off.

2. I disconnect the ground wire from the ducati flasher and the unit suddenly goes into "dim" mode and illuminations says "on". Mind you the headlights have not been turned on. Reconnecting the ground turns the illumination back to "off".

3. I disconnect the red wire from the ducati flasher and the unit will go back to ill "off" if the ground has been disconnected (in #3), or if the ground is connected, it will still say "off".

What the heck is going on here?

In each instance I stopped and turned the unit off by taking the key out and then turning it back on and it still won't bypass the security feature.

Duke

You have one of the most early units. The voltage regulator I used for the processor that's in there only works to 30V. Which I originally thought was enough, but it turns out there are voltage spikes which will blow that up.

I regulate your trucks voltage down to 5V for my processor and then I shift the output back up to your trucks voltage for the output. I don't just use a relay and turn it on and off. When you pull single wires off, the output stage shifts up or down which is why pulling ground will dim the radio, it's just the way I made the output stage.

Ages ago I made a change to the design to handle 300V spikes. You most likely don't have that. I'll swap it out.

It's not necessary to swap out every single "old" unit. In fact I still have SN 1 in my truck and never had a problem. Some vehicles produce voltage spikes which can fry the regulator. My guess is that the ford dealer's system did and just fried the regulator and usually goes right into the processor to. Not a big deal.

Best way to check these things is when you turn on the headlights. If that doesn't work either, then there is a problem.

But don't worry, I stand behind my stuff, I'll swap it out for you. We will be in contact over email/PM.

Now, that's what I call customer service!

Good on ya Steve

BigFloppy said:

Now, that's what I call customer service!

Good on ya Steve

Defintely great customer service, I was suprised how fast Steve was able to get back to me!

Steve and I are fixing this over PM and Email so as to not clutter the boards.

I agree with Steve, that not every original device needs to be replaced. The only reason this happened is because the dealers vibration analyzer caused voltage spikes throughout the trucks wiring harness. I don't believe it would have blown if that analyzer had not been used.

It's worked flawlessly to this day.

Thanks again Steve for standing behind your work...and flat out just being incredibly smart. It gives me unprecidented confidence in the products you create which I put in my vehicle. It's nice to have that piece of mind. Very few companies do that.

Thanks,

Duke