Stereo & Electronics - Shock sensor does what?

I just bought a Viper 690 alarm and had a local reputable shop install it. they showed me how a light nocking on the rear pillar would warn away and a hit would trigger the alarm. I brought it home and started playing with how the alarm triggers. When I rock the car side to side, nothing happens. when I push the car back and forth nothing happens. If i kick the tires hard the alarm will go off. Does the shock sensor only detect sharp sudden incidents or is it supposed to go off when this happens? Or did the installer do the install wrong?

Any ideas?
Thanks,
Chris

nope - proper install. Judging from your pretty accurate descriptions, I'd venture to say it *might* be a little on the sensitive side, but you'll decide that in the next week or so. The shock sensor is doing exactly what it's supposed to do. If someone were to break the glass, you'd want the thing to go off. If someone were to drop a car-door into your ride in the parking lot, you'd want to know about it. If the wind blows like a son-of-a-bitch and rocks your car, you could care less. If someone hooks up a tow-truck to it, chances are REAL good that they couldn't do it without making you aware of it. The only problem with alarms nowadays is that there are so many of them, people ignore them, so it's up to you to pay attention. BTW, good choice on going with the Viper.

...The only problem with alarms nowadays is that there are so many of them, people ignore them, so it's up to you to pay attention...

yep, keep that "Responder" transmitter near you all the time, so that if your alarm goes off when you're out of earshot, the transmitter will still warn you that it's going off....that is, assuming that you have the "paging" feature enabled on the alarm.

Yeah the shock sensor only detects shock, i think viper has an optional sensor that can detect the cars motion, what is it called a mercury switch or something...i forgot.

After more playing with the tops out of it, if you reach in the car you can pop the trunk and the contents of the trunck are at risk. If you put your hand on the hood you can pop the hood and the alarm doesn't go off letting you access the siren. What other accessories would you recommend to make the vehicle more secure?

Interior sensor, and a hood pin and or hood lock mechanism.

Update: After a few months, my trunk release wont work. The release will work from the inside and by key. But the orange aux button wont pop the trunk anymore. Any suggestions? When i started using it would pop, but it would only do it twice any more than that it wouldn't work w/o putting the key in the ignition and starting the car. Now it wont work. I changed the battery in the remote about 2 weeks ago and the remote still works arming and disarming. Do I have to reprogram the remote?

to the top

As for the rear hatch not popping, it turns out that the release button was stuck. It broke the connection and didn't allow the remote to pop the hatch since the button was stuck. Makes you feel stupid when you go back to the alarm shop and they jiggle the factory button and then the remote works.

I feel your pain with alarms my friend. Best thing I can tell you to solve your problems with people getting in with the tops off is the Proximity Detector. I just had one installed in mine. Most common spot, from what I understand is inside the flip-up portion of the center console. Takes a little fiddling with the sensitivity to get it to warn at an appropriate distance but now it is deffinatly more difficult to get into my car without my knowledge. Mind you remember that car alarms only work on the punks, someone that really want your car will get it regardless.