806 Autoworks

Your Automotive Accessory Specialist

 7527 Canyon Dr. Amarillo, TX 79110  806-418-6850
  • Home
  • Services
    • Car Audio
    • Mobile Video
    • Remote Starters
    • Truck Accessories
  • About Us
  • Location
  • Contact Us
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Yelp

Understanding the Science Behind Automotive Headlight Bulb Colors

Headlight Color

When it comes to lighting the road in front of your car or truck at night, most enthusiasts focus on light intensity instead of headlight bulb color. It’s straightforward to see the difference between yellowish light produced by incandescent halogen bulbs and the white/blue output of HID or LED bulbs. The science behind these light sources is interestingly similar to what professional car audio technicians measure to calibrate a digital signal processor in your mobile audio system. If you’re intrigued, read on, and we’ll explain in detail.

How Light Works

There have been many detailed scientific dissertations on how light works. These papers explain the electron and sub-electron concepts that allow us to see objects. In short, light is made of photons. Photons are packets of electrons that have been released from atoms. These packets of photons have energy and momentum but have no mass. This means you can shine a light at an object to illuminate it, but the energy from the light source doesn’t make the object heavier.

If we excite a group of atoms, the negatively charged electrons that orbit the nucleus absorb that energy. As more energy is added to an atom, the electrons circle faster and farther away from the center. When the energy source (electricity or heat) is removed, the electrons snap back to their original orbit path but release that added energy in the form of photons. Under specific conditions, the photons that are released produce visible light. If you studied electrical theory in high school, you’d recognize this pattern as similar to how electricity works. The only difference is that electricity involves electrons jumping from one atom to another to transfer energy.

When the light photons escape from an atom, they can have varying energy levels depending on the electron’s position when it leaves the atom. You can think of this as the photons having a specific resonant frequency. As a result, different types of atoms release photons of different wavelengths. The result is differently colored light sources.

Light and Color

We know that light sources have different colors. An incandescent bulb gives off a very different kind of light than a fluorescent bulb, a gas-discharge arc lamp (high-intensity discharge or HID) or a light-emitting diode (LED). Some light sources appear yellow, while others are white or blue. How these light sources illuminate objects can make them look very different.

Let’s take a giant step sideways. You’ve seen plenty of rainbows, but do you know what turns the supposedly white light from the sun into a color pattern that shifts from violet through to blue, green, yellow, orange and red? Water molecules refract the light from the sun. Because white light is made up of many different wavelengths, and each is reflected at a different angle as it passes through the water molecules, the light is divided into its primary components. Sorry, I know. We got all technical again.

Headlight Color
Our friend Jeremy Lambertson from Driven SS in Marquette, Michigan, and his wife, Carrie, snapped this photo of a rainbow after a Cars and Coffee event.

An expensive-for-its-size electronic device called a spectral illuminance analyzer or a spectrometer can analyze the frequency content of a light source. The spectrometer works precisely the same way that a real-time audio analyzer (RTA) looks at the amplitude of the different sound frequencies produced by an audio source. As you may have guessed, we’ve added one to the BestCarAudio.com lab.

Headlight Color
An audio analyzer like the venerable AudioControl SA-3052 will show a user the relative loudness of each 1/3-octave band of frequencies across the range of human hearing.
Headlight Color
Our spectrometer shows us how much energy is contained at the different wavelengths from a light source.
Headlight Color
The view when we took the light measurement posted above.
Headlight Color
Spectrographic analysis on a bright sunny day with the sun almost at its highest point in the sky.
Headlight Color
The view during our measurement of a bright sunny day with very few clouds in the sky.

If you compare the two spectrographic measurements, you can see that the water vapor in the clouds is blocking increasing amounts of green, yellow, orange and red light. Unsurprisingly, we are left with a light source that makes everything look dull. This is because the water vapor in the air has quite literally filtered out the light energy that makes colors pop.

The software scales the measurement window to make it easy to see energy levels at different wavelengths. This is similar to the way our eyes or the iris and shutter on a camera work together to deliver a similar level of perceived brightness for a given lighting condition. The chart below shows both measurements overlaid, one on top of the other. You can see that the overall brightness level on a cloudy day is significantly lower.

The measured light level was 106,252 lux on a sunny day, whereas the cloudy day was only 9,069 lux. Converted to candlepower, the numbers are 9,874 and 843.

Headlight Color
A comparison of energy levels between a sunny and a cloudy day in Southern Ontario.

Headlight Bulb Color

When it comes to the headlights on your car or truck, bulbs come in various colors for a variety of reasons. At the incandescent end of the spectrum, most have a yellowish look. With that said, halogen bulbs (which use iodine and bromine gas) have less yellow and produce more light output than old bulbs that use argon. Here’s the spectrographic analysis of a relatively simple halogen light bulb.

