He did an absolutely flawless job on this whole project. I think whats most impressive would be the size of the set on this guy for dremeling into his own car

Posted at 1:25 pm on Jun 30th, 2009 by skitchin

This is flawless as close to factory look as it gets.

Posted at 1:54 pm on Jun 30th, 2009 by nanoc

Nice work! I’ve punched holes in a number of cars for NMO style amateur radio antennas, but nothing like a keypad (and I hate taking doors panels off). This rocks.

Posted at 2:52 pm on Jun 30th, 2009 by jc

this doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. most cars nowadays have keyfobs at the very least, and most have unlocking systems where you dont even need to push a button to unlock the car – they automatically unlock when your key comes into proximity with the door.
i appreciate the craftiness, but is it useful? thats a resounding no.

Posted at 3:33 pm on Jun 30th, 2009 by anon

nice hack

i would have included a power kill switch to it somewhere on the interior door panel

Posted at 3:39 pm on Jun 30th, 2009 by anon

anon, don’t you ever go swimming and want to leave the keys in the car?

Posted at 3:45 pm on Jun 30th, 2009 by nubie

This would have been useful to me the other day. For the first time in the 8 years I’ve owned my Impreza, I managed to lock the keys in the car. My wife had to bring me the spare set. I really could have used a keypad option.

As it is, I had to make a copy and tape it up under the bottom side of my desk at work, just in case I screw up again.

Posted at 4:12 pm on Jun 30th, 2009 by jc

Having never owned a Ford before, I didn’t see the value in an external keypad – till now. [nubie] is right – lock the keys in the car at the beach, the game, wherever you’d rather not carry ‘em with you.

besides, it’s a great hack anyway – it looks great and the attention to detail makes it look like it’s not a ‘hack’.

Posted at 4:32 pm on Jun 30th, 2009 by Daley

Problem is he bought a dodge. Second thing is he owned a ford. And as posted above, most cars know when you’re in range and unlock automagically. Fail? I think so. More speshul would be to tap into this and unlock the door on its own. if the keys are in the car, it’d unlock for you anyway. Rite?

Posted at 4:49 pm on Jun 30th, 2009 by Life2Death

“if the keys are in the car, it’d unlock for you anyway. Rite?”

…

How do you propose to tell the car that its -you- and not someone else trying to steal your car?

In fact, how do you tell the car anything. Your magical proximity key is locked inside.

Posted at 5:10 pm on Jun 30th, 2009 by rick

He’s done an awesome job. I’d like to have a touch key entry system. I’ve locked my keys in the car a few times — especially when I’m in a hurry on the way to the fire station. It’s happened enough that I keep a spare entry key with my bunker gear. On the other hand, an add-on like that would be something I’d worry would make the car harder to sell. Tough call.

Posted at 6:02 pm on Jun 30th, 2009 by Andrew Pollack

Hey guys, I’m glad that most of you like my project! I did try and make it look as factory as possible.

@life2death: I know that there are cars now that will unlock automatically with the key, I wouldn’t say most, though. I only know one person that has a car that does that. Also, I paid several thousand dollars less for my car. I’m a cheap/poor student afterall.

Besides, the keypad isn’t really about getting into my car easier or faster. I definately use my keyless entry (keyfob) alot more than my keypad. It’s purpose is to let me into my car when I *don’t* have my keys on me. If they’re in the house and I’m not, or if I ever locked my keys in. I could easily add rfid, infrared, some kind of wireless like the iFob, or whatever to this. It’s easily expandable, but really all I want is to get into my car without keys. (or chips, or fobs, or remotes, or cards, or anything)

My source code is available on the site and the board is available at BatchPCB. If it’s not exactly the way you want, it’s all there to make it what you want.

Posted at 6:02 pm on Jun 30th, 2009 by Mike

Good job, looks good, too bad the buttons look plasticy and cheap lol (maybe look at changeing them later on with custom ones, maybe brushed aluminium etc?).

As for the ideas of locking your keys in the car when down the beach etc, that is the stupidest idea ever! Imagine someone sneeks a peak at you doing this as they walk past, or you brag to somone you know who tells other people etc. Then the next time you do such a thing, someone breaks your window, takes the keys and shuts off the alarm and a free car they have. Try explaining to your insurance why your keys were in the car. They would NEVER pay out in such a circumstance cos the car got stolen from your negligence!

