Car keys used to be simple metal objects, and you could fit a ring of them neatly in your pocket. Today, just about every car comes with a bulky key fob that’s chunky and just a little difficult to stuff in your jeans. One man has decided enough is enough. He’s slimming ’em down!
Meet Jeremy, the man behind RACECAR go brrr!, a business that made a name for itself selling custom switch panels. However, it’s also a great place to go for a slimline key fob conversion kit. Jeremy develops them himself, and sells his designs online for others looking to save some space on their keyring.
Jeremy found his way into this out of a desire for simple convenience. “Originally it was just because I was fed up with the massive fob on my own BRZ,” he says. He’d recently bought a 3D printer to mess around with, and figured out a smaller key fob enclosure would be a great starter project.
The basic concept is simple. The guts of a key fob usually contains a single printed circuit board with some buttons, and a small battery. Factory fobs are often designed to feel nice in the hand, with a certain heft and visual style expected from the customer. However, they’re rarely optimized for size. It’s quite simple to whip up a lightweight 3D-printed shell that does the same job without taking up nearly as much space.
As stated on the site, some sacrifices are required in the name of space. Jeremy’s enclosure dispenses with the physical key that the fobs include for accessing the vehicle when the battery is dead. The fobs also ditch the weather-sealing gasket and the silicone button interface layer. Instead, you’re pressing through the enclosure directly onto the tactile buttons on the PCB. It’s not a big deal, but it’s worth noting if you regularly like to throw your keys into puddles.
At first, the project was solely a personal one, but he realized it would surely appeal to others. “I was never happy with the print quality of the fobs until more recently when I got a new printer,” he says. “At that point I tossed them on my site to see if anyone else wanted one, and I’ve since sold a bunch of them.”
Things soon moved beyond the BRZ. “My girlfriend got her Supra, and asked me to do the same to her fob,” explains Jeremy. “She found the combination of her Subaru key and the Supra key was too much, and she didn’t like having both on the same key ring at the same time.” He spent the time to whip up a BMW-compatible enclosure, since that’s what the Supra uses, and now offers them on his site as well.
Jeremy’s designs only cover a very limited number of Subaru and BMW models, along with the modern Toyota Supra, but his work should serve as an inspiration to anyone else out there desiring a slimmer fob. There’s nothing stopping you from whipping up a design in some free CAD software, and printing out your own size-reduced fob enclosures. Indeed, this is the power of 3D printing, which democratizes the production of small custom plastic products.
It’s a neat project from Jeremy, and it’s even neater that he’s making these enclosures available to the broader public. Nobody should suffer with unsightly key bulges in their pants, especially as we’re coming up to the summer season.
Image credits: Racecar Go Brrr
As someone who has left a key fob in his jeans pocket and forgot about it as he threw said jeans into the wash more than once, I would be very hesitant about this solution.
Ordered! My BRZ is a small car, the keyfob is rediculonormous. This solves that problem.
You should check out Threedom – they make a handful of very nice replacement fobs for Jeeps! I kmow bc I got one 🙂
Man, you’d think the Japanese automakers would have been all over the idea of smaller, more efficiently packaged key fobs, instead of being just as obnoxiously oversized and bulky as everyone else. Time was, they would have been exactly the ones to sort this out
I’m at the point where 2/3 of my cars just use normal keys, but I keep my house keys on the ring with the big fob for the other car, so have to take both rings with me when I use the other cars. In those cases, I just leave the big one in the glove compartment, it just feels so nice not to have that big, heavy lump of plastic and sharp metal on you. At one point, automakers were just doing normal keys with little immobilizer chips on them, good security and no bulkier than old fashioned dumb keys, I miss that
Also remember my 1991 Volvo coming with a very slim little black rectangular fob with just 2 buttons on it, lock/unlock and truck open, and you held them both down together for remote start, it was trim, light, and no issue at all to carry around. Not sure why they had to get so big over the next 30 years, this is a problem that was already solved
TIL the difference between a USM BRZ fob and an AUM BRZ fob: I have no panic button.
That section of the fob is just blank.
Obviously they believe Australians are more relaxed, or perhaps we internalise rather than project our panic, letting it gnaw away at the essence of our being.
Is there a US Federal requirement for a panic button (like your internal boot release cable)?
I don’t know the answer to your question, but as an Australian living in the US with a Subaru and having never used the panic button on my fob, I have personally proved your thesis.
QED or lol or something, right?
The purpose of a panic button is to irritate your vehicles while fumbling in the driveway with your keys and groceries. I am quite confident that 99.999999% of the times that button has ever been pushed have been completely accidental
Also this 100%. Misdirected panic not helpful. But I guess if someone else has needed this function and used it accordingly, with the appropriate result, then I’ll take the heart attack in solidarity… or something.
Neighbors, why did that come out “vehicles”, wtf
Honestly, the only “use” these panic buttons ever get in the US is as annoying “find my vehicle” buttons for people who don’t have enough brain cells to remember where they parked.
Hey guys! It’s me, the guy who makes these things. It’s fun to see someone take notice of them! I find it funny that THESE are what got enough attention for someone to make a blog post about them, because they’re just a silly thing I made for myself that I recently added to my site for shits and giggles. The switch panels I make are actually the meat and potatoes of those whole side-hustle that I’ve been making for years now, lol.