Headlight Color
Spectrographic analysis of a Wagner 1156 turn signal bulb.

As you can see, there is a lot of energy in the red portion of the light spectrum produced by this bulb. To be clear, it’s not an amber bulb, though; we should find one of those and test it as well.

Headlight Color
Our Wagner 1157 is a classic incandescent bulb that produces warm yellow light.

OK, we’re back from the hardware store with a pair of Sylvania 3057AK amber turn signal bulbs. The graph below shows their spectral energy.

Headlight Color
A Sylvania 3057AK has a dark amber coating. The amount of blue light passed from the filament is dramatically reduced.

How we perceive the color of a light source is dependent on the frequency content of the energy coming from the bulb. Warm light will have more red energy, where a cool bulb will be bluer.

Color Temperature and Color Space

If you’ve ever shopped for HID headlight bulbs, you know their color is often described by a specific Kelvin value. For example, a yellow fog light bulb might be rated at 3,000 K, where a factory-installed HID or LED bulb might be a very pure white rated at 6,000 K. Those bulbs with a very blue tint are often up in the 8,000-10,000 K range.

Most people think these values are somewhat arbitrary, but the reality is, the light color can be measured with impressive accuracy using the right equipment. Our spectrometer can do this quickly and easily. The software will also plot the measurement on what’s called a color space chart. The chart outlines the level of red, green and blue in the light source and uses X and Y coordinates to describe the location on a chart. For our testing, we’ll use the CIE 1931 color space chart. The image below shows us where our measurement of the Wagner bulb falls.

Headlight Color
Our Wagner bulb measurement yielded an X value of 0.4246 and a Y value of 0.3985.
Headlight Color
The Sylvania bulb measured at 0.5590 for an X-value and 0.4305 for a Y-value.

The software tells us the Wagner light source has a correlated color temperature of 3,174 kelvins. As mentioned, that’s considered a warm yellowish light. The amber Sylvania bulb has a color temperature of 1,857 and falls into the orange and red portion of the light spectrum.

White Light Isn’t Always Made Up Of All Frequencies

The last item we’ll touch on in this article is a bit of a tease toward some future content we are working on. If you’re reading this, then you’re likely looking at a computer or smartphone screen. The light created by that screen is made up of tiny red, green and blue pixels. The colors you see depend on the intensity of each of those pixels. If the screen is to be blue, then only the blue pixels will be illuminated. For violet, the red and blue will be turned on. Yellow is produced by red and green. You can easily see this pattern by looking at the CIE 1931 color space images above.

What might be surprising to some is that the perception of white can be made up of specific amounts of red, green and blue light. The chart below shows a measurement of the light produced by the laptop screen on which this article was created.

Headlight Color
The spectrographic content of our laptop screen with an all-white image.

Behold! Our Dell XPS 13 laptop screen is perceived as white, yet it’s primarily red, very light green and mostly blue light. Here’s how the white light it produces measures on the CIE 1931 chart.

Headlight Color
The white light produced by our laptop screen was measured with an X value of 0.3095 and a Y value of 0.3310.

Our screen has a correlated color temperature of 6,662 K. If we were scoring it on even whiteness, that’d be an excellent result. But does this score mean it’s a perfect source of white light? Absolutely not! We’ll leave you to ponder that thought as we prepare the next few articles.

Lead-in Image: Thanks to Josh Matthews for sharing this photo of an Acura RSX equipped with decidedly blue headlights.

This article is written and produced by the team at www.BestCarAudio.com. Reproduction or use of any kind is prohibited without the express written permission of 1sixty8 media.

Filed Under: ARTICLES, Lighting, RESOURCE LIBRARY

What Is the Big Three Electrical Upgrade?

Big Three

We were recently at an event that was hosting a mobile audio system SPL competition. If you aren’t familiar with this sort of thing, it’s a contest to see who has the loudest stereo. We aren’t talking about cranking the dial on the factory radio. Instead, some of these folks build steel and concrete reinforced subwoofer enclosures and feed tens of thousands of watts to their subwoofers.

As you can imagine, delivering that much power requires significant electrical system upgrades. Many of these creations have multiple alternators and huge banks of batteries. If you’ve upgraded your car or truck with an amplifier that can produce hundreds of watts to your speakers, there’s a wiring upgrade called the Big Three that can improve the efficiency of your electrical system. Let’s look at what this upgrade is and why it’s a great starting point for a high-power car audio system.

