Is anyone familiar with how the new key fobs work when using the comfort access features? I'm guessing there's some sort of passive RFID tag in the fob that the car is reading to authorize engine starts and locking/unlocking.

I'm wondering if anyone has tried to duplicate the RFID data from a fob onto a tag with a more wallet-friendly form. I'd love to have something I could stick in my wallet so I could have one less thing in my pocket.

I'm thinking of taking a crack at it, bud I'd love to hear from anyone more familiar with how these fobs work before I start spending time on it.

Any ideas?

 

Hmm, I hadn't considered the immobilizer part of the equation. This might not be possible, but I'm all ears if anyone has more knowledge about this.

 

The key fob contains a battery. If you have Comfort Access, the battery needs to be replaced when it runs down. (Says the owners manual).

The dealer told me the hardware key is primarily to get you into the car in that case. The fob will then work in the dashboard socket because it picks up a bit of current from the socket, but it will not recharge.

With non-CA, the battery is recharged when the fob is in the dashboard socket, and therefore should not need to be replaced.

Anyhow, it is probably not a true RFID system since the fob needs its own power.

Keith
2007 MCS, laser blue/white.

 

As kyounger said it is not a true RFID system. if the batteries are not working the FOB will not work.

And the inner workings of the FOB are much more extensive than an RFID system has in its key card or fob.

 

Oh and BTW the key holds all the setting for the radio and some ohter items in the car so that each FOB can be set up differently. I.E. i like these stations and my blinkers set to three blinks. But my other half wants these other stations and the blinkers set to one blink. This is all held in the Key FOB.

There is a lot more data transferred between the key FOB and the car than what a normal RFID will handle.

 

The immobilizer chip itself is probably quite small but you'll need the entire circuit board inside the fob. You'll have to open it up to see how large it is.

A 1st gen fob was disassembled in this thread: https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...for-cheap.html and it will give you an idea of what might be involved with a 2nd gen fob.

 

The OP is looking for a more "wallet friendly" size, I take this to mean a credit card size item such as the RFID cards that are given out at companies or universities for access control, these cards are generally no larger than a credit card and only about twice as thick. Unfortunately this will not work on a MINI of any generation because of the size of the circuit board.

 

Thanks for the info guys, sounds like it wound't be as simple as writing to one of those credit card sized RFID tags. Oh well, cool idea but I guess it might not be worth the hassle.