how good is Kiramek Cyclone 866F? (Full Version)

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how good is Kiramek Cyclone 866F?

  

fredtheplant -> how good is Kiramek Cyclone 866F? (5/14/2006 9:30:10 PM)

Does anyone know how good the Kiramek Cyclone 866F is? Also, where could you purchase it from? Is it better than the Talon alarm system (http://www.talonalarms.com/t2200/)? Any thoughts/ideas/experience?

  
alarmexpert -> RE: how good is Kiramek Cyclone 866F? (5/30/2006 3:15:15 AM)

I spotted an excellent comparison of the Cyclone 866F versus Talon T-2200 in another forum. Here is the content of that post:



Talon T-2200 Differences from the Cyclone 866F

1. Cyclone has an internal battery backup, whereas the Talon system does not. This means that Cyclone will keep the siren alive and sounding even if a thief disconnects the bike’s battery. (NOTE: I rechecked the Talon site and found that the Canadian T-2200i model has a battery backup, and of course the T-2200i is priced proportionally higher than the standard T-2200 model.)

2.The Talon system has a separate siren (not built-in) which requires more installation labor and may prevent the system from being installed at all in some bikes. In contrast, Cyclone has everything built-in, including the siren.

3. Cyclone is much more compact than the Talon control module, making Cyclone a much easier fit--even in Harley’s.

4.You must drill a hole to mount the Talon’s LED. The Cyclone LED is fully waterproof and comes with 2-sided 3M brand tape for affixing to any surface.

5. The Talon’s shock sensor is 2-zone like Cyclone, but it does not appear to offer separate adjustments for warn away and full trigger sensitivity like Cyclone. And since Talon allows the user to adjust the shock sensitivity by remote, it is likely that there are a fixed number of sensitivity adjustments like Gorilla, as opposed to Cyclone’s high precision analog POTs. It is also unclear what technology is used in the Talon shock sensor. Cyclone’s shock sensor was design not to false trigger (when trucks/bikes drive by, by rain or wind, etc.)

6.Cyclone offers a line of quick-connect installation harnesses for some bikes. Talon only recently started advertising quick-connect harnesses on their site. Interestingly, KIRAMEK also offers adapters to its bulk distributors, so Cyclone can in effect use the quick-connect harnesses of other manufacturers -- but availability will likely vary from distributor to distributor.

7.Talon’s country of manufacture is unclear, but the look of the product resembles many off the shelf alarms made in China. Cyclone was designed in Japan, made in Taiwan, and is QC tested by all Japanese staff. KIRAMEK has a zero defect policy. In my experience, "you get what you pay for" remains true.

8.The Talon system, like Gorilla, incorporates a “current sensor” which were common in many alarms in the late 1980’s. These sensors detect drops in electric battery current. A good concept but not practical. Current sensors are most often the reason for false alarms.

9.Talon offers bike “turn signal” light flash whereas Cyclone does not.

10.Manufacturer of Talon does not offer an extensive online FAQ for Talon on their website, nor can you download the product owner’s guide. KIRAMEK offers a full FAQ and downloadable manuals.

11.There is very little information on the Talon’s tilt sensor. One online review I read indicates Talon uses a mechanical switch to detect tilt. In contrast, Cyclone uses a 2-axis (x and y) tilt sensor chip that has no moving parts and will not false trigger. Cyclone’s tilt sensor was designed especially for bikes and has a 50,000g shock rating!

12.The Talon system has a fixed 30 second siren duration. Cyclone allows you to change the siren duration from the default 30 seconds to 10 seconds.

13.It is not made clear if Talon uses a fixed code or rolling code remote. KIRAMEK clearly advertises that Cyclone uses 66-bit rolling code, which is impossible to hack or code-grab because t

hougy -> RE: how good is Kiramek Cyclone 866F? (3/1/2008 7:19:57 PM)

First off, I'd like to say I got this alarm because I am very protective of my belongings.  I am bringing this post BACK because this alarm claims to be the best, and the price is over $300.