How Automotive Charging Systems Work

The first thing you need to know about delivering power to your amplifier is that most of the energy will come from your alternator, not the battery. The battery is there to start the car. Once a vehicle is started, the alternator, which is mechanically driven by the engine, provides power to replenish the battery for the next start. The alternator also runs the computers, ignition system, fans and lights in your vehicle. Once you’ve started the vehicle, you could remove the battery and everything would, under normal conditions, operate just fine.

This scenario changes if you add a high-power amplifier to your vehicle. Say you have a 1,000-watt amplifier and you want to deliver that full amount of power to a few high-power subwoofers. At 13.8 volts, most amplifiers of this type will consume about 100 amps of current. If you have the engine running, headlights on and a climate control system in operation, your car or truck may be using 30 or 40 amps of current to power those systems. If the alternator is only rated to produce 80 amps, there certainly won’t be 100 amps left for your stereo.

The additional current the amplifier wants will come from the battery, albeit at a lower voltage. You will likely find that an amplifier rated for 1,000 watts at 14.4 volts can only produce about 800 watts at 12 volts without clipping the output signal and adding significant distortion.

Big Three
When upgrading, make sure the retailer working on your car or truck uses all-copper, full AWG-spec power and ground cables like those from Rockford Fosgate.

How To Make the Most of Your Alternator

The first step in optimizing the electrical system in a car or truck is to reduce waste. In this case, waste is the power converted to heat because of resistance in cables and connections. First, have a look at your alternator and battery. How large are the wires running to and from them? Unless you have a big truck with a high-output alternator, chances are that the wiring is 4 or maybe even as small as 6-AWG.

Big Three
Aftermarket alternators like those from Ohio Generator can produce over 350 amps of current. They are going to need significant wiring to supply large amplifiers.
Big Three
Is a single run of 0-AWG power cable enough for almost 400 amps of current from a Singer alternator? Likely not.

Please make no mistake about it, the company that built your car or truck deliberately chose the smallest, lightest and least expensive wire that would allow the vehicle to function reliably. They had no intention of providing conductors that could handle two to three times what the alternator was rated for.

The Wiring Upgrades that Make the Difference

The Big Three upgrade involves adding to or replacing the existing conductors with larger, high-quality wires. The upgrades in the Big Three are:

  • The run from the alternator chassis to the negative terminal of the battery.
  • The run from the output of the alternator to the positive terminal of the battery.
  • The ground connection from the negative terminal of the battery to the chassis of the vehicle.
Big Three
A representation of the wires that need upgrading to complete the Big Three.
Big Three
It’s not unreasonable to run multiple cables to the alternator to optimize power delivery to numerous electrical systems.

Depending on your vehicle, there may be other wires that can be upgraded at the same time. For example, if there is a main power distribution box under the hood, running new wire to it can help provide more voltage to the factory-installed electrical and electronic components in your vehicle.

Big Three
Two runs of 4-AWG power wires feed the factory fuse block in this Jeep Grand Cherokee.

Another upgrade you may want to make at the same time is replacing the battery terminals. Some factory-installed terminals are notoriously flimsy. If you’re demanding significant current from the battery, then optimizing each component along the way only makes sense.

Big Three
Stamped steel battery terminals don’t provide much room for upgrade.
Big Three
High-quality plated brass terminals like these from Audison Connection allow your installer to maximize current transfer from the battery.

Is the Big Three Enough?

In 2012, we wrote an article about upgrading the stock electrical system wiring in modern cars and trucks. Even though it was a decade ago, new vehicles at the time were being constructed out of materials like QuietSteel and aluminum, and some companies had started using adhesives instead of spot welds to bond unibody panels together. All of these advances in vehicle assembly work against our desire to deliver large amounts of current to an amplifier, especially when we want to use the body as the ground return path.

Power delivery from the positive terminal of the alternator is as important as the ground connection to the chassis and battery. If the current can’t flow through both, you are wasting energy by transforming it into heat. Upgrading and adding grounds with the Big Three is a start. If you are serious about optimizing your electrical system, then you’ll want to add a ground wire from the battery or alternator directly to your amplifier. Back in 2012, we called this the Big Four.

Big Three
Having a ground wire run from the battery or alternator to the ground location of your amplifier can dramatically improve current flow.

Full disclosure: This wasn’t our idea. The first we heard of running a dedicated ground wire was when we were checking out Precision Power’s fleet of Chevrolet Suburban demo vehicles back in the ’90s. The topic came up again when Ford introduced QuietSteel in the F-150 vehicles, and companies were having problems with amplifiers failing because of low voltages. As a solution, JL Audio suggested adding what they called a parallel ground. This wire would connect to a conventional ground point in the rear of the vehicle and run to the battery’s negative terminal or the alternator. A benefit of the parallel ground is that it offers less resistance than a dedicated ground wire or using the chassis. As a result, current can flow through both paths, reducing the voltage drop and improving system performance.

