[GRey]

What an absolutely insane difference a smaller nozzle makes!! This is the fidelity I've been looking for. Not sure why the area around the red is so dark when my purge volumes (to keep one color filament from still being in the nozzle when it starts printing another color) are enormous to prevent this very issue - but I'm otherwise extremely happy with this, especially the buttons!

I've re-added the Corolla logo in on the thicker base, and printing another prototype now.... It's a 16-hour print, so I won't have results until tomorrow!

I do have some other things I'm doing to prevent cracking, etc. over time. Adding .5mm to each the top and bottom (total 1mm) definitely helped a ton, but I'm also going to move to a 100% infill when printing the final product. That will make sure that they are solid. As it stands, even with 25% infill, I can't easily damage them. Even with normal ABS, there is very little flex, as well.

Anyway, I'd like to think I'll have a fully serviceable product this week!

One minor change I made is adding the white border to the 'GR' logo. I've noticed that there is always a border where the logo is represented, so wanted to make sure I was doing it properly!

 

[GRey]

Awesome. Can I order one from you and replace the panic button with a oh fuck button?

 

[Warpath]

View attachment 38102

 

[GRey]

Had some quality issues with my overnight print, most likely due to humidity. Spent the day drying my filament, while pondering the overall design.

Like many of you, I really don't like the reduced capacity of the battery. I'm printing a super quick prototype now of another bottom which is .5mm thicker, and allows for a .5mm thicker battery to see if that will work. If that works as I think it will, that will mean the design has been updated to use the original battery, which would be awesome.

So, the overall design will be about 1.5mm thicker than the original from this thread, but is substantially thicker around the buttons and the back, and will support the original battery.

I'm also working on getting the kits together, which will have everything you need to assemble the new key. Looking good so far for this week!

Oh, and I'll print out some buttons with an 'OH FUCK' button in the next day or so to let people choose which one they want.

 

[spike021]

i didn't read the whole thread but was wondering if this is reversible? i.e. can the stuff be swapped back to the original fob?

 

[GRey]

i didn't read the whole thread but was wondering if this is reversible? i.e. can the stuff be swapped back to the original fob?

Yep, no problem at all.

 

[WideHippedCorolla]

Looks great, @GRey ! Any chance you can print a face with just the lock and unlock? I have zero need for the panic button and it ended up being a weak spot (i.e., where much of the cracking happened) in CawaGR’s initial prototype. Count me in either way.

 

[GRey]

Thanks! Yeah, I’m sure I could eliminate thar button, but I definitely do not expect any weak spots on the new design.

I’ll play around with it a bit and see if it helps the structural rigidity at all, though. It’s worth a shot!

 

[Conissah]

Here's my contribution. Scaled up the original fob by ~8% or so and thickened up both the top and bottom faces to allow for the entire center PCB (with the plastic cover and factory battery) to fit with 0 modification. I don't have a small enough nozzle to print the fine letters on the buttons but may order it. Redoing the print now (hence why there is no buttons or board in it) but overall I'm happy. I also only have normal M2.5 cap head screws on hand and no heat inserts, so for now just threading it into the plastic. Will be printing the keyring out of carbon fiber infused filament,.

 

[GRey]

Here's my contribution. Scaled up the original fob by ~8% or so and thickened up both the top and bottom faces to allow for the entire center PCB (with the plastic cover and factory battery) to fit with 0 modification. I don't have a small enough nozzle to print the fine letters on the buttons but may order it. Redoing the print now (hence why there is no buttons or board in it) but overall I'm happy. I also only have normal M2.5 cap head screws on hand and no heat inserts, so for now just threading it into the plastic. Will be printing the keyring out of carbon fiber infused filament,.

View attachment 38157
View attachment 38158
View attachment 38159
View attachment 38160
View attachment 38161

It looks great!

Edit - just saw you said you're printing the KEYRING out of carbon-infused element. That makes sense.

