Full Metal Remote Key Fob for 1998 LC (1 Viewer)

[r2m]

I just built myself a 3D FDM printer before the holidays and been having fun with it. I'll get back to this in a moment...
Went on vacation for 2 weeks in Lake Tahoe and the car valet where we were staying completely ruined my one and only $300 remote key (and the only key I had with me). Not only did the valet trash my key, he left it in the "ACC" position and drained my batteries (I have dual batteries but have not had the chance to install a battery isolator yet). Long story short, 5 days later after having my rig towed to the local Toyota dealership I have a brand new 3 button remote key. The problem now is that the motors on my door locks are too worn to do that complicated 20 step tango dance for programing the key to the module. So I have a 3 button key that will start and run the my LC but I have to lock/unlock with a key. I do still have the ruined key.

So when I got back home I took the wreckage of my old key (removed the internal remote) and put a new battery in the remote. Tried it on my LC and low and behold, my original remote still locked and unlocked my rig! I just didn't have a case for the key or remote. But I do now have two 3 button remotes. One that is programed to my LC (my old one) and one that has yet to be programmed (the new one from the dealer).

So back to my 3D printer. I own my own license of Solidworks (I'm an engineer) and now I have my new 3D printer I just built, so I went and reversed engineered the remote inside the key housing. I then had a plain steel key cut for my ignition (see pictures) and went about creating a LandCruiser key housing that would have a full size metal key with the remote!

Below are photos of an original key (my wife's LC key) and my new one side by side for size comparison. Yes, it is a little larger, but hey, you now have a full metal key that will not break in the ignition! Also I made the hoop on the end of the key large enough to put a small carabiner through! One of the photos is a close up of the full size key so you can get a part number of the key blank. The screws are a #2 flat head sheet metal screw, very cheap.

I uploaded everything in Thingiverse. Here is the link: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2765254
All you need is a 3D printer or a friend with one!

As mentioned the original files are SolidWorks 2017, but there are also STL files for just loading into a 3D printer. You may modify the files as you like. (I actually printed/embossed my last name on the back of the case)

I'm giving this all for free as a "pay it forward" type of gift for all those of you who take the time to do in-depth "how-to's" and other helpful tips and posts on this site.

 

[r2m]

You can see the part number for the full metal key in the photo below.

 

[r2m]

This is the last of the pictures of the design.

 

[DuckLN]

I have eternity keys for both of my lc’s as a result of the same problem you ran into with the weak shells. Great job doin it yourself with thst program!

 

[jay3253]

I own my own license of Solidworks (I'm an engineer)

Did you buy that yourself or did your company? I looked into that a few years back and the $250,000 price tag plus maintenance was a touch out of my home buying budget!

 

[DuckLN]

One thing i notice is you have switched the buttons 180 degrees and my concern is that the gizmo that communicates with the ignition will be slightly farther away with your key as compared to the oem design. Have you used it yet?

 

[mobi-arc]

Link to files seems bad.

 

[suprarx7nut]

Interesting approach! Home 3D printing is cool. I've resisted the urge to dive into FDM stuff in the hopes other technologies come down in price so I can have some of the "industrial" levels of quality in my basement, but it hasn't gotten there yet. Maybe in the next 5 years [fingers crossed]. I'm really eyeing the MarkForged printers though. Embedded carbon fiber and some high temp materials make them really appealing.

For reference, attached is the solution I came up with to address the weak Toyota/Lexus key problem. I'm not generous enough to share any of those files, though!

YotaMD Titanium Integrated Remote Key Fob Shell - Intro Sale

Did you buy that yourself or did your company? I looked into that a few years back and the $250,000 price tag plus maintenance was a touch out of my home buying budget!

A single professional user is around $4,000. It creeps up to $8k for full simulation capabilities. $250k would be like a corporate license with dedicated tech support and a server-based install with dozens of users. When I went to school the student version was $100 and didn't expire. It was limited, but not in any way that kept you from playing around and making 3D print-able files. I think you can get a legit version cheaper than $4k, but can't seem to find anything at the moment. $4k is still an awfully expensive tool for hobby use.

Your 2016 Solidworks Price Guide - engineeringclicks.com

 

[jay3253]

When I was looking, and my student version expired (because I'm old). They had no other license than corporate, $4k is much more reasonable than the price I was given. I think it was about 2002 when I was looking.

 

[r2m]

Did you buy that yourself or did your company? I looked into that a few years back and the $250,000 price tag plus maintenance was a touch out of my home buying budget!