Optimize Your Vehicle Electrical System

If you’ve purchased a high-power amplifier for your vehicle, talk to your local specialty mobile enhancement retailer about upgrading all the wiring in the electrical system. Implementing an upgrade like the Big Three or, better yet, the Big Four will allow the amplifier to produce more power and allow the system to play louder with improved reliability and efficiency.

This article is written and produced by the team at www.BestCarAudio.com. Reproduction or use of any kind is prohibited without the express written permission of 1sixty8 media.

Filed Under: ARTICLES, Car Audio, RESOURCE LIBRARY

Product Spotlight: Sony XAV-9500ES Mobile ES AV Receiver

Sony XAV-9500ES

Those seeking the ultimate performance from a car audio system know that the result will only be as good as what you start with. Decades ago, many companies offered high-end CD players. These days, your options are limited when it comes to genuinely high-performance car audio source units. If support for hi-res, an impressive 10.1-inch display, wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, and iDatalink Maestro compatibility are on your list, then you’ll want to take a serious look at Sony’s flagship Mobile ES receiver – the XAV-9500ES.

Design Features of the Sony XAV-9500ES

The first thing you’ll notice is that the XAV-9500ES is a floating-face radio with a 10.1-inch capacitive touch anti-glare interface display with a 1280 by 720-pixel resolution. The display depth, angle, height and left-to-right alignment are adjustable, so your installer can make the radio look great in your dash. The radio’s main body is standard single-DIN so that it will fit in a variety of vehicles – even an ’89 Honda Civic — without any modifications. The display is impressively bright at 425 candela per square meter and offers a contrast ratio of 1000:1. Sony’s bezel-less design is used on this radio, so the display assembly looks smooth and clean – like it belongs in a car and not a spaceship.

The radio includes a 20-watt-per-channel amp to drive the front and rear speakers. The preamp outputs are rated to produce at least 5 volts of output and include adjustable frequency and slope high-pass crossovers on the front and rear channels and the subwoofer. In addition, Sony’s gone above and beyond by including an eight-band parametric EQ for each output channel and a master 14-band graphic equalizer to shape the system’s response to your listening preferences. There are also signal delay settings for each of the six outputs that your installer can use to ensure that the sound from each speaker arrives at the listening position simultaneously. When the system is configured correctly and used with properly installed speakers, you’ll experience smooth tonal balance and a realistic soundstage across the vehicle’s width – just as if you were at the console of a world-class recording studio.

Sony XAV-9500ES
Each of the six outputs of the XAV-9500ES has an eight-band parametric equalizer so your installer can fine-tune your system.

Sony didn’t skimp on quality components inside the radio either. At the heart of the system is an Analog Devices 32-bit, 192-kHz compatible digital signal processor to handle the system calibration. The DSP feeds a state-of-the-art ESS Sable HiFi 32-bit high-performance digital-to-analog converter. Unlike most source units, the XAV-9500ES is Hi-Res Audio-certified and will output audio to 96 kHz instead of the usual 22 kHz of most radios. With the latest premium audio components, the XAV-9500ES offers performance that rivals that of many esoteric home audio source units costing in the five-digit range.

Source and Smartphone Integration Features

The XAV-9500ES includes wireless Apple CarPlay and both wired and wireless Android Auto. You can use either of these solutions with your smartphone’s voice recognition and digital assistant features to make phone calls, listen to and dictate responses to text messages or choose from dozens of entertainment options. There are dedicated apps including Spotify, YouTube Music, iHeartRadio and Tidal for music, and several options for those who enjoy audiobooks. In addition, you can get detailed navigation directions to almost anywhere in North America using Google Maps and Waze on both platforms, along with Apple Maps when using CarPlay.

Sony XAV-9500ES
CarPlay and Android Auto integration make it easy to get turn-by-turn navigation instructions to almost anywhere in North America.

The USB-C port on the rear of the chassis provides up to 3 amps of current to charge a smartphone or tablet. You can also connect a USB memory stick to the USB-C port on the back of the radio or through the included USB-C extension cable to play MP3, WMA, AAC, ALAC, FLAC, WAV and DSD/DSF audio files. Bluetooth audio streaming with support for the LDAC codec for Hi-Res Audio playback from supported devices is also included. There is, of course, an AM/FM receiver with RDS information display. Your installer can upgrade the radio with a SiriusXM satellite radio tuner for non-stop entertainment from coast to coast.

Sony XAV-9500ES
The single-DIN chassis leaves lots of room in the dash for your installer to locate interface modules and adapters.

Speaking of upgrades, the XAV-9500ES is compatible with the iDatalink Maestro RR and RR2 vehicle integration interfaces. These modules allow the radio to communicate with the computers in your car or truck to display information on the screen or adjust the climate controls in some applications. Visit your local Sony retailer to learn more about what features the Maestro interfaces offer for your vehicle.

