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Hey all! Many of you have heard of us by way of the BuiltRight Industries Rear Seat Release and Bedside Racks and we're continuing to develop those product lines, but sometimes you need a little something to kick around on the side as a distraction from the grind.
I've always hated the shape/size of the key fob that came with my 2016 F-150. The newer Raptor ones are much better, and I suspect they can be made to work with our trucks, but it got me thinking - could I design a new one?
The parts are very small and intricate, which makes it a fun engineering challenge, so why the hell not try. I took my fob apart entirely and got a bit intimidated, but we'll push forward. I'd really like to make progress over the course of the new few weeks/months and get feedback from ya'll so that we hopefully end up with something a bunch of others can appreciate and benefit from. Of course, forum members will get a discount on their units!
What features would you look for in a replacement key fob?
Challenges:
These parts are SMALL - When you're used to working with larger parts, the super small and difficult to measure features on the existing FOB bodies are a bit of a challenge.
Materials - Billet or carbon would be awesome, but they both conduct relatively well. Can we combine materials without losing transmitter effectiveness? Can we somehow improve it? Will an injection molded composite of some sort be best?
Cost - Mainly expensive tooling, if we end up with carbon or injection molding as the materials and manufacturing processes. That's no fun, so we'll deal with that later, haha.
Buttons - The printed circuit board in the key had buttons built into it, but it has a silicone overmould that interfaces with the actual buttons on the outside of the fob. It would be nice to replaced these outer buttons, but may add too much complexity. Can we redesign the fob but maintain the buttons without them looking out of place?
Goals:
Increased durability
Decreased size - It's unlikely that the 'footprint' would change, but perhaps we can build a thinner shell. Do we need to keep the 'spare' key that's hidden in there?
Price - Not looking to make something that's too expensive to justify making (and more importantly, buying). Any input on this would be appreciated. Personally, I think I'd pay $30-40 for something that made my key more enjoyable to carry all the time.
Appearance - Could it maybe not look like a turd? Color options? Ideas? Let's hear it!
That's it, just putting this out here so that I'm accountable to you guys for considering your input and making progress on this.
What's next?
The next step will be to reverse engineer the existing key a bit so that I have some CAD data to work with in designing the key fob. These parts have a lot of very intricate features, so I'll need to decide what's critical and what's not.
Last edited by BuiltRight Industries; 10-24-2017 at 12:20 PM.
I thought it would be cool to change it to the profile of crew cab truck, be especially popular with the Raptor crowd I would think. similar to the Telsa fobs.
While carbon would be cool, I wonder if it would scratch too easily. Metallic might scratch other things too easily. Hmmm...
My biggest complaint is the size. If you can make it about half that size and lighter, it's easier to carry around in a pocket. My Harley fob is about the size of a pocket chip and super light... of course there's no buttons on it.
so. much. yes. As a mechanical engineer with access to super high resolution 3d printers, I've thought about doing this myself. Hell, I'd be happy with the FOB my wifes explorer has.
Seriously, if I can help, let me know. I'd love to retrofit the internals into something not so egg-like.
Why not make it out of Kevlar? Back in the day a guy made some custom smartphone replacement backs (when they were removable) and he had to use Kevlar because it doesn't block rf transmissions. I may be wrong, but I think you work with it similar to carbon fiber.
10-24-2017, 12:10 PM
Aftermarket Key Fob - Billet? Carbon? Composite?
