OEM remote programing completed, you need at least one original remote.

[Scrapdog2grand]

This is how you reprogram the old 91 and later remotes that need to be programed by Kenwood.

I had two remotes come with my 91 NSX, One worked and the other did not, both had different series numbers.
After thinking about Kenwood having to program these before sending them out, it got me thinking about how might they go about programing it. I decided to closely examine the internals of one of the two remotes, then opened up the other, and I found a difference
I had nothing to loose as the second remote didn't work anyway.

The flexible circuit board on the back side has a series of holes, The traces punched out determine the frequency.
The punched holes on the flexible circuit board on the replacement need to match up with the original.

So you either need to make your own hole or solder a jumper on the bottom side of the flexible board, if you don't have a remote at all your shit outta luck.

I was lucky and had a about a dozen of the copper traces punched out of my original remote, my replacement only had 3 traces punched out and I did not have to try to repair a punch trace.
i slid a credit card under the flex board to loosen the adhesive, then with the credit card still in place under the board and using a 10x lens to see (cause i am blind as a bat), I took a very small sharp razor blade to the board and cut out small square holes where the traces needed to be cut.
If you had to repair a trace, that would be quit a bit more involved and you could damage the flexible circuit board.

I'm done with my confirmation, it does in fact work. After testing it I cleaned the holes up to make sure I didn't have small piece of the trace that would later make contact

On the left side board you can see 14 clean holes (small holes) on either side of a through hole, I only had 3 or 4 holes on the right side board.
If your good with a solder sucker and iron, you could swap the flex circuit board from a bad remote to a known good one too.

 

[htown]

Very nice! Any pics of the boards?

 

[Scrapdog2grand]

I forgot, just put it up there. This should work with any of the old remotes from back then, Legend, Vigor, and whatever else Honda listed in the bulletin as not programmable.

 

[htown]

I couldn't even tell which one is OEM. Great find!

 

[J-RnsxT]

Ill tru this, thanks!

 

[shawn110975]

very cool that WITH another working FOB your were able to ( copy ) the working one.

now say you have a brain with no remotes....... you buy some spares off ebay....... how do you figure out what punches and leads need to be cut to get the right freq. for the specific brain?
I remember old viper alarm you had to do the same thing

this thread should be renamed " copy your spare oem remote "

so as it stands if you car has the OEM alarm and no remotes getting the serial number off the brain and ordering the new remotes from kenwood is still your only option

 

[Scrapdog2grand]

Yup, you are correct, the title does say "you need at least one original".
I have not looked at the receiver, so I dont know if its chipped, dip switches, or done in a similar manor.
I believe there are about 65,000 code options, but I didn't do the math someone else did, that same person is trying to figure out the coding now, but I doubt that will happen.

 

[nikey22]

Yup, you are correct, the title does say "you need at least one original".
I have not looked at the receiver, so I dont know if its chipped, dip switches, or done in a similar manor.
I believe there are about 65,000 code options, but I didn't do the math someone else did, that same person is trying to figure out the coding now, but I doubt that will happen.

we need to figure out how the serial number is linked to the punched out holes. There must be a secret algorithm somewhere that Kenwood uses to correctly punch/solder the holes based on serial #.

 

[Scrapdog2grand]

we need to figure out how the serial number is linked to the punched out holes. There must be a secret algorithm somewhere that Kenwood uses to correctly punch/solder the holes based on serial #.

I think the serial number on the back of the remote is a random number associated only with the remote code in the system.. I think the one inside on the board is perhaps some type of reference like you are describing.

 

[nikey22]

I think the serial number on the back of the remote is a random number associated only with the remote code in the system.. I think the one inside on the board is perhaps some type of reference like you are describing.

However, there have been people here who have purchased a "brain" without any existing remotes and ordered remotes from Kenwood, and all they did was provide the Serial # off of the brain-unit.

 

[warrenw]

However, there have been people here who have purchased a "brain" without any existing remotes and ordered remotes from Kenwood, and all they did was provide the Serial # off of the brain-unit.

Yes, I have done this many years ago now. but with the brain s/n, Kenwood can generate the code and program the remote as shown in this thread.

 

[nikey22]

warrenw, I tried asking Acura Canada about this, they said that this would only be possible if you go to the US and ask an Acura dealer there to order it from Kenwood. It doesn't work in Canada. Was that your experience? Thanks.

 

[warrenw]

I ordered through Dali. They worked with a U.S. dealer