Sony XAV-9500ES
Adding the iDatalink Maestro RR or RR2 allows the XAV-9500ES to communicate with the computer system in your car or truck.

Upgrade Your Car Stereo with Sony Mobile ES

Many car audio brands are looking for ways to save money by reducing features and performance. However, Sony continues to deliver car audio solutions with exceptional sound quality and an extensive feature set. If the quality of your music matters, drop by a local authorized Sony Mobile ES retailer today and ask for a demonstration of the XAV-9500ES, along with their impressive speakers, amplifiers and subwoofers. You can learn more about Sony Mobile ES products by visiting their website or their Facebook page.
This article is written and produced by the team at www.BestCarAudio.com. Reproduction or use of any kind is prohibited without the express written permission of 1sixty8 media.

Filed Under: ARTICLES, Car Audio, PRODUCTS, RESOURCE LIBRARY Tagged With: Sony

Product Spotlight: Sony XS-163ES 3-Way Component Set

Sony XS-163ES

When it comes to speakers for the front of your car or truck, the flagship Sony XS-163ES three-way component set from the Mobile ES Series is an excellent choice. The set includes a pair of 6.5-inch woofers, a pair of 3.5-inch midrange drivers, two soft-dome 1-inch tweeters and matching passive crossovers. Sony has combined premium designs and technologies to deliver a speaker system that sounds great and can reproduce your music at impressive volume levels. Let’s check them out!

Features of the Sony XS-163ES Speaker System

Starting with the 6.5-inch woofers, Sony has developed a five-beam basket that includes their Dynamic Air Diffuser technology that prevents pressure from building up under the cone and spider at high excursion levels. The result is a speaker that’s impressively linear when pushed hard. The cone on the woofer uses Sony’s Lightweight Rigid Aramid Fiber Matrix material to balance rigidity, damping and mass. The result is a cone design that’s 10 times as stiff as polypropylene, with excellent damping to prevent resonance and distortion. Furthering the efforts to quell distortion is Sony’s Separated Notch Edge Surround. This rubber surround includes small grooves that help prevent resonances at high frequencies, so your music is uncolored and clear. A set of mesh grilles is included for the woofers.

Sony XS-163ES
The 6.5-inch woofers from the Sony XS-163ES set deliver impressive midbass output.

The Sony XS-163ES kit includes a pair of 3.5-inch midrange drivers that feature a powerful yet compact neodymium magnet housed inside the voice coil. The driver requires a mere 1 7/16 inch of mounting depth so that it will work in doors and dash locations. A rubber Separated Notch Edge Surround is employed on the midranges to allow for linear operation and distortion control.

Both the 6.5-inch woofers and the midrange driver feature an aluminum phase plug that assists in keeping the voice coil cool while eliminating the chances of distortion from an untamed dust cap. The stamped steel frames for the mids include venting under the spider plateau and mounting tabs with spacing to fit a variety of applications. The design of these drivers matches the larger woofers for a consistent look and similar excellent performance.

Sony XS-163ES
A pair of 3.5-inch midrange drivers is included in the Sony XS-163ES to reproduce midrange information clearly.

Sony’s 1-inch tweeters are based around a synthetic fabric soft dome design for smooth response. The Sony XS-163ES system is hi-res audio certified and offers output well beyond 20 kHz to ensure that your high-quality audio tracks sound amazing. The kit includes cups for surface and angled mounting applications, and the tweeters can be flush-mounted.

Sony XS-163ES
The Mobile ES tweeters are designed to reproduce audio information to 40 kHz for hi-res audio playback.

The three-way passive crossover networks from the Sony XS-163ES set are bi-amp capable with dedicated inputs for the woofer and a second for the mid and tweeter. The networks include a low-pass filter for the woofer, a bandpass crossover for the midrange and a high-pass filter for the tweeters. As such, they aren’t small – but they are necessary for the system to function reliably and sound excellent. A toggle switch allows your installer to adjust the tweeter output level to -3, 0 or +3 dB settings. The networks combine iron and air-core inductors with electrolytic and mylar foil capacitors.

Sony XS-163ES
A pair of three-way bi-amp compatible passive crossover networks is included with the Sony XS-163ES to divide audio signals between the drivers.

Enhance Your Car Audio with a Three-Way Component Set

There are three significant benefits to using the Sony XS-163ES three-way component set for the front speakers in your vehicle. First, if you want to turn up the bass and really work the woofers, the midrange drivers will remain clear and detailed. Second, the sound dispersion pattern from the speakers is very even through the listening environment as larger drivers have to reproduce higher-frequency information. Lastly, and this depends a bit on your application, the system can produce a very stable soundstage because the midrange drivers are often mounted higher in the doors or the corners of the dash. When installed, configured and calibrated correctly, the result is a listening experience that can be incredibly realistic and detailed.