Now with that said, my overall conclusion of the Cyclone 866F alarm system is that it is crap.  I am posting this to save anyone from major headaches if they encounter this aswell.

REVIEW of CYCLONE 866F
[img]http://www.wcc-tech.com/Photographs/Cyclone_Alarm_Blue.jpg[/img]


1. (WEEK ONE and TWO) First of all, the installation manual did not work for me.  I acquired assistance from  the member TIGHTWAD and the alarm system manufactorer (Found at http://www.kiramek.com/english/products/cyclone/index.html or http://www.wcc-tech.com/cyclone866F.htm for USA) about this issue.  The alarm did not activate, and the provided LED did not function.  After I followed the advice from TIGHTWAD (later suggested by WCC-TECH), the alarm worked nice and loud after 10 days of troubleshooting.  Customer support at WCC-Tech was great and spoke down to earth, something you don't find to often.  but the issue was mainly resolved to TIGHTWAD (thanks)!  I am not an idiot, I work on electronics in the Navy.  My installation was done according to the provided installation manual.

2. (WEEK THREE [ Out of Area due to Gov't orders]) The alarm worked well.  Did not give off false alarms (some has to literally sit on your bike and move it around a tad bit for it to sound off).  I was satisfied with it and I could be rest assured my friends wold not set it off as they started up their loud vehicles (as some other alarms might do).  Alarm started to begin to be near-silent at the end of the week.

3. (WEEK FOUR[Out of Area due to Gov't orders]) The alarm is near silent now.  I set it off on accident and noticed the VFR would not start (Starter immobilizer was activated), after I took off my helmet I BARLEY heard the alarm going off (Which kills the bike from starting).  Disarmed system and bike started fine. Alarm would sound off loud as it should some days, and other days be near silent (about 50/50).  

4.  WEEK FIVE (Back home))  Crap, forgot to send in warranty card...they better accept it after the troubleshooting I did. Alarm is STILL silent. Issue has been submitted to customer support.  Awaiting warranty claim or a magical technique to get the alarm working once again.

SUMMARY: This alarm seems like it would work very well, but I am not sure if the speaker holds up...which defeats the purpose to begin with.  I cannot say where I was, other than at a school, during weeks three and four due to OPSEC.  Regardless, this system bugged out and I couldn't do a thing about it until I returned back home.

OVERALL REVIEW= POOR (until further review is posted).  I do NOT recommend anyone buy this unit until this issue is SUCCESSFULLY resolved.


My bike: 2000 Honda VFR 800fi

KIRAMEK -> RE: how good is Kiramek Cyclone 866F? (3/11/2008 5:06:23 AM)

Dear Mr. “hougy”:

I represent KIRAMEK, Inc., based in Japan, manufacturer of the Cyclone 866F motorcycle security product. I was recently alerted to your support issue posted in this thread. This forum is not a venue for our customer support, and for the sake of not upsetting the host of this forum we wish to take further correspondence offline. Nevertheless, in light of the content of your post and for the sake of complete transparency in our support process, I felt it best to post this reply publicly today.

First of all, I wish to offer you our most sincere apologies for any trouble you have experienced with our Cyclone security system. As a Japanese company, we pride ourselves on the quality of our product; and when problems are reported to us, we immediately seek further information with the aim of resolving the matter quickly, ensuring our customers are 100% satisfied.

I was informed on February 26th this year of a “muffled siren” case by our US importer and distributor, FreyMoto Industries (previously known as West Coast Cycle, WCC). I asked our distribution partner to gather further details for us. On February 28th, Freymoto informed us that the muffled siren customer (which is evidently yourself) experienced the motorcycle battery running low at the same time the Cyclone problem occurred. Then on March 5th (4 days after your post in this thread), Freymoto forwarded me your email correspondence which contains a link to your video showing the problem and your statement that your “VFR has charging problems, it is a well known bug.” (Thank you for your time and care in making such a helpful video.) You then went on to say in that same email that, “Pretty much, the electrical system isn't as stable as it should be, and it is common for the main 30AMP fuse to be blown.” You then provided a link to a message board offering further details about that known VFR problem.

