Actual Key Fob Data

[rfc805]

You already can?
Set up mobile key and disable proximity lock/unlock in the car’s settings.

Does that work? When I did this with the delivery agent, it disabled the mobile key. It would only work with proximity enabled.

 

[segbrk]

Does that work? When I did this with the delivery agent, it disabled the mobile key. It would only work with proximity enabled.

I haven't tried it in a while, but I used it like that for a few months without issue. The old iOS app / current Android app had a rather confusing warning message when you did that which looked like mobile key was disabled, but it worked anyway, that was just a UI flaw.

 

[rfc805]

I haven't tried it in a while, but I used it like that for a few months without issue. The old iOS app / current Android app had a rather confusing warning message when you did that which looked like mobile key was disabled, but it worked anyway, that was just a UI flaw.

Well hell, this whole time then I maybe thought this wasn't possible just because the app told me so - I always had the fob so I never actually tested it beyond that.

 

[Mondo316]

Thanks again Bob. The variabity we are hearing about may also be caused by a change in chip vendors. From the table I posted, different chips have different lives. I also wonder if they lower the advertising rate according to not hearing the mothership. That would be a terrific scheme to increase battery life (and justify the Faraday bag.) Fob battery SOC could be roughly measured from its battery voltage. FYI - I try to stick with Energizers from Amazon.

I wish we could hear from LUCID with real info and ideas.

I had service visit me at home in mid November 2024. Winston was the tech's name, and we discussed fob battery life. He told me that Lucid had lowered the fob advertising rate to extend battery life. He also told me that if I am near my car and its not sensing the fob, to shake the fob and that should then wake my Lucid,. Apparently, the fob has an acceleration feature to wake it up to send a signal to the car. I've not had to use this feature yet to wake my car, so haven't tested it.

Just a side note, since my purchase in 2023, Houston was my assigned service center. Being in Wichita, Kansas, its a long haul for service to make. With the above service visit, I was reassigned to the Goose Island location in Chicago, and my technician is based in Kansas City, just 3 hours away. A great improvement for those of us Lucid owners in the great plains of the USA.

 

[Steve181]

Thanks Mondo: That explains a lot.

Here is my Version 2 keyfob using a CR2477/VCN battery which should provide over 4X the life of the original battery. This uses an $8.95 key case from Amazon, that holds the Lucid fob and battery well. The battery was $4.38 + $6.99 shipping from DigiKey. A small amount of soldering is required. This is much smaller, but should last longer, than the Version 1 that I posted recently.

 

[Steve181]

Note that it also has a real house key holder instead of a mysterious slot that I was never able to thread anything through. I am now trying to learn sending the letter A in Lucid Morse Code (with tricky timing) so that the trunk will open remotely.

 

[PhotoEye]

Sometimes I feel bad for these posters, because:

I can not think of any car, at any price, that I'd rather have....

Cosmo
(representing the tens of thousands of joyful Lucid owners who can't think of any reason to post here)

"Tens of thousands?" Are we there yet?

 

[Steve181]

"Tens of thousands?" Are we there yet?

Lucid: A wonderful car insulted by a poorly designed key.

 

[fisheral]

I can just imagine the key design team being instructed to take care of aesthetics first and then try to deal with the rest later.

 

[ButMahElectrons]

The fob sure is funny.
My battery life is definitely in the 3-6mo. range since I'm not the primary driver.
But what is very annoying is that I could just breathe on the fob, and the car will wake up in the garage a million times.
But when I'm out, getting groceries or whatnot, I look like an idiot shaking my keys in the parking lot, just so the trunk can open.

 

[Buffalo Bob]

But what is very annoying is that I could just breathe on the fob, and the car will wake up in the garage a million times.
But when I'm out, getting groceries or whatnot, I look like an idiot shaking my keys in the parking lot, just so the trunk can open.

I have the exact same experience using only my phone. When you are out, I can only guess that the car knows that you have recently parked it somewhere, and if it senses a paired FOB or app shortly thereafter, it wants to be sure that you are not just walking/shopping/eating/etc. nearby. It will do the same thing if I park my car in the garage, and then return to the car a few minutes later to get something.

 

[Steve181]

I wish they would sell us one (perhaps at a discount) that works like those on a cheap rental car.