Upgrade Your Car Stereo with Sony Mobile ES Today!

If you are shopping for a premium speaker upgrade that won’t break the bank, drop by a local authorized Sony Mobile ES retailer and ask to audition the Sony XS-163ES three-way component speaker set. We know you’ll be impressed. You can learn more about Sony car audio products by visiting their website (https://electronics.sony.com/audio/c/car-marine-audio) and following them on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/sonycaraudiousa) to learn about all the cool new products they are bringing to the car audio market.
This article is written and produced by the team at www.BestCarAudio.com. Reproduction or use of any kind is prohibited without the express written permission of 1sixty8 media.

Filed Under: ARTICLES, Car Audio, PRODUCTS, RESOURCE LIBRARY Tagged With: Sony

Let’s Talk About Remote Starter and Security System Range

Remote Range

Range is the critical factor in the quality and performance of a remote car starter or security system. That’s the distance between you and your vehicle when you’re sending a lock, unlock or remote start command, or are hoping to receive a security notification. If you aren’t close enough, or the convenience system doesn’t have enough power, signals may not reach the vehicle or the remote.

Remote Starter and Security System Key Fobs

The handheld remote that comes with your vehicle or an aftermarket starter uses radio frequency communication to transmit commands. These work in a similar fashion to a radio station in that they broadcast in a circular pattern from the remote. If your vehicle is close enough and the signal is strong enough, the receiver in the car or truck will relay the command to the control module and execute the function.

Let’s look at two-way remote controls. A two-way remote sends a command such as “unlock” to the vehicle when you press the button. When the command has been received and the doors are unlocked, the transceiver in the car sends a command back to your remote to let you know the request was executed. The benefit of this two-way communication is that you always know the status of your car or truck. There’s no need to guess whether the doors are locked or the engine is running.

Remote Range
Two-way remotes like the new Compustar R5 allow security warnings from the car or truck to alert you when something is wrong.

How Do Remote Car Starter Companies Define Range?

No matter which brand of convenience or security system you’ve chosen, they all try to describe the distance between the vehicle and the remote in a measurable range. The simplest aftermarket remotes usually offer about 1,000 feet (about 300 meters) of range under ideal conditions. The step-up systems provide solutions that work at ¼ mile, 3,000 feet (914 meters) or 1 mile (1.61 kilometers). Some companies offer ultra-long-range radio frequency remotes that can deliver 2 or even 3 miles of range.

All manufacturers of remote start systems calculate these distances based on ideal controlled conditions. With trees, houses or buildings between you and the vehicle, the maximum functional range will decrease dramatically. If you’re inside a building (apartment, office tower, factory, hospital, etc.), that will decrease the effective range. A lot of electrical interference from communication systems will also reduce the usable range. We’ve seen cases where a specific remote solution worked great in one city but barely worked at all in another because a nearby military base was broadcasting something in the same frequency range.

To compare remotes, consider their power levels. The simplest 1,000-foot models could be your distance benchmark. A remote that offers 3,000 feet of range isn’t just three times more powerful; it’s closer to eight times as powerful. Because the signal radiates in a circular pattern, the power level needs to be about four times stronger to double the distance. That would mean a transmitter needs to be 16 times stronger to quadruple the effective distance. So, a remote that offers 1 mile of range is just over 25 times more powerful than one that only provides 1,000 feet of functionality. The 2-mile remotes are 100 times more powerful than the 1,000-foot models, and 3-mile units are an amazing 223 times more powerful.

Manufacturers of remote start and security systems work to increase range in other ways. The first is to switch from amplitude modulation (AM) signal to frequency modulation (FM). As you may have noticed on your car radio, FM offers better noise rejection than AM. The second method to improve range is to use what’s known as frequency-hopping or spread-spectrum communication. A simple way to understand this is to think of spread-spectrum systems as a group of people yelling a command rather than a single person. If there is noise interfering with one person yelling, the message from one of the other people is still likely to get through.

Remote Range
AM, FM and digital spread spectrum (DSS) communication technologies vary in their ability to send a command to the brain of your starter or security system.

Why Is Remote Range Important?

If you park your car in the driveway of your house and want to start it before work, you don’t need much range. A 1,000-foot system will likely be more than adequate. If you’re in an apartment on the fourth or fifth floor and the car is parked below you, the same applies. However, if you live on the other side of that apartment building, you’ll need to send a much stronger signal.