Yes these key fobs are ridiculously large. I think the car makers belive you dont carry other things in your pocket. The 3D printed redesigns are a step in the right direction but they do look a bit sharp edged. This could be a limitation of the CAD software/Skills involved but to fix the problem you need to redesign the PCB.
Hey America!
Are your keys too bulky and heavy?
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Don’t let your keys hold you back! Buy a F1150 today!
* Premium fuel required
**Some dealers rates and terms may be considered “predatory” by FTC. Caveat emptor.
A vehicle getting 8 MPG and having a GVWR of 29,000 pounds would be fantastic. My pickup has a GVWR of ~8600 lbs and gets 10 mpg!
MPG claim requires driving in the right lane 10 below the speed limit. Fear not, at 29k GVWR no leadfoot in their (relatively) tiny brodozer will be able to intimidate you.
Think you can handle that?
At least they are in the right lane.
Thank you Jeremy. You are doing God’s work.
My Opel Adam keyfob fits very neatly into the little pocket of jeans where the pocket watch was once meant to go.
I know exactly what you mean, I have a Zafira Tourer that (probably) has the exact same key. I actually had to open it up once (the car was second hand, and the key fob was crumbling), and it is surprisingly efficient with space – considering that it still has a physical key and a keyring.
If you’re going to make it smaller, add a little tilting hood or flap over the panic button so it’s harder to set off automatically.
Or rather, accidentally.
Having more than one car with a fob seems like a bigger problem. We need a universal key fob with something like SIM cards so you could use a single fob with multiple cars. We only have one car with a fob so I just carry keys for everything else on it. Fortunately Mazda fobs are modestly sized
Pretty sure the answer to that is going to be “just use your phone” at this point. And honestly, I’m ok with that… Especially given it works with watches.
Yeah but from what I’ve gathered (which is not a lot: the only new cars I’ve been shopping for are the Z, gr86, and the Supra) seem to have that feature behind a 400 dollar paywall (for the Z at least) which is ridiculous for an app.
As someone who’s been against smartphones and the allocation of every function to them since they first debuted, I must also oppose this. Dedicated devices exist for a reason. Having a theoretical all-in-one for everything in your life is a nightmare people are only just starting to understand. There’s not only the risk of losing it and losing your money, keys, ID, and ability to communicate, but keeping it all on that one thing is a security nightmare. And that’s just the surface of a miles deep list of issues.
Or even “My phone just ran out of battery and now I can’t get into my car to charge my phone or drive home”
I once had three Audis and would carry all three fobs along with various home and office keys. I looked like such an idiot and all the keys are beat all the fobs up.
I much prefer small fobs now.
Keys were a solved problem. They didn’t need “improvement”. When I switch between my five year old Ford and my 52 year old Oldsmobile, I’m never wondering how people used to live like this: I walk up, unlock the door (with a key), get in, and start the car (with a key). Simple.
I agree, but up to a point – the immobilizer is a welcome improvement!
Granted, it is actually tiny in itself, so there’s no need to take up that much space. I wish I could make a copy that is just the bare metal and the immobilizer…
Fair point. Still, even keys with immobilizers are less bulky than today’s fobs, and readily available, what, 25, maybe 30 years ago?
I found the remote unlock function on my key super helpful, when someone tried to break into my car by hammering a screwdriver into the door lock. It was that or unlock the boot and climb over the seats.
I don’t want a key fob, I just want a physical key.
This is more than “one guy just figured this out.” Replacement shells to house the innards of the enormous Jeep fobs, minus the metal key, have been commercially available for a long time.
I think the designers of auto key fobs learned their trade creating those gas station bathroom key rings.
They build their personal fob into a 10″ piece of wood with BATHROOM written on it in sharpie.
Heft, theft, same same 🙂
This looks like it would increase the risk of accidental button activations. If I mod a fob, it’s usually with a little folded paper or piece of toothpick that makes the buttons a little less sensitive. Especially the stupid panic button.
I’m the guy who makes these. I try to tune the print to strike a good balance between “easy to press the button” and “not easy to accidentally press the button.” I can definitely see why it might look like it would be easy to press them, but generally speaking, it shouldn’t be an issue 🙂
Good to know, thanks for responding!
Can’t be worse for accidental presses than the factory Subaru fob. If it’s in my pocket while I’m doing things in the garage, the Outback is always chirping at me. And more than once I’ve come outside from somewhere and discovered the hatch is wide open. They simply aren’t designed with pockets in mind.
Admittedly, I’ve never owned a Subaru. Every fob I have had was either pretty okay from the start or easily fixed with a little piece of paper or toothpick under the exterior button.
I’d probably look into one of those little leather cases for my fob with that experience.
I’m lucky enough not to have any giant fobs. Besides that, the current vehicle’s key gets snapped onto a carabineer that has the house key, small Swiss army knife, and a key sized multitool.
Same here. But now there’s no room for my folding camp shovel, or the pocket sized flamethrower.
