What problems have you experienced with your keyless entry remote?

2004 Prius - I'll occasionally bump against the kitchen counter and the Prius doors will lock in the adjacent garage.

I am working on the design for new remotes at Rochester Institute of Technology. Do you have any ideas to solve this problem?

I kind of like the way the remote start is on the new Avalon.

Have had various remotes for some years and other than occasional locking doors or setting off alarm by accident they are pretty good.

as a matter of habit, I always push the lock button again as I enter a store or where ever to be safe.

The one for the Scion Xa keeps dropping its programming

Natalie

Hi Joe,

Start with the existing Toyota fob. Mine's face is a rounded rectangle with three shallowly recessed buttons -- too shallowly.

Try this experiment. Orient the fob so the buttons form a column. Now split a 3/16" dowel lengthwise to get two half-round elements. Glue the half-rounds to the face between the column of buttons and each of the long edges of the fob. Presto! The fingers still have easy access to the buttons, but the buttons are far less susceptible to pressure from pocket items.

Of course, in your design you'd mold the protruding ridges into the fob's case.

I've been doing something similar on fobs for years.

Other annoyances on my '98 Avalon's keyless entry system --

1. If you remotely unlock the doors, the computer will relock the doors if no door is opened within 30 seconds. This is supposed to be a safety feature, but it's a nuisance because it locks the doors after 30 seconds whether or not they were locked to begin with. So... I get out of the car and start to walk away with the doors intentionally unlocked. Just to be sure they're unlocked, I hit the fob's unlock button and keep walking. 30 seconds later the car's computer will lock the doors because they weren't opened within those 30 seconds. It's a flaw in the logic.

1. The effective distance of the remote's signal depends on the direction from which one approaches the car. I can only guess that the antenna is located asymmetrically on the chassis. Fixing the asymmetry would remove an aggravation.

2. My fob is shaped like a little bar of soap. The doors-open / doors-locked / trunk-open buttons are on one face; the panic button is alone on the other face. Bad idea because by feel it's not immediate to know which face you're touching. When you're in sufficient danger that you want to activate the panic button -- that is, when you're panicked

-- you should not have to look or grope to find the right button. The panic button should be recessed into the end.

1. The panic button could serve as a car-finder if -- like the Unlock button -- it had a one-touch / two-touch function. One long touch: it sounds the horn and flashed the lights repeatedly as an alarm. Two quick touches: it give one gentle toot and winks the lights.

And one other thing, Joe. Keep my '98's practice of flashing the lights to confirm a fob's command. Most cars sound the horn instead. That's silly. Why should locking a car with the fob disturb everyone within earshot? Flashing the lights makes sense for another reason too: there are more deaf drivers than blind ones. :-)

Brent "Man will never arrive, man will be always on the way." -- Carl Sandburg, "The People, Yes"

When I had one, I considered it way too big. Some have the chip and battery built into the key - still a big key. Just my opinion, it could be smaller or build it into a watch. They already have TV remote functionality built into watches.

One car unlocks with the top button, the other with the bottom.

It's a pain in the rain, when you're hitting the wrong button.

My partner at work graduated from RIT's Telephony Engineering program in 2002.

Have fun, it's a great school!

I agree, the lights flashing are much better than the horn... :-)

Suggestion - pry apart your remote and remove the red cap on the panic button. That makes it a lot harder to press accidentally, but it's still functional.

The actual remote -- nothing. Once it got put in our "deep freeze" several days and when I finally found it and pulled it out to thaw, it still worked great.

On the other hand, after a few years of ownership our Nissan Quest minivan now decides to lock itself for no reason that I know of. Discussed it with my independent garage mechanic and he said it is a common problem across brands. They make sure NEVER to leave keys in a car for that very reason while they work on them unless the window is open.

Finally, at least for the male gender, I find the actual remote "key fob" to be too big and never carry them on my person.

Yes, me too, mine gets chucked into a catchall basket near the door and eventually sneaks off and dies somewhere...cold ...lonely...dark...

LOL you fruit loop

Natalie