Thatcham, Datatool Etc.

Anybody got good alarm system knowledge?
My interest is prompted by a Honda VFR 800 which had come into our workshop. It's fitted with a Datatool alarm and immobiliser. The owner had let the battery go flat despite it having an Oxford battery charger conditioner fitted. Turns out the battery was u s.
On fitting a new battery the bike wouldn't start or even turn over.
We thought there was maybe a backup battery in the Datatool unit which had also gone flat and it had all lost its memory.
No help on the Datatool website as, apparently, these things are so secure that only appointed Datatool agents can work on them.
I don't think that claim holds water because in the end, having unwrapped a bit of loom where the Datatool had been spliced in, we simply bridged two wires which had been interrupted to instal the alarm and hey presto she turned over and fired up. High security? I don't think so!
We would like to get the alarm working properly again ( if it ever was......), so if anybody can point us in the right direction please do.

Ey Up John,

I'm not an alarm system expert, but I am an expert alarm system user - I've had enough bikes with them fitted over the years...and had enough grief from them!
They all work pretty much the same way. Wires are spliced into various circuits and the ignition one is split and routed via the alarm, so it acts as a switch. As you've discovered, it doesn't take much to bypass that...the wailing when/if it goes off is another matter though. Not that it's a big deal, cos who cares or notices if they see a bloke messing with a bike that's making a noise? Yep, they think he's trying to fix it (and actually, he is, even if he's a thief :) )
They're a total waste of time in my opinion, cos people ignore the din and all you have to do, if you can't splice the wire at the side of the road, is sling it into the back of a van and bugger off, and then you can defeat the alarm at your leisure. Last bike I bought was a rather nice MV Agusta F4 1000S (still got it, actually), which had a Meta alarm fitted. But once the bike was hot, the thing wouldn't disarm till it all cooled down - an hour's trip out turned into more like 4 hours with the waiting!!
Got it home and discovered the supposed "professional" fitter had tie-wrapped it to the main coolant pipe running across the back of the block. So it was getting seriously cooked and vibrated to feck - no wonder it wasn't happy! Surprised it lasted as long as it did to be honest...anyway, traced all the black wires (suppose that's so you don't know what each one does...unless you trace them to the main loom, note the colours of the wires they're spliced into, and find out from a wiring diagram, haha) including the "immobiliser" one, removed them all, joined the split wire, and all's been good in the 4 years since.
As for the alarm, it made the loudest noise of its career when it hit the bottom of the bin I lobbed it in...which is what I suggest you do with yon Datatool :) :)

If you really must have an alarm, you're probably better getting a new one. Don't waste your time with the one you've got!

Cheers!

Norm

Sounds like sage advice from someone with experience! And there was me thinking just my luck to get the one badly installed alarm in existence......
Thanks Norm.