I purchased my own license of Solidworks. The cost was about $4,200 which included one year subscription which equates to 1 upgrade to the next version and 1 year service. If you want to add more modules like FEA, Electrical, Fluid Dynamics, etc. the sky's the limit! My license is the "Standard" version and that's all I've ever needed. Regarding the $250,000, that had to be a company purchasing about 62 individual licenses. Never have I seen anything like that! Generally a company will purchase "seats" which means that SolidWorks is loaded on the the company's intranet. This allows many people to have access to SW from their desk but only a limited number can be logged on at any one time. Example: company purchases 5 "seats" of SW. The company can have as many people as they want with the SW client loaded onto their machine, but the maximum number of people that can actually be using SW is 5. I've run into this problem before in companies I've worked for. I've been unable to log into SE because all the licenses (seats) have been used and have had to go around and see who walked away from their computer while still logged into SW. Then have to close their session of SW so I can open it.

If you have any interest/desire to get your own license, I've used these guys for about 15 years, they're really good: GoEngineer Locations by City and State | GoEngineer

When I'm not working for a company as an engineer, I do contract engineering out of my home. I've been using SW since about 1997 and have the CSWP (Certified SolidWorks Professional) certificate from SolidWorks.

 

[r2m]

One thing i notice is you have switched the buttons 180 degrees and my concern is that the gizmo that communicates with the ignition will be slightly farther away with your key as compared to the oem design. Have you used it yet?

Yes it works fine! Not a problem at all. I flipped the remote because it matched the profile of the metal key a wee bit closer and I was trying to keep the entire shell as small as possible since adding the full size key would make it grow.

 

[r2m]

Link to files seems bad.

Yea, I suspect that it may be. This is the first time I've ever uploaded anything to Thingiverse and I think there was a clause that said the page would not be available for 24 hours. I just clicked on the link and it works. But, I hope it's not just because I'm the owner of the files.

If the link is still not working, PM me and I'll email you the files!

 

[r2m]

Interesting approach! Home 3D printing is cool. I've resisted the urge to dive into FDM stuff in the hopes other technologies come down in price so I can have some of the "industrial" levels of quality in my basement, but it hasn't gotten there yet. Maybe in the next 5 years [fingers crossed]. I'm really eyeing the MarkForged printers though. Embedded carbon fiber and some high temp materials make them really appealing.

For reference, attached is the solution I came up with to address the weak Toyota/Lexus key problem. I'm not generous enough to share any of those files, though!

YotaMD Titanium Integrated Remote Key Fob Shell - Intro Sale



A single professional user is around $4,000. It creeps up to $8k for full simulation capabilities. $250k would be like a corporate license with dedicated tech support and a server-based install with dozens of users. When I went to school the student version was $100 and didn't expire. It was limited, but not in any way that kept you from playing around and making 3D print-able files. I think you can get a legit version cheaper than $4k, but can't seem to find anything at the moment. $4k is still an awfully expensive tool for hobby use.

Your 2016 Solidworks Price Guide - engineeringclicks.com

View attachment 1617026

I very much like your design, it's clean, compact and strong. But being an engineer and having just built my printer, I had to do my own thing. I'm sure you understand. Also, considering how many people have a 3D printer, I don't think I could retire on the income from selling the files nor do I think you'll lose too much market share from this.

Regarding your comments on 3D printers, I too had been on the sidelines waiting for the right printer. I've been using vendors to do my 3D printing for almost 17 years before the bench top ones started to come out. Now I've been working with bench top FDM machines for the past 3 years. So my criteria for a printer was: affordable FDM machine that had decent resolution, a decent build size AND 2 or more nozzles (most important). After working with single nozzle machines and dealing with the mess that the support strings leaves (since it's the same material) I knew I had to have at least minimum, a dual nozzle machine for support materials like PVA (dissolves in water) or HIPS (dissolves in a solution). I wound up purchasing a 3 nozzle kit with a build area of 280mm (y) x 200mm (x) x 200mm (z) for about $450 (from China).

By far the WORST kit of anything I've EVER purchased! If it wasn't for my background and experience, this would have been in the trash! You get what you pay for... Bad on me But having persevered over about 4 months (I didn't have time to work on it full time) I finished it and I love this machine so far. But I have to agree with you that for small intricate parts, the resolution is marginal, but I've only had it up and running for a month and I was out of town for half that time!

So agreeing with you about FDM resolution, I also plan on purchasing this SLA machine: Moai - Affordable Laser SLA Printer
This also is a kit, but I believe it's built and sold in the U.S. and it has a much more finished look than my FDM machine. Yes the build area is much smaller and there aren't the colors and materials as an FDM but for real small stuff, jewelry quality, it looks really good. At least from their website.