Think, too, about where you work. Do you work in a small office where your car is parked outside the window? If so, 1,000 feet is lots of transmitting strength. What if you work in a hospital, a distribution warehouse or a manufacturing facility and your car is 1,500 to 2,000 feet away? There may also be mechanical and electronic equipment along with the metal structure of the building between you and the vehicle. You may need 20 or 50 times as strong of a signal to let you start the car.

Logically and not incorrectly, you could wait until you were at the door to the parking lot to start your car and let the air conditioning run in the summer or get the heater working in the winter. However, if it’s the latter, the car won’t warm up much in the two or three minutes it takes to walk across the parking lot. The whole purpose of a convenience system is to make the vehicle more comfortable when it’s time to drive away.

If you have a security system or security features tied into a remote starter, you can receive warnings from the alarm portion of the system on some premium two-way remotes. If you’ve parked your car or truck at a big shopping mall, it’s not unreasonable that you’d be more than a quarter-mile away. With that said, the ¼-mile system isn’t going to work with concrete and steel walls, dozens of stores and hundreds of people on their cell phones between you and your vehicle. Transmitter power is fundamental here – both from the remote and from the transceiver in the vehicle.

A Quick Test of Remote Starter Range

To quantify some of the range claims, we headed to a local light-industrial area to test how far away we could be and still receive a reliable confirmation that a command from our remote worked. The first system featured a two-way remote control with a color display that’s marketed as offering 1 mile of range. We used the infamous remote-to-chin trick (which turns your head into an antenna) to maximize performance, and we were able to get the system to function at a distance of 2,000 feet (615 meters).

The second system features a one-button remote with LED confirmation. It’s listed as providing up to 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) of range. We managed an impressive 1.11 miles (1.78 kilometers) in our urban test scenario. Just as a note, the battery in this remote was a year old, so there is a slight chance we could have bettered that number.

Nevertheless, the real-world numbers in this test came in at 38% and 55% of the maximum the companies use in their marketing. Given the caveats of interference, these aren’t surprising. If we were in a remote part of Texas or Saskatchewan with flat terrain with no trees, cell service, radio stations or buildings, we’d have no problem believing that these systems would deliver every inch of their ratings.

Remote Range
How far away from our cars did the remotes work in the city’s light commercial area?

We took the long-range system to a local shopping mall for a second test and parked at the very southwestern corner of the parking lot. We parked facing the door and in line with the long center hallway in the mall. This positioning would provide a best-case scenario in terms of range.

The first test was to check out the factory keyless entry system. As we walked through the parking lot, we pressed the lock button. At a distance of 195 feet (60 meters), we had to turn around and face the car for it to respond. This continued to work right up to the door of the mall at 290 feet (88 meters). The vehicle continued to react once we were through the first set of doors but not after the second. So, we’ll call that about 300 feet (100 meters) of range.

We switched to the one-button two-way LED remote that’s marketed as offering 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) of range. We continued in a straight line down the mall’s main corridor into the large department store at the end. Just as we passed the perfume section a quarter of the way through that store, we ran out of range. That’s a total of 1,400 feet (427 meters).

Given the line-of-sight benefit, we decided to stray off down a few of the side corridors. A little to the north, with a few dozen more stores in the way, the range was down to 920 feet (280 meters). Farther west of that, with even more stores between us and the car, the range was down to 740 feet (225 meters).

At no time were we disappointed with the test. It was amazing to see just how far we could get and the types of interference that reduced the effective range. On the other hand, it was no surprise to see how poorly the factory remote fob worked.

Remote Range
Being in a building dramatically reduces the range of your remote car starter or security system remote.

What Do You Need To Know About Remote Range?

Just as with some of the overzealous power ratings on speakers and amplifiers we see, using the longest range possible in marketing information is just a part of reality when it comes to the performance of remote starter, security and convenience systems.

When buying a remote car starter or security system for your car or truck, think about the worst-case scenario in terms of how much transmitting power you’ll need. We’ve heard of people starting their vehicles from a monorail when more than a station away from their stop or while flying into a small airport in a small commuter plane.

If you want your vehicle to be comfortable and ready to go when you are, extra power from the car starter or security system remote will give you more warm-up/cool-down time. Drop by your local specialty mobile enhancement retailer today to find out about the security and convenience solutions available for your vehicle.

This article is written and produced by the team at www.BestCarAudio.com. Reproduction or use of any kind is prohibited without the express written permission of 1sixty8 media.

Filed Under: ARTICLES, Remote Car Starters, RESOURCE LIBRARY

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 77
  • Next Page »

Recent Articles

Understanding the Science Behind Automotive Headlight Bulb Colors

Understanding the Science Behind Automotive Headlight Bulb Colors

January 29, 2023 

When it comes to lighting the road in front of your car or truck at night, most enthusiasts focus on light intensity instead of headlight bulb color. It’s straightforward to see … [Read More...]

