snovvman

The moment I bought the S at the end of January, I knew I wanted to install a remote starter. After some research, I ended up buying the Mid City remote starter and DroneMobile from Jason (great guy). I placed the order on Feb 7. It was only yesterday that that installed them. Why? See this thread. This weekend was the first time that I feel like I will be keeping the car for awhile. Previously, it was either waiting on the other side of the Country, in transport, or at the dealer. But that's another story....

Some installation notes:

1) The Mid City remote starter unit allows you to start/stop the car using the panic button.

2) If you have Keyless Go, you will need the KG20 harness. That is the most difficult part of the install. Still not a big deal though.

3) The DroneMobile unit connects to the Mid City unit and allows you to start the car with your phone. It also offers lock/unlock, and other features. It is subscription-based.

4) Everything is plug-and-play, no splicing, t-tap, or soldering needed.

5) For my S, I was not able to see the connectors that the Mid City plugs into. I reached up and made the connections all by touch. It was not difficult once you understand what needs to be done.

6) I remoted the following: driver's side front and rear door sills, driver's side fuse cover, front and rear door weather strip, and b-pillar lower panel.

(I also removed the a-pillar trim panel to turn wiring for radar detector, but that is not part of the Mid City install).

7) The DroneMobile, being cellular and GPS-based, needed to be installed as high as possible. I found a perfect location, just underneath the leftmost A/C register. There is no metal above it and it is near the windshield/driver window. I used the 3M double-lock tapes to affix the DroneMobile and Mid-City modules.

8) The Mid City's instruction for KG20 indicates that you will find two possible CAN connectors for Keyless Go. For my car, there were three. It was easy, though to isolate down to the correct one.

9) The Tyco connectors on the KG20 and factory harness requires you to unsnap the retaining clip before trying to remove the pins.

10) I have only played with the DroneMobile a short time. It has been a little unreliable. Example: I push "Engine Start", and it tells me that the car is running, but it is not. I press it again, the car starts. It could have been that the coverage for DM was not good, but it should not have told me that the car is running. I'll do more testing before making any conclusions.

11) With the Keyless Go/KG20 wiring, after I remote start the car, the door opens in the same way (reach in handle, car unlocks), I then press the Engine Start button (no stepping on the brake), and off I go.

I am only including some of the photos of where you need to access. Everything else is under the dash or hidden.

Enjoy....







Left to right, Mid City harness, KG20 harness, DroneMobile and wiring (top), Mid City module (bottom). I covered the DroneMobile module with a trim tool because it shows the MEID and S/N.





Here you see that I have moved back the b-pillar panel. I determined that I need to run the KG20 harness from under the dash to the back of the driver's seat.





This is the back seat area. With the front seat all the way forward, the wiring is run from the sill area to under the seat (just about underneath the Torx driver).





Carpet peeled back. This is the CAN block where you have to make the Keyless Go bypass. There is a procedure for you to determine which is the correct connector.





Once you remove the two screws holding the fuse block, you have good access into the dash.

Nickthegreek

Awesome!!! Great job. Did this same exact job on mine around July. All in all not a bad install but they just get you on the price of the units. Where did you end up putting your remote starter? I put mine behind where the wood trim and HVAC controls are. It was the only way I could get to the EIS ingnition plugs. I left the valet button in the console also. Ill never drill a random hole in mine lol

Nickthegreek

BTW FYI if you take the button out and don't use push button start the engine will almost always start. For some reason it has a pretty high fail rate when using push button start

snovvman

Thanks Nick. Yeah, the modules were not cheap. The Mid-City module went just above A/C duct. How did you access the area behind the HVAC controls? I did all the work from below. I drilled a hole in one of the dimples on the lower dash trim. It hides the switch well.

For me, the switch has to be in the "on" position for the remote start to work. This tells me that it is a normally open circuit. In other words, if I remove the switch or turn off the switch, the remote start should not work. I haven't yet tried this. Are saying that if I open the circuit (remove valet button or turn off), the remote start will still work?

Nickthegreek

Actually im talking about the button in your ignition. The keyless start button. If you pull it out and just do the old fashion put the key in the ignition when you get into the car instead of using the push button it doesnt ever fail. As for the HVAC i removed the entire wood bezel that goes across the dash and then managed to get to the ingition and there was a crevice where i could tuck it away.

snovvman

Sorry, I'm a little slow. Are you saying that remote start, with the button in place, does not always start the car?

Nickthegreek

Correct. So when you try and start it on your phone it might say its started but when you walk up to your car it never started. I think it has something to do with the the push button start. If I use the key fob instead it always starts. Maybe it has something to do with stealing the code from the key. Also If I'm close by and i just tap the panic button on the key it starts everytime as well. so something is up with the keyless start that screws it up every once in a while

Nickthegreek

In the past if I left the push button in it would start reliably from the phone for about a week or two and then it would be hit or miss. Then I removed the button and used the key instead and it starts everytime with the phone. If the coverage is bad you get "could not connect to car"

Jason B

Glad to help you out and glad you fianlly got it installed Great pics.

Regarding the drone thing, maybe if you always hit start twice on the app, it will guarantee it's started.

snovvman

Excellent info. I have already seen the "could not connect" error a couple of times. AFAIK, the DM 3100 uses Verizon and coverage in those areas are marginal. It's interesting that when you leave the button out, it remote starts reliably. Have you tried to pull the button every few days to see if it keeps it working? If the panic button works every time, it would have to be the communication or interface between DM and Mid City, right?

I'll play with it some more to see if I can identify a pattern.

snovvman

Hey Nick, do you have the Basic or Premium DM subscription? The Premium is supposed to provide real-time status. I wonder if that function makes the remote start more reliable.

Nickthegreek

I have basic. The premiun isnt really worth it and for our cars the status doesnt work. I wouldnt bother really.Only difference is you can see where your car is on google maps

Nickthegreek

Heres where i put my module i stuffed it on the glovebox side

Nickthegreek

Nanook

I have this system and the premium..have never had a miss when starting but the drone software is certainly buggy..I ahve it installed in three vehicles and sometime tracking vehicle locations is iffy but does always eventually work

snovvman

So status doesn't work at all? I would have sprung for Premium so that I can see whether the car is locked or unlocked. Do you know if the trunk pop works?

Nanook

On mine status works and hatch also works.. a few other notifications...like interior temp and battery level and reception value...oh and also with premium if you have kids using the vehicle you can monitor over speed settings and also set up a fence perimeter..

snovvman

I see Compustar in your sig, is that your remote starter? I'm trying to figure out why some features do not work on 221?

Nanook

Yes compustar...same module as midcity

Nickthegreek

I might have mispoken then because i had this same setup on my ml350 and the status never worked but maybe it does work on our cars. Im curious to activate premium now. I never bothered from my experience with my ml350

snovvman

I plan to activate the Premium next week. I'll report back on what features are supported.

manny26

i have the Drone DR3100 , and its really slow before the car actually starts, is it cause of the location i have it in? whats the best location to keep it ? even if I'm starting from inside the house its very slow i have it linked to a Computer start remote start for w204 2010

Jason B

As high up on driver side footwell/dash as you can go.

manny26

where the highest spot usually to put it ? i tried a few just falls down or gets caught on the steering shaft

Jason B

See above.