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Keys again

I'm working my way through the manual for my new Outback and discovered that it's really easy to disable the alarm (horn) if the battery in the remote fob dies and you open the car with the key. All you have to do is put the key in the ignition.

However, I don't think you can actually start the car. :-) That requires the car communicating with the transponder in the fob, which I'm sure isn't possible with a dead battery. But at least you can stop the damned horn.

Does anyone here know whether the Key ID (on the little metal tag) starts with a letter or a number? The manual says to write it down and keep it in a safe place (presumably a different safe place from where you keep the tag). The first digit of my Key ID could be either a letter or a similar-looking number.

And...what are those QR codes on the plastic tags on the key ring I received? They're accompanied by numbers that do not match the numbers on the Security ID or Key ID tags, but they must have something to do with the keys???

Patty

Reply to
Patty Winter
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nope :-) The transponder is not battery operated, it responds to the signal the car sends it. Plenty of other cars with separate remotes use the same concept.

GW

Reply to
Geoff Welsh

And to respond it needs power ... which it gets from a battery. :-\

Reply to
Your Name

Don't think so! Isn't it an RFID device like the things that trigger the alarm if you walk out of a store with merchandise containing a theft-prevention tag that has not been neutralized? Those do need power, but they get it from the signal they receive. Sort of like what Tesla wanted to do for power distribution a century ago, but this version widely adopted. (One way to think of it: Imagine the key containing a little "crystal radio" and using the power out of the detector to drive its returned signal.) Bob Wilson

Reply to
Robert L. Wilson

No more than the price tag on a box at the grocery store needs a battery to be read by the checkout scanner. GW

Reply to
Geoff Welsh

it's explained pretty well here:

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GW

Reply to
Geoff Welsh

That's an entirely different system. A box at the grocery store has a printed barcode that the scanner scans and translates (via a database) into a product and its price.

Reply to
Your Name

Some of them will operate like that - the ones that are solely for registering the user is in (or "near enough" to) the car due to their extremely short range. The ones that do things like unock the doors and turn off the alarm from any larger distance (which is almost all of them these days) need a battery.

Reply to
Your Name
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Thanks, Geoff. Good to know that the key can still deactivate the immobilizer even if the fob battery dies. So I can get into the car, silence the alarm, AND drive to a store to get a new battery! :-)

Patty

Reply to
Patty Winter

But you're gonna go deaf as you fumble around trying to get the key in the ignition while that damn horn is blaring. :)

Yousuf Khan

Reply to
Yousuf Khan

in the brand new globalized world a single dimensional barcode does not cover all the shitload of made-in-china products.

hence the widespread adoption of the 2 dimensional japcode known as QR.

would you do the fish a favor and use a fobless key in summer reverting to remote only when the locks freeze in winter?

if locks freeze in YOUR winter that is: one less battery made in china could not possibly be a bad thing in an overpopulated world where some folks feel entitled to take a dump (of mercury) into the oceans every now and then

Reply to
isquat

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