Alright, so I do alot of mountain biking in some rather remote places and i have been carrying my keys with me up to this point. Recently (a couple weeks ago) one of the guys i was riding with lost his keys in the woods, fortunately he was within riding distance of home and just went back for his extra set, even more fortunately someone found his keys and hung them on the board at the parking lot for him while he was gone. this got me thinking "how can i prevent this from happening to me?". another one of my buddies has a ford with that keypad on the door and he just locks his keys in the car and doesnt have a thing to worry about, that is what i determined to be the ideal solution. (there are simpler solutions such as a hitchsafe, which i bought the day after this happened as a cheaper insurance policy, at least the keys would be with the truck).

I found the accel2 rs505 that allows you to unlock your car or truck with a keypad (wireless) and lock your keys inside safe and sound for about $75 on amazon.

now the trick was to figure out how to trigger the locks in the truck with it which is NOT well documented. Once i figured this part out the rest was a piece of cake.
I found this .PDF file http://www.rambodybuilder.com/2014/docs/ram/ramrdl.pdf
which explains how to trigger the locks. the short version is a ground trigger through a given resistance value, different value for lock vs unlock. both triggers feed the same line in the door. apparently this can only be done through the passenger door lock switch (this is where there is more space work/install the module anyway).



alright with the background out of the way, here goes the more detailed installation instructions

step 1)
DISCLAIMER:::: IF YOU ARE NOT COMFORTABLE WITH BASIC HAND TOOLS (INCLUDING DRILLS) AND WIRING INCLUDING CUTTING WIRES, SOLDERING AND WIRE ROUTING DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS ON YOUR OWN AND TAKE IT TO A QUALIFIED INSTALLER, IF YOU HARM YOURSELF OR DAMAGE YOUR VEHICLE IN ANY WAY MYSELF AND DODGEFORUM.COM ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE, YOU ARE FOLLOWING THESE INSTRUCTIONS AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!

you will need the following
accele rs505 remote lock module with 4 digit keypad ( (~$75 at the time of this writing))
soldering iron
1X 330 ohm 5% 1/2watt resistor $0.01
1X 100 ohm 5% 1/2watt resistor $0.01
1X 500 ohm 5% 1/4watt resistor (optional, and may vary per install) $0.01
1X LED (i used a 3mm diameter) (optional) $0.05
18 gauge pickup wire (i had this already you should be able to buy a roll or two for under $15, i suggest getting a couple different colors just to simplify things)
heat shrink tubing or electrical tape
heat gun (for the heat shrink)
t-20 torx
phillips head screw driver

I suggest you test the resistor values to make sure that they work for your truck, this SHOULD be the same on all 4th gen trucks, but i cannot confirm that. test the resistors with an alligator clip and a good solid ground point, clip one end of your test lead to a solid body ground, then hold the resistor in the clip and insert it into the pin (pin 8 in my 2017) that matches the violet/light green wire in the passenger door window/lock switch, the locks should cycle appropriately, if not then this will NOT work for you.


alright, you have your tools? lets get started on the fun part

Step 2:
remove the unit from the box, in mine the "brain" (receiver) and keypad were in plastic bags on top of the included wires.



at this point I suggest making sure you are familiar with which harness connects where (they are the same pincount, but have different locking methods if you connect them up wrong they will not lock in place) If you plug them in wrong right now you wont hurt anything, if you do it after you connect all the wires to the truck you will not be a happy camper.

Step 3:
Take a look at the two harness, both have 6 wires coming off of them, the blue and green set is the trigger side, and the red/black/yellow/ect set is the power/lights interface side.
You will be using 7 of the 12 wires per the attached wiring diagram.


you will need to remove the green/red and blue/red wires from the white plug (you CAN cut them off flush if you prefer, i simply removed the pins from the connector by pushing the retaining tab down with a multi-meter lead and pulling on the wires till they popped out)


this leaves you with the green/white and green/yellow wire with an empty spot, and the blue/white and blue/yellow wire in this harness


in the remaining clear plug you need the red/black and yellow, simply remove the rest (either cut or pull)


this leaves you with 4 wires coming off the unit if the plugs are installed.

Step 4:
I decided that i did NOT want to run wires or cut wires to hook up the parking lights to the unit (it CAN flash them to signal lock/unlock if you so desire) however i still wanted a visible signal that the unit was working for troubleshooting purposes later on, i decided putting a single LED on the circuit instead would suffice and be easy enough to mount. I used a 3mm LED and the appropriate bezel, and mounted it in the back of the center passenger side dashboard cubby, out of sight, but you can still see the light when it flashes on. Since the unit sends 12v to the light circuit and and my LED pulls about 2V i needed a resistor in line to absorb the rest of the voltage. the LED draws 20mA or .02 amps. since Volts=CurrentX resistance it was simple to figure out what resistor value was needed (10=.02*R, R=500ohms) This works for MY LED, if you do the same make sure to pull the data you need to do the math and get the correct LED for your purpose)

Solder the LED to the 500ohm resistor (it does not matter which leg you put the resistor on, i like to put it on the positive led which is longer than the negative leg, just because it keeps that statement true for the rest of the wiring).
then solder the yellow wire from the RS505 to the positive leg of the LED, put a piece of heat shrink around this and shrink it then solder a separate negative wire to the negative leg (i like to use black for all my grounds just to keep things simple) this will later be soldered to the negative wire of the same harness.
Finish up by heat shrinking the whole thing together to protect it and help absorb the inevitable vibrations.


Step 5:
Tie together all the grounds on the unit, which include the green/yellow the blue/yellow, the black you just put on the LED and the Black wire coming off the clear connector. I suggest cutting the wires shorter(i think i left mine about 6 inches long), just to keep all the working joints close together and keep things clean. save the black wire that you cut off the clear connector as you will be adding it to this bundle as an inline splice.


4 of the 5 wires are combined at one point here, the 5th was added after this picture was taken. Solder them together and heat shrink to avoid shorts


Step 6
Solder the resistors to their appropriate wires(cut the wires back, you only really need enough wire at this point to work with while you solder, 6 inches or so is plenty if you are competent with soldering)
330 ohm resistor to the end of the green/white wire
100 ohm resistor to the end of the blue/white wire



heat shrink over the wires and the resistor, leave the remaining lead bare.

 

Nice write up.
The next generation of keypad entry will be a wireless pad that is programmed to the vehicle like a fob...installation will be programming and stick in place.

 

Nice write up.
The next generation of keypad entry will be a wireless pad that is programmed to the vehicle like a fob...programming and stick in place; using the existing wireless control module in place for the fobs.

 

some car companies (nissan for sure, and i think iv seen from ford on newer mustangs) have gone that way already, most car companies are going farther away from this as smart phones and connected cars become more prevalent, if you can use your phone to unlock the car why should they spend the money on a system like this, plus they can charge you a subscription on the app that lets you unlock your car. This is preferred IMO as there is no requirement for cell or satellite reception and doesnt require the connected aspect.