P409S Retrofit Tire Pressure Monitoring System

I have had these installed a few months ago with new tires in my 2006 Ford F150 4X4 by Discount Tire. They installed them for free.I chose this unit over others I researched as it seemed to have the best reviews, and I liked that it has pressure and temperature readings.I went for the aftermarket system because the 2006 F150 did not come with a TPMS, and I damaged a $400 tire (right rear) by driving on a flat in a gravel parking lot late at night for 400 yards before noticing the problem once I hit the pavement. Since I was planning on new tires anyway, I figured it was a good time to put in a TPMS.I have Nitto LT285/55/R20 tires, which can take up to 80 PSI, but I run the tires at 40 PSI (5 psi higher than recommended). This is below the 60 PSI Max alarm setting of the unit for a high pressure alarm.The unit seems to work really well. The odd time I get a communication failure from one of the tires, but this is rare and fixes itself on cycling the power. It reports the tire pressure within +/- 1 psi of my electronic (hand held) pressure gauge.The display unit is easy to operate and configure. There is a feature to show pressure, temperature and the battery voltage, and have the display cycle between pressure and temperature. The voltage seems has a fixed low alarm of 11.5v to warn of a drained battery, or power problem in the vehicle.The display unit is small enough to fit in most dash areas. Although it supplied 2 way velco (which the Discount Tire company threw out by accident!) to attach it to the dash. I am going to attach my display to the upper ceiling console just in front of the sunroof.The screen does not have a dimming capability so at night the display can be very bright (the blue PSI indicator power especially)I have ordered a cell phone privacy screen (search for "Privacy Screen" in Cell phones) that I will customize to fit to the screen and see if this will help cut the glare at night.Here is a link to the manual: [...]There are, however, some improvements to the system needed...1) Replace the Caps:My tire guy recommended to get 4 plastic caps, and to distinguish them, paint them orange. Then replace the aluminum ones that came with the valve stems. The metal caps tend to corrode and fuse on, and the only way to replace them is to remove the tire and replace the metal valve stem as the metal cap doesn't come off. Orange Electronics should sell "Orange" color plastic caps with these valve stems.2) Power consumption will drain battery if left more than a few days.Power consumption by the display unit is can drain a battery in a few days if left powered all the time. It draws about 200mA, but I did notice the unit does get quite warm while on, and will drain the battery down quite a bit after a weekend if the truck is not used. There needs to be a sleep mode or equivalent, such that the unit can be woken up by a touch of a button, etc.2) Needs the specific Orange Electronics power cord.Don't be fooled... The display unit comes with a power cord which has a standard 5 pin MINI-USB "B" style connector to 12V cigarette/power socket. I don't know what foolish electronic engineer for Orange Electronics thought this was a good idea, because this power cord is not only the antenna, it also supplies 12V, not 5V at the mini-USB connection. This likely violates standards set out by USB.ORG. If, by chance, someone borrows your vehicle and accidentally plugs this Mini-USB into a Garmin GPS, or mini-USB powered device (ie cell phone), it may cause permanent damage to their GPS or mini-USB powered device.There are instructions, in the Manual, on how to hard-wire the unit. When building a hard-wire solution, ensure you use the original power cable and add 2 fuses (1 A each) for the green (ACC) and red (VCC) lines. Use a 2A if connecting the green (ACC) and red (VCC) lines together for +12V power.It is not clear in the manual what the behavior is when powering the ACC and VCC lines separately.Since my display will be mounted on the ceiling area, with only a short amount of cord showing the unit, there is a low risk of the connector being used by a passenger for a USB powered device. I will overwrite the label just to be safe.Despite the few foolish power things, it seems to be a good product. I paid just over $100, really cheap when compared to the price of a tire these days. I just hope I get 4-5 years out of the sensors.

**** UPDATE **** The batteries died within 14 months, NO customer service, too expensive to maintain at this rate! Can not afford to constantly replace sensors or batteries plus time to unmount and remount tires. Nice while it lasted, but it did not last long. Can not and will not recommend.Purchased this system about one year ago in August of 2011. One sensor arrived DOA, was quickly replaced by Orange Electronics (they send a whole new kit, I sent back a kit with the bad sensor).That being said, do yourself a favor if you decide to purchase this or any other kit: test it BEFORE you get it installed. That little boo boo cost me an extra $15 mount and balance charge.After 4 working sensors were installed the system works very well. We have it installed in an '06 Miata, and they are very sensitive as to tire pressure when it comes to handling and performance. One day my wife was driving home and she heard the low pressure alert. She managed to stop at a tire shop just as the pressure dropped down to 18 psi... she had run over a nail. Had she not known the tire was losing air, she might have had an accident (she drives fast and furious) and/or damaged the tire. For those that don't know, Miata's are very small sports cars and they DO NOT have a spare tire!This system is also valuable for monitoring the real time tire temperature as well, something that the add-on RF caps can not do. True, there is the added expense of having to de-mount and then re-mount the tires, so it is best to add this system when purchasing a new set of tires so that you don't pay $$ just to mount and balance a tire.I would buy, and I am in the process of buying, another one of these systems for a second vehicle. I recommend ANY TPMS, but from experience I can recommend Orange Electronic's TPMS.