 

[dscafetta]

Being an Electrical Engineer I was curious about the key fob short life mystery, as it has hit me also. (New 2025 Air Pure). So I made some actual measurements

First, the Fob is made by a British Co. called Pektron. Their website has no Specs on it.

Next I took a microammeter and measured the current draw under the 3 conditions below:

1 - Qiesecent (far away from car): Very variable, changed about once per second in range from Approx 10 - 200 microamps.

2 - Pushing the button = 800 microamps.

3 - Sitting in car, with car on and in drive. Similar to #1 but seemed to peak at 400 microamps.

Let us reduce each of thse peaks by 1/2 to account for the duty cycle of the pulse in order to get an average draw. Thus, the averaege draw is about 100 - 200 microamps. More precise analysyis would require an oscilliscope.

The CR 2032 battery in the fob is rated at 225 mah = 225,000 micro-amp-hours. Thus, doing the simple math, at 200 microamp avearge draw it would last 47 days. At 100 microamp average draw it would last 94 days. At 50 microamp average draw it would last 188 days = 6 months. That is what many of us are noticing.

Conclusions:

1 - The fob must be scanning or has a high quiesent draw that is pulsed in some way to reduce average drain. A Farady shield is not going to fix this.
2 - None of my other cars have this problem. So better designs are possible.
3 - I am starting to think that Lucid owes us a new fob

A quick fix would be to add an external on-off slider switch in series with the battery.

Cheers,
Steve

Great job. Too bad Lucid doesn't listen to their owners...

 

[Steve181]

Can anyone please give me some info of the timing needed to send the short + long signal from the key fob to open the trunk.

It would be helpful in the form of short (seconds); space (seconds), long (seconds)

We should not have to guess this.

Thanks

 

[gkay2025]

I also faced the issue with one of my fob key for Lucid Air Pure 2025. The battery got discharged in less than a month and can't accept if something like this happens in a place where there is no internet/cellular connectivty.

 

[hydbob]

I also faced the issue with one of my fob key for Lucid Air Pure 2025. The battery got discharged in less than a month and can't accept if something like this happens in a place where there is no internet/cellular connectivty.

The fob works as a nfc key card. That's why the fob is superior to the phone.

 

[Steve181]

PLEASE LUCID OR SOMEONE: Offer a service (say $200 tops) where you mail in your old keyfob and receive a new one with buttons. It should not be rocket science to program in the lock, unlock and trunk codes in an aux. processor, especially if you have the old chip from the mailed in key. That way, if we are lucky, there would be no changes needed in the car electronics.

P.S. Has anyone looked at what the old keyfob is sending to the car (via BLE I think) when the key sequences are pushed? For example, for opening the trunk does it send two timed bursts (dot, dash) or does it send one digital code for open trunk?

 

[californiaboy935]

I love that picture!!!! Thanks. I see at least 3 paths now:

1 - Live with it or use the mobile key. (Not for me.)

2 - Rube Goldberg. Fashion a new case or leather key case that would hold a CR2 or larger CR123. That method might include removing the electronics from the old Lucid key and putting it into the new shell or case - perhaps also including a proper new physical button. Are there any folks listening with access to 3D printing capabilities here? I'd glady pay $50 for a new shell.

3 - Pressuring Lucid for a proper key, including legal efforts. Are their any attorneys listening? Does the Gravity key solve this problem? It has nice needed physical buttons.

Every other car I have driven, including cheap barebones rentals, does not have this problem. I'm sure that Lucid could have found a key vendor to do a small run of generic keys with Lucid coding. Instead it appears that they picked a vendor that does high end stylish keys but ignored the power budget.

Gravity key solves these problems. Air is stuck with these keys as I understand it, but my mobile key works great. Hopefully they can get it more consistent across the fleet but lately even having my backup NFC card in the wallet has seemed a bit superfluous… yet I know as soon as I take it out I’ll be stranded somewhere lol.

Also, re: litigation, litigation is like pouring poison into your own ear expecting someone else to die… kindness and understanding, and speaking to the passionate people over at Lucid seems to work out for most. Lucid’s isn’t an evil empire of profit hungry individuals…

To quote Joe Black “Sure, I want to make a profit. You can't exist without one.”…

 

[Steve181]

We/Lucid must pour our energy into technical cures, not litigation. I'm hoping that someone can analayze my post and find a way.