Wireless Key (FOB) Question

When programming RFID keys we used to wrap them in tin foil, I'm guessing this might be a little more elegant; 1 xMobile RF Cell Phone Signal Block Blocking Spy Bag | eBay

Has anyone tried anything like this?

 

One thing you could do is to remove the battery from a fob. You would then lock/unlock the door with a mechanical key, and hold the batteryless fob next to the Power button to start the car.

If you have an extra fob, it might even make sense to hide it batteryless somewhere in the car as a spare key.

A friend of mine thought he had lost his key while traveling 500 miles from home. Fortunately, he found it. But his list of things to do without the key were rather grim. First off, it was a holiday weekend, and there weren't any Toyota dealerships open. The road service people could probably get him into the car, but starting it requires a fob. He was weighing having his wife FedEx the other fob to him, flying home to get it, staying in a motel until he could get a new key at a dealership (for $400+?), renting another car to get home (and then what?).

 

^^^Happened to me also^^^

http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-iii-2010-prius-main-forum/99915-stranded-away-home.html

 

I gather the "standard" box is an "Altoids" tin. Just from what I've been reading for the past five years.

 

Or if you want to really be secure, see if the fob will fit in one of these

Combination Key Safe-001015 at The Home Depot

 

So I bought a used Gen III fob on Ebay and it looks like it is too much of a hassle to get a dealer to program it but I want to get the RFID chip programmed so it can be held up to the starter button to start the car as a spare, has anyone had luck with just getting the RFID chip programmed? This could be hidden in the car as a backup in case the main fob is lost.

 

That works with a Gen2 (2004-2009), but the Gen3 (2010+) doesn't have a separate RFID chip. The dealer/locksmith has to do a seed reset to register a used Gen3 keyfob. The bare circuit board without the battery can then be used next to the Power button. It seems like the end of the circuit board with the large black chip is the RFID part. Maybe some day I'll unsolder that part and see if it really is just RFID. Right now, my guess is that it is a coil that inductively picks up enough power to run the ordinary keyfob signal at low power.

 

You don't "program" the FOB. You program the -car- to recognize the FOB.
I think if you search on this site you may find some who were successful at programming the car without the dealers help. I am skeptical, however. I suspect you need the dealer's help.

 

Yeah, no offense but the whole deal about programming the car to the remote is getting a little old. For 10 or 15 years cars have had RFID chips in the keys and common usage was to "program the keys" as was "program the remotes" so I think I'll stick to that usage.

There are two separate parts to the remotes, the RFID chip and the SKS transmitter. Apparently, from reading the many posts here, once a Gen III fob has been programmed to a car many dealers don't want to go through the hassle of programming the car to accept it, it often won't work. New ones seem to be a different matter, it seems to be fairly simple for a dealer to program one. I want to get the used fob that I purchased only programmed for the RFID reader, not the SKS since they seem to have a problem doing those. This way it can be a spare hidden in the car used only for starting.

 

Glad to see this thread, as one of my projects for the new year is to hide one of my smart keys inside the car for emergency use. I'd previously read that people were using those silvery leaded bags that hard drives and RAM ship in, however I tried two of them yesterday with no success. (I'd also read that people had used lead film bags as well...)

From this thread it sounds like any metal enclosure will do, so I'll try some foil this afternoon and see how that goes.

The other question I have is this: Does anyone know if it is possible to get a new copy of the mechanical key (the one that slides out of the smart key) cut? You know - one that would look like a normal key on the non-business side? I'd like to have a spare copy to physically hide on the exterior of the car. Given the option, I'd rather not use the little stubby thing, since it can't be mounted flush anywhere...

 

Yes, any locksmith can copy the removable key using a "standard" blank.

It won't start the car. It will only get you -into- the car.

 

removed

 

My 2007 has a button to turn off the SKS. Does this button not exist in the 2011 Model?

 

Does the alarm go off after a short period of time if the car is not started ?

 

No, not true. This isn't an issue of static dissipation, this is an issue of EMF shielding. You need a Faraday cage suitable for the frequencies used by the SKS. Most anti-static bags are able to dissipate small amounts of static charge, but are useless for non-static fields.

Tom

 

That might be true with the Gen2, but it definitely isn't with my 2010 Gen3. I just took the key to a major locksmith in the city, and they said that they couldn't do it. The locksmith said that it required a proprietary laser cutting device which they can't get. He begrudgingly said that I'd have to go to a dealer...

And this is after I made it very clear to him that I wasn't interested in starting the car with it - just using it to open the door in an emergency.

I've heard tell that there might be a rare locksmith who has one of these laser machines (another thread mentioned one in northern NJ), but it certainly isn't standard fare for a keycutter.