What Is the Big Three Electrical Upgrade

What Is the Big Three Electrical Upgrade?

January 22, 2023 

We were recently at an event that was hosting a mobile audio system SPL competition. If you aren’t familiar with this sort of thing, it’s a contest to see who has the loudest … [Read More...]

Product Spotlight: Sony XAV-9500ES Mobile ES AV Receiver

Product Spotlight: Sony XAV-9500ES Mobile ES AV Receiver

January 20, 2023 

Those seeking the ultimate performance from a car audio system know that the result will only be as good as what you start with. Decades ago, many companies offered high-end CD … [Read More...]

Product Spotlight: Sony XS-163ES 3-Way Component Set

Product Spotlight: Sony XS-163ES 3-Way Component Set

January 18, 2023 

When it comes to speakers for the front of your car or truck, the flagship Sony XS-163ES three-way component set from the Mobile ES Series is an excellent choice. The set includes … [Read More...]

Lets Talk About Remote Starter and Security System Range

Let’s Talk About Remote Starter and Security System Range

January 15, 2023 

Range is the critical factor in the quality and performance of a remote car starter or security system. That’s the distance between you and your vehicle when you’re sending a lock, … [Read More...]

Testimonials

A love of sound only few can know…

Bryan has been a friend of mine for most of my life. He and I have ventured several stereo systems our entire lives. We both share a love of sound only few can know. We have worked together, installed together, learned lessons, experienced life as a whole. In my life travels, I have still never met a better man, installer, and person. I am proud to know Bryan as a friend and business owner.

Adam Francis

806 Autoworks
5
2016-09-27T02:12:51-05:00

Adam Francis

Bryan has been a friend of mine for most of my life. He and I have ventured several stereo systems our entire lives. We both share a love of sound only few can know. We have worked together, installed together, learned lessons, experienced life as a whole. In my life travels, I have still never met a better man, installer, and person. I am proud to know Bryan as a friend and business owner.
https://www.806autoworks.com/testimonials/go-1sixty8-audio-dont-go-anywhere/

Thank you for all the hard work yall are doing

I've been accessories manager at a Toyota Dealership going on 3 yrs now, and the majority of my remote starts have been done by Bryan over the years. Whenever I have questions Bryan always makes himself available to help, whenever there is an issue, he would never give me the run-around he would simply tell me to bring it by and he would fix it whether minor or major. He is extremely thorough with his installations which is the most important factor when installing aftermarket electronics in Toyota vehicles as Toyotas are very sensitive in their electrical configurations. He has won several awards for his work and his actions back up everyone.

Christopher Clark

806 Autoworks
5
2016-09-27T02:18:41-05:00

Christopher Clark

I've been accessories manager at a Toyota Dealership going on 3 yrs now, and the majority of my remote starts have been done by Bryan over the years. Whenever I have questions Bryan always makes himself available to help, whenever there is an issue, he would never give me the run-around he would simply tell me to bring it by and he would fix it whether minor or major. He is extremely thorough with his installations which is the most important factor when installing aftermarket electronics in Toyota vehicles as Toyotas are very sensitive in their electrical configurations. He has won several awards for his work and his actions back up everyone.
https://www.806autoworks.com/testimonials/thank-you-for-all-the-hard-work-yall-are-doing/

Very Professional

Bryan has worked on a few vehicles for me, and his work has always been very professional. Everything he has done for me looks like it came straight from the factory that way, and the service he has provided has been fantastic. I would recommend anyone needing any type of audio work to give him a call you won't be disappointed!

Mathew Miera

806 Autoworks
5
2016-09-27T00:49:55-05:00

Mathew Miera

Bryan has worked on a few vehicles for me, and his work has always been very professional. Everything he has done for me looks like it came straight from the factory that way, and the service he has provided has been fantastic. I would recommend anyone needing any type of audio work to give him a call you won't be disappointed!
https://www.806autoworks.com/testimonials/best-experience-ever/
5
3
806 Autoworks

Subscribe to Our Website

Enter your email address to subscribe to our website and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Location


Get Directions to 806 Autoworks

Address

806 Autoworks
7527 Canyon Dr.
Amarillo, TX 79110
Phone: 806-418-6850
Email: bryan.t@806autoworks.com

Connect with Us

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Google+
  • Yelp

Services

  • Car Audio
  • Mobile Video
  • Remote Starters
  • Truck Accessories
Monday9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Tuesday9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Wednesday9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Thursday9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Friday9:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Saturday: By Appointment Only

Copyright © 2023 806 Autoworks · Privacy Policy · Website by 1sixty8 media, inc. · Log in

 

Loading Comments...