Cheers!

 

[jahawk]

Sweet, good job man. Can you fix the link to the file so I can get on printing my own?

Jim

I just built myself a 3D FDM printer before the holidays and been having fun with it. I'll get back to this in a moment...
Went on vacation for 2 weeks in Lake Tahoe and the car valet where we were staying completely ruined my one and only $300 remote key (and the only key I had with me). Not only did the valet trash my key, he left it in the "ACC" position and drained my batteries (I have dual batteries but have not had the chance to install a battery isolator yet). Long story short, 5 days later after having my rig towed to the local Toyota dealership I have a brand new 3 button remote key. The problem now is that the motors on my door locks are too worn to do that complicated 20 step tango dance for programing the key to the module. So I have a 3 button key that will start and run the my LC but I have to lock/unlock with a key. I do still have the ruined key.

So when I got back home I took the wreckage of my old key (removed the internal remote) and put a new battery in the remote. Tried it on my LC and low and behold, my original remote still locked and unlocked my rig! I just didn't have a case for the key or remote. But I do now have two 3 button remotes. One that is programed to my LC (my old one) and one that has yet to be programmed (the new one from the dealer).

So back to my 3D printer. I own my own license of Solidworks (I'm an engineer) and now I have my new 3D printer I just built, so I went and reversed engineered the remote inside the key housing. I then had a plain steel key cut for my ignition (see pictures) and went about creating a LandCruiser key housing that would have a full size metal key with the remote!

Below are photos of an original key (my wife's LC key) and my new one side by side for size comparison. Yes, it is a little larger, but hey, you now have a full metal key that will not break in the ignition! Also I made the hoop on the end of the key large enough to put a small carabiner through! One of the photos is a close up of the full size key so you can get a part number of the key blank. The screws are a #2 flat head sheet metal screw, very cheap.

I uploaded everything in Thingiverse. Here is the link: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2765254
All you need is a 3D printer or a friend with one!

As mentioned the original files are SolidWorks 2017, but there are also STL files for just loading into a 3D printer. You may modify the files as you like. (I actually printed/embossed my last name on the back of the case)

I'm giving this all for free as a "pay it forward" type of gift for all those of you who take the time to do in-depth "how-to's" and other helpful tips and posts on this site.

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[r2m]

Sweet, good job man. Can you fix the link to the file so I can get on printing my own?

Jim

Jim,
Since I'm new to Thingiverse (first time uploading any files), I think I read there was a 24 hour waiting period before my files/web page were able to be viewed.

PM me with your email and I'll send you all the files. Both SolidWorks and STL files. And don't forget the screw is a #2 flathead sheet metal screw, 4 of them.

v/r
Richard

 

[r2m]

The link to Thinkiverse should be working about now if anyone wants to download the files.

 

[FxFormat]

can people cut a key using pics online? Just curious why you white out your key.

 

[r2m]

If someone is savvy enough, yes they could take a screen shot of my keys, scale it and cut a key off the profile. They already know it's a 1998 Toyota Land Cruiser and I even give the part number for the blank key. I know if I had to, I would have no problem pulling a key from a photo especially if I knew what the key blank was!

I've done a lot of reverse engineering of many different things for companies and one of the tricks I use, even in designing the cavity of this key housing, is to scan on a printer of even a good photo will work, the key in this case. Paste the image in a SolidWorks drawing. Then measure the real key's over all dimension and scale the image in SolidWorks to be exactly the same dimension as the real key. And now I can trace over the photo/scanned image and make an exact copy of it! I can either machine it, STL or just take a file and file away the key.

 

[ScubaJon]

unless its one of my add blockers its not working just get a 404 error and a page saying you have reached the end of the thingverse

 

[r2m]

Apologies to everyone who is trying to download the files off Thingiverse. Apparently it's locked and I can't seem to unlock my uploaded files for sharing. And I don't think I can upload files to IH8MUD for you guys to pull from. I believe they only do media files.
I have an email out to Thingiverse support to see how to fix this.

In the mean time, please feel free to PM me and I'll send the files. What you will get will be:

• 2 SLA files, the top and the bottom of the housing, ready to load into a 3D Printer. You can use any 3D printer that will slice SLA files.
  
• 4 SolidWorks 2017 files:
  • Top housing
  • Bottom housing
  • #2 Flathead sheet metal screw. The part number of the file will be the part number for McMaster-Carr: McMaster-Carr
    
  • Assembly of everything

If you would like the SolidWorks files converted to DWG, DXF, IGES or something else, please let me know the extension. SolidWorks can export to most 3D software and mesh files.

Cheers!
Richard