Posted at 6:13 pm on Jun 30th, 2009 by Saf

oh, give me a break. It’s not like you’re going to leave the keys laying on top of the dash, and a note that says “Look for keys here!”

It’s easy enough to lock the doors with the remote, arming the alarm (assuming you have one), toss the keys under the seat or in the dash, and then shut the door. Unless someone is staring at you, they’re not going to go “Oh look, he actually didn’t use his keys to lock the door from outside the car!”

Not to mention, a thief is less likely to steal a car with a car alarm (again, if you have one) than a car sitting right next to it without one.

Of course, you can always just park next to a car that’s far more likely to be stolen :) Here’s a list: http://editorial.autos.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=434545

Posted at 6:20 pm on Jun 30th, 2009 by jc

Yeah, there’s no alarm at all on my car. Having a cheap car (arguably having a Dodge car right now) maybe helps me out. Notice that unlocking with the keypad looks exactly like pressing the inside unlock button to the car, and I didn’t have to disable any security before I did this.

Posted at 6:57 pm on Jun 30th, 2009 by Mike

@mike

That bit of info is actually kinda interesting. My van has an alarm, and using the interior unlock switch will set off the alarm if it is active. In fact, the car will NOT start, even if you have the correct key/fob, while the alarm is going off. So…if I were to perform this interesting hack, I wouldn’t be well served to activate the alarm, since the keypad would let me in, but set off the alarm as well.

Posted at 7:36 pm on Jun 30th, 2009 by Andar_b

Hey, i saw this project and am very intrested on the specs and how to do this. About how much did it cost… Please get back to me..

Email or msn msger : kid101skater@hotmail.com

Posted at 7:47 pm on Jun 30th, 2009 by Kevin

Hmm… so it can’t be brute forced.

Well, since we start at 1, lets just bash that a few times…

Posted at 4:46 am on Jul 1st, 2009 by -7-

ahh crap. no delete post option. Help, admin?

Posted at 4:53 am on Jul 1st, 2009 by -7-

@kevin: it’s all pretty well covered in the forums. If I had to make another one, it would probably cost about $200. I spend about $450 on it, but I went through a few revisions and had alot of parts that didn’t get used in the final implementation.

@-7-: it can still be brute forced, but it just takes longer. One could easily make the code longer, exponentially increasing the time it would take. Again, the fact that I have Dodge’s cheapest vehicle probably makes me less of a target.

Posted at 5:32 am on Jul 1st, 2009 by Mike

I wish I’d had this on my Blazer a year ago. We were leaving the therapy center at the local hospital (my 10 yo son is autistic) and my son got locked in the running SUV with my wife and I outside. The doors lock automatically when the ignition is started, and we couldn’t get in to our son. We had to wait 10 minutes for the tow service to come out and unlock our truck while our son was having a melt-down. We keep spare keys stashed on the truck now, but I’ll never forget the fear, and tears, of my wife and son.

Posted at 7:07 am on Jul 1st, 2009 by rallen

@andar_b: for something like that, i’d just wire the “unlock” and “lock” signal to a spare alarm keyfob instead of direct to the door locks. you could wire the keyfob to the power in the door and build a power supply so you never need to worry about changing the battery and it would work just as seemlessly as the original poster while retaining your security.

Posted at 8:03 am on Jul 1st, 2009 by slakwhere

I’m constantly locking my keys in the car on purpose. Concerts, movies, shopping.. This way I don’t have to worry. I know right where they are

Posted at 12:10 pm on Jul 1st, 2009 by sanchoooo

Had this option on my ‘92 mercury grand marquis (think police cruiser). also had large sound system in it – lots of space in trunk for subs… anyways. i always used the keypad – it was a five digit code, then press another button and the rest fo the doors unloacked, press another and the trunk popped open. i’d toss my keys in a small container in my trunk and lock it up. when i came back, i’d just enter the code, pop the trunk, grab keys and go. if anyone got in, they wouldn’t find the keys under the seat or dash, and never suspect an old geezer’s car could pump out 140 dB..

Posted at 10:15 am on Jul 2nd, 2009 by Chris

This is the one thing that I have to have on a car. I was hiking in the upper pennisula of Michigan way off the beaten path, there lying on the trail was a rusty set of General Motors keys. All I could do was thank FORD for having the keyless entry system as my keys were locked in my trunk! If you are an outdoor person keyless keypad is the only way to go. Canoeing swimming how good are the fobs going to work on the bottom of some riverbed?

Posted at 9:35 pm on Aug 17th, 2009 by kat