When I got my Bronco Sport keyfob, my first pressence one, I could not be believe how bad designed the thing was. Big, fat and with the panic button on the most prominent part so it could be accidentally pressed. In the year I have it, I accidentally pressed that button like 20 times.
Now I have a Kia keyfob, slim, elegant and with the buttons on the side, totally unlikely to accidentally hit it.
Our new Mach-e fortunately has the option of using the FordPass app in lieu of Ford’s standard Fobba the Hut.
I believe most Fords will let you change it to a double press with Forscan, I did that on my big Bronco and no more inadvertent alarms.
Easy enough for you. The doctor sliced off my forscan the day after I was born.
Never could understand how people can tolerate rings full of keys, never mind adding multiple bulky fobs to the mix. I miss a regular old car key.
My dad used to put all of his keys together, in the times of ignition switch with actual keys he had an authentic bell ringing for the entire drive, ocasionally knocking with the steering column. He still put his keys together but thankfully the bell is gone.
My grandmother was like that. Never understood how she drove with her giant mass of keys and fobs swinging around like a wrecking ball.
That’s why Saabs are the best. Your keys just sit there in the console, unable to jangle or swing into your knee.
What do folks do with these newfangled keys/key fobs when they go to the beach, and the whole family, or a group of friends, goes in the water? I used to tie my car keys to the cord inside my swim trunks and lock everything else (wallet, house keys, etc.) inside the car. I guess there might be a problem if I lost my shorts in a big wave in the ocean but I typically went swimming where the surf was pretty mild. (NJ shore, Delmarva) I haven’t been in the ocean in many years (too cold in New England, except maybe for Martha’s Vineyard or Nantucket) but I wonder.
If you own a Ford you lock it in the car. Everyone else, though…
Small dry bag, usually. If I’m rafting or something, the small dry bag goes into my larger dry bag.
Oh, that makes sense. Then, after you put it in the largest dry bag, you swallow the whole shebang. The only way to lose your keys at that point is if you had Taco Bell beforehand.
I accidentally took my keys swimming for like two hours this past weekend. I don’t recommend it, but the fob still seems to work (although it was a little finnicky until I took the backup key cover off and aired it out for a day).
Tesla uses a credit card size key card that fits in your wallet.
I recently purchased a used Model 3. I have the credit card key, but most of the time I just use my phone as the key. This has been a game changer. I no longer have to carry a set of car keys with me at all. I’m surprised other automakers haven’t charted a similar course.
Tesla’s phone key is awesome. I love it. The only time I use the keycard is when I bring the car to Wheelworks for a tire rotation.
Other advantages of the phone-as-key-card-as-backup system: you can pair up to 10 phones to a car, so free keys for your kids. Also, the driver id is paired with the phone, so the seats and mirror adjust to your profile as you approach the car.
I fail to see the issue here –
One car fob, one front door key, one of those fobs that gets you into the office and a decorative thingy that reminds you of that vacation you took long, long ago – that’s all you need on your key ring.
The other car gets it’s own ring with it’s own front door key, vacation thingy, etc.
What’s the big deal?
This is my approach, as well. I just have two sets since I just have one car with two fobs.
Yeah, I never will understand the people who regularly carry their house key, their car key, their spouse’s car key, their parents’ house key, the key to the house they watched for a friend one time, a key they don’t want to lose because they think they’ll eventually remember, and the key to a gym locker where they no longer have a membership.
If you’re not regularly using a key, it can go in a drawer and be forgotten indefinitely (and should be on a labeled key ring so that you don’t have to grab eight keys because you know one of them is the one you need).
I carry zero keys with me. Phone key FTW!
How do you get your phone into that teeny little keyhole?
Same. All of my cars have their own ring with house key, car key (no fobs though), a tiny key knife, and some kind of vehicle designation (key sized “S” badge for my w126, for example).
Neat idea! But there is a zero percent chance a 3d printed part survives very long with something that loads it up like a keychain ring. You can’t expect materials made with a melted filament to hold up to that abuse.
Dude should be using the 3d printed parts to make silicone molds, and pour using 2 part epoxy in a vacuum chamber to get close to the durability of injection molding.
DFAM (design for additive manufacturing) is a real thing. If you treat 3D printing like any other manufacturing process that you would optimize for, you can create remarkably strong parts. Add to that the fact that modern prosumer level printers can easily and reliably print materials like ABS, ASA, and carbon-fiber reinforced nylon and suddenly there’s a whole world of products that are possible where the demand isn’t necessarily high enough for MOQs from some supplier but you can make good money for this.
I have designed sheet metal form tools for 3D printing and been able to run about 100-200 cycles in mild steel or 10-15 for annealed stainless steel. Not bad for about $2-3 of filament and 3 hours of CAD work.
I’m the guy who makes these. FYI I used mine for 2-3 years before tossing it on the site and it lasted for me with only a tiny bit of “shine” from wear over time. It is definitely not as durable as the OEM fob (or a thicker, injection-molded part), which is absolutely engineered to take a LOT of abuse from a wide range of people. However if you’re “reasonable” with your keys and don’t abuse the crap out of them, it should last just fine. It’s a rather solid piece once it’s assembled 🙂