When you click Disable Starter or Enable Starter on a PassTime device, DeskManager Online confirms that PassTime accepted the request — not that the vehicle's starter has already changed state. The device applies the change on its own schedule, so a car can still start for a while after the screen says the starter is disabled.
Questions this answers
- "I disabled the starter on a customer's car through PassTime and it said submitted, but he drove off twenty minutes later. Did it not go through?"
- Why does Disable Starter say it succeeded when the vehicle still starts?
- How do I check that a PassTime device actually applied the starter change?
- Why don't I see Enable Starter and Disable Starter buttons on this vehicle?
This article is only about the PassTime starter-interrupt buttons and how to confirm the device applied the change. It is not about PassTime account setup or about locating a vehicle.
What the success message actually means
Open the customer's PassTime record and use Disable Starter or Enable Starter. On success the screen shows "Starter is disabled successfully." or "Starter is enabled successfully.", and a green banner records the change with the date, time and the user who made it.
Underneath that, what PassTime returned is a submitted acknowledgement: the command has been accepted and queued for the device. It is not a report from the vehicle. The starter interrupt on the car only changes when the device next checks in with PassTime and picks up the command. Until then the vehicle behaves exactly as it did before, and a customer who is already in the car can drive off normally.
How long that takes depends on the device, its cellular coverage and its reporting schedule, not on DeskManager Online. A vehicle parked in a garage or in a dead spot may not receive the command for a considerable time. Nothing in DeskManager Online shortens that gap.
Confirming the device applied it
The PassTime record shows a Device Status field with a refresh control beside it, labelled Get Latest Result. That is the figure to trust — it is pulled from PassTime on demand rather than being the echo of the command you sent.
- Send Disable Starter and note the time on the confirmation banner.
- Give the device time to check in.
- Click the refresh control next to Device Status to pull the current state from PassTime. There is a matching refresh next to Battery Status, which is worth checking too — a device with a flat or disconnected battery will not receive commands at all.
Treat the request as failed only when the refreshed Device Status still does not reflect the change after the device has plainly reported in. A single unchanged reading immediately after sending the command is expected, not evidence of failure.
If the command genuinely did not reach PassTime, you would not have seen a success message. Errors come back with the message PassTime returned rather than the success text, so an error on screen means the request was rejected and no command was queued.
Why the buttons may be missing
The Enable Starter and Disable Starter buttons are hidden for devices on the Encore package, which is a locate-only package without a starter interrupt. The Package Type field on the same screen tells you which package the device is on. If it reads Encore, there is no starter to disable and the buttons will not appear.
Before you disable a starter
Starter interrupt is regulated differently from state to state and is usually governed by what your contract and any required notices say. DeskManager Online sends the command you ask it to send; deciding whether and when you may disable a customer's vehicle is up to you.
When to contact support
Contact support, or PassTime directly, if Device Status refreshes to a current reading that still does not match the command you sent, or if starter commands are consistently returning errors for a device that reports its location normally.
Comments
0 comments
Please sign in to leave a comment.