Introduction #

When I graduated college, I had been driving nothing but minivans up to that point. So when I got my first job, I bought my first sports car! A 2007 Mazda MX-5 Miata! With a retractable hardtop no less!!

I loved this car so much and tried to take care of it the best I could! I would wash it at least once a week, always kept it in a garage, and did most of the maintenance myself!

However, this car like many cars has some flaws. The biggest flaw for me was the key the Mazada chose to make for this series of the Mazda (NC) Miata.

The Car Key #

The car key for this card was shaped like a credit card and called a Smart Key because it gave you keyless entry way back in 2007. Which is pretty cool! But that feature did not work for me for that long... The key died on me after a while and after replacing the batteries the key fob still didn't work correctly....

So I resorted to using the physical key that slides out from the key fob part as seen in the photo above...

The problem is that the more you use the physical key, the easier it will be for the physical key to slide out from the fob by itself! Which will cause you to lose the key when you are walking around with it on your keychain after some time!

So oh no! there is no way to start your car and the physical keys need to be programmed to the car to work. So you can not simply go to the hardware store to get a new one!

I had to go to the dealer and they have to order a new key for the Miata if I lose and it isn't cheap! Even with choosing to get it programmed at a locksmith it still cost me $200 to buy the new key and have it programmed to my car.

Which isn't cheap for someone who was early in their career at the time... So this cannot keep happening!

Creating a Solution #

So like I said this problem cannot keep happening, I do not want to constantly give over $200 every time I lose my key and have an unmoveable vehicle at the same time too!

So I had a 3D printer sitting in my closet collecting dust and I needed to figure out something to do with it.

Additionally, I watched some YouTube videos saying I could design things for 3D printing using Fusion 360! Great series of videos here on Fusion 360: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjF7R1fz_OOVsMp6nKnpjsXSQ45nxfORb&si=rZk2Tybxz9nJh0PL

So I bought a caliber to take measurements for the key and started teaching myself Fusion 360!

After a while, I had a model I liked and you can see it below:

Results #

After testing for a while, I was so excited with what I made and posted it to Reddit.

To my surprise, quite a few other people were excited about it too. I was not really that sure how I was going to sell it at the time. However, someone did contact me about buying one! So I printed another holder on my 3D printer and had to figure out shipping. Because I was about to leave for a trip, I was kind of in a rush to get it shipped.

Which caused me to be at a net loss of $3 after shipping. That was kind of disappointing and I stopped investing time into this project after that....

However, two years later someone else contacted me on Reddit to buy one. This time around I set up an Etsy shop and it made the whole process so much easier!

In terms of handling payment and figuring out how to ship this product! Resulting in me turning a profit this time! Which is awesome! I have learned so much from this project!

If you would like to see more about what the key holder looks like or buy one yourself check it out at this link here: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1694747439/mazda-mx-5-miata-rx-8-smart-card-nfy7-67