 

[GRey]

Sadly, I haven't had as much luck. Just did a 21-hour print on the colorized parts. The 'OH FUCK' button has a weird dark spot in the 'U', and the GR and Corolla logos on both bottom halves I printed look like garbage.

Not super happy, as you might imagine! The color bleeding I'm experiencing really makes no sense at all, as I'm watching the filament come out completely clean before it prints those parts.

I think the 'Corolla' logo is still too fine to print properly, so I'm going to eliminate that again.

On a positive note, the fronts I printed yesterday are built like a brick shithouse. They're not even full strength yet, and it's impossible to crack one with any reasonable method, so that is definitely no longer a concern. Once they're printed in full 100% infill I don't think they would crack under anything other than intentional damage.

 

[Conissah]

Sadly, I haven't had as much luck. Just did a 21-hour print on the colorized parts. The 'OH FUCK' button has a weird dark spot in the 'U', and the GR and Corolla logos on both bottom halves I printed look like garbage.

Not super happy, as you might imagine! The color bleeding I'm experiencing really makes no sense at all, as I'm watching the filament come out completely clean before it prints those parts.

I think the 'Corolla' logo is still too fine to print properly, so I'm going to eliminate that again.

On a positive note, the fronts I printed yesterday are built like a brick shithouse. They're not even full strength yet, and it's impossible to crack one with any reasonable method, so that is definitely no longer a concern. Once they're printed in full 100% infill I don't think they would crack under anything other than intentional damage.

What printer do you have? One full fob (even with color changing) takes 1hr 11mins.

 

[GRey]

What printer do you have? One full fob (even with color changing) takes 1hr 11mins.

I have a Bambu X1C. I CAN print them super fast, but I'm printing in extremely fine, with a .2mm nozzle, with 100% infill. And massive purge volumes to make sure there's no bleeding.... which I still somehow have plenty of

With my old .4mm nozzle, on normal quality (or even high quality) with normal purge volumes and mostly default settings otherwise, yeah, I could print one pretty fast. I'm working on production quality at this point, though - looking to get near-injection-molded quality out of it, and for the ABS itself, it's mostly succeeded.

 

[3SHIFT]

I have a Bambu X1C. I CAN print them super fast, but I'm printing in extremely fine, with a .2mm nozzle, with 100% infill. And massive purge volumes to make sure there's no bleeding.... which I still somehow have plenty of

With my old .4mm nozzle, on normal quality (or even high quality) with normal purge volumes and mostly default settings otherwise, yeah, I could print one pretty fast. I'm working on production quality at this point, though - looking to get near-injection-molded quality out of it, and for the ABS itself, it's mostly succeeded.

To get my relatively clear see through PETG prints I was printing at 20mm/s at a low layer height and I think I still printed it in 4 or 8 hours. What layer height are you using?

 

[GRey]

To get my relatively clear see through PETG prints I was printing at 20mm/s at a low layer height and I think I still printed it in 4 or 8 hours. What layer height are you using?

My layer heights are .06mm, initial layer is .1mm.

Line width is only .22mm.

Speeds are pretty high, my slowest speed on any given part of these prints should be about 40mm/s. It's just the line width and layer height, along with 100% infill. The new design also has a LOT more material.

I noticed this morning, though, that it's the buttons that really kill the speed. Removing the buttons from my most recent print (it was 2 sets of buttons) cut the print time by 11 hours. Printing the buttons with so many colors, the red button for PANIC, etc. just takes a ton of time, there are 64 filament changes alone. Removing the buttons cuts it down to 16 filament changes for just the GR logo on the back (8 layers deep).

Edit: If I just wanted some prints quickly, I could switch to my ObXidian High Flow .4mm nozzle, leave the defaults on, and cook through a key in probably 40 minutes, but I'm really obsessed with making these things look like they did NOT come from a 3D printer.

 

[3SHIFT]

My layer heights are .06mm, initial layer is .1mm.