It was at that point that I spoke with our distributor, FreyMoto, and discussed the fact we had one previous customer (many months ago) who reported a similar “muffled siren” case after his battery went low (at which time he charged the battery on the bike). As I informed our distributor, and as I am sure you were later informed by them, the issue apparently surrounds problems in the bike’s electrical system, especially when changing the battery or charging it on the bike itself with our Cyclone product still wired.

In our Owner’s Guide on page 5, it mentions that we recommend disconnecting the Cyclone main wiring harness before battery changes. This is nothing new nor specific to Cyclone, as we have such statements printed in all of our product security manuals, even for our automotive alarms. But after receiving this report, we decided to update our online FAQ and our PDF online manuals to strengthen the cautionary note about the need to first disconnect the Cyclone main wiring harness before touching the battery. And although a form of this statement is printed on page 5 in the version of the Owner’s Guide you possess, I will nevertheless offer my apologies to you for the fact we did not make that note more abundantly clear. Indeed, prior to my even reading this thread today, we fully planned to take it a step further and print a bright yellow NOTICE sheet to be placed in all new Cyclone product, separate from the manual itself, informing users of the need to disconnect the Cyclone main wiring harness before changing or charging or even disconnecting the bike’s battery.

The need to disconnect our alarm harness is not a fundamental flaw in our Cyclone product, nor is it saying anything derogatory about our other automotive security devices. Indeed, we have power line noise filters on board that filter out most common types

hougy -> RE: how good is Kiramek Cyclone 866F? (3/28/2008 8:46:14 PM)

James (aka KIRAMEK),

Thanks for your detailed response in this matter.  I was mainly worried that the ships at the Naval base I park my VFR near radiated their high-powered radar, and fried some components in the Cyclone unit.  It appears though, after re reading through all the electrical issues associated with my VFR, it was in fact the charging system that drained the battery, I suppose it was the fact that it wasn't ridden for 2 weeks.  The Cyclone unit was hooked up while I was charging the battery (we saw no real need to disconnect it because of the protective electrical components that are within it).  It wasn't a huge battery charger it was hooked up too, so to think that it may have caused this whole issue took me by surprise. After researching the issue further in the thread I mentioned that you included in your previous message, I decided to purchase a new wire unit from www.wiremybike.com (shameless plug, but it works well).  After the installation the voltages of the battery were much higher and stable throughout the RPM's. At the same time, the Cyclone unit was back at WCC being evaluated. Because of this electrical headache, I am thinking that future Cyclone 866F customers that own a VFR need to be informed of this electrical issue, as I was not before all this.  I have since then received a new unit and remote, and re-installed everything utilizing Posi-Locks as connectors. 

Since then, the alarm works fine and is loud as promised.  My neighbors cat can also vouch for me on this, as I think it used up one of its lives when it jumped into the cargo compartment and set off the alarm [sm=roll.gif]

As for the LED issue, I am not sure why it would not light up at all.  If I mentioned it, it was probably because it was when I was first installing the unit and had trouble getting the unit to activate (Apparently, it came with Silent mode and Sleep mode activated if I remember correctly).  There were also wire connections that were not necessary as the manual said, but I have found a way around that utilizing alternate wires.  I have wired my own trucks alarm system, I never followed what the manual said to tap wires into because I knew the truck inside and out.  I was formerly led to think that motorcycle wiring is different (since I've never dealt with the electrical components before), and if the manual says to tap one specific wire...do it, or it will not work.  Apparently this isn't the case that I originally thought, and should have been re-reviewed by me when I first had trouble getting it to work.


NEW OVERALL REVIEW: GOOD ALARM
Just remember to disconnect the Cyclone battery terminals when you re charge your battery [;)]



Sincerly,

James B.
USN

PS: PM sent.

  

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