Line width is only .22mm.

Speeds are pretty high, my slowest speed on any given part of these prints should be about 40mm/s. It's just the line width and layer height, along with 100% infill. The new design also has a LOT more material.

I noticed this morning, though, that it's the buttons that really kill the speed. Removing the buttons from my most recent print (it was 2 sets of buttons) cut the print time by 11 hours. Printing the buttons with so many colors, the red button for PANIC, etc. just takes a ton of time, there are 64 filament changes alone. Removing the buttons cuts it down to 16 filament changes for just the GR logo on the back (8 layers deep).

Edit: If I just wanted some prints quickly, I could switch to my ObXidian High Flow .4mm nozzle, leave the defaults on, and cook through a key in probably 40 minutes, but I'm really obsessed with making these things look like they did NOT come from a 3D printer.

I think the PEI sheet I used helped a lot with that.

The buttons could use some work but I'm really happy with the frame. I lost the logo but made up with it a bit with the transparency.

 

[GRey]

Some really good print progress today, finally. I'm ~95% happy with how the bottom shell is coming out, 99% happy with the top shell, 99% happy with the buttons (there is an odd random one here or there which doesn't come out quite right, but it happens!), and overall pretty happy with the fit and finish.

A couple of details!

- I'm making some additional adjustments for the battery. The batteries that came with my OEM keyfobs are slightly out of spec for the battery size (a pinch thicker, nothing tremendous), but it's enough to throw the fit out of whack. I've made some adjustments to give the battery a pinch more room, and allow the spring on the keyfob's board to take up any slack from battery variances.

- I've completely deleted the logo from the original key design, and replaced it with an official svg file of the GR logo, direct from GR. I've also made the GR logo a pinch bigger, since I've opted to move away from the 'Corolla' logo, since it was too fine for the fob size. The overall look is much better.

- I've found that printing at a slightly lower quality within the printer software actually results in a much better end product, so that's always fun to discover. The nice thing is, that reduces my print times substantially!

- I've ordered new keyrings. I'm not happy with the aluminum ones, as mine has gouges in it after only a week or so of use, and I'm about as gentle as you can be with the thing. I've ordered a new batch of them in Titanium-5, which should hold up a LOT better.

- I've got a prototype I'm going to do some sanding work on, chasing perfection. If it comes out well, they will all be sanded the same. I'm even working on an actual process to try and churn through them if need be.

- I've ordered a bunch of stuff to assemble proper kits. Little boxes, ziplock bags for screws and an allen wrench, etc. I can't wait to start piecing them together!

- Reach out to me via PM if you're interested in buying keys. I'd like to start gauging actual interest, and furnishing people with a price instead of the idea of a fob which may never exist!

 

[Partymullet]

I think the PEI sheet I used helped a lot with that.

The buttons could use some work but I'm really happy with the frame. I lost the logo but made up with it a bit with the transparency.

View attachment 38166 View attachment 38167

That looks rad!

 

[GRey]

Titanium parts are in! Now to switch back to my .2mm nozzle and print some final prototypes. There's a good chance of these being done this week!

While I was waiting for parts, I switched over to my .4mm ObXidian HF nozzle to print some stuff for organization, etc. It's the first time I've used the high-flow nozzle, and man it is FAST. I was able to print a full-color back of a keyfob in about 15 minutes, with pretty good quality! Unfortunately the .4mm nozzle means it's not as sharp around the details, and you see a bit of the texture from the printer, so the quality definitely isn't there for something like this, but it's been great for the other projects I've needed to use it for.

Here are the titanium parts! SendCutSend did a great job on them, and they're made in the US which is great. I definitely see a couple which don't immediately pass muster (visible in the bag), but I'm quite happy for the price.

I'll be reaching back out to everyone who has shown interest in the next couple of days to get quantities, etc., but not before posting pictures of the final prototype.

 

[Vatican]

I’m super interested and would love to see the newest prototype!