AUTO CLONING, TRANSPONDER AND KEY MACHINES

[fido0071]

as a general Mobile locksmith UK, I've Been to the MLA conventions etc, But I have now decided to go to the ALEX one in a few weeks. I've never really done much on Auto Lockmithing before, However, I am also a qualified auto technician / mechanic, which I own my own expensive diagnostic equipment but I'm diversifying into vehicle entry, key cloning and ecu programming, and eeprom. Now, It has been suggested that I do the hickleys 10 day Auto course, but the feedback I'm hereing is that they do not offer so much in the field after the course, or provide sufficient ongoing support.

Question 1
Is the best move forward to do the TEN day course offereed by Hickleys? if not then point me in the right direction.

Question 2
I know, like most things in our industry, there are mixed opinions, But again I need all opinions on machines to purchase, Keyscan? Tango? MVP/AD100? JMA TRS500? Silca RW4/plus/fastcopy? programmers Silca SBB? Zed Full? Mirraclone/eeprom?

any help at all would be much appreciated. And like all the electronic industry STAY AWAY FROM CHEAP CHINESE COPIES!


BRY

[Tyler J. Thomas]

As far as product opinions, you've got a mix of cloners/programmers in your list. MVP and Zed, for example, are programmers; TRS-5000 is a cloner.

When I stopped doing automotive, JMA was the only one that used ACTUAL transponders. In other words, they had the IC, the coil, and the glass vial. Silca and others were using electronics that mimicked transponders. They were active, so to speak, and JMA's were passive (used the antenna in the steering column for the power). Throw a JMA in water and leave it there, it'll function just fine when you pull it out. The rest can't be said for the competition, or that WAS the case in 2009.

I'd research it but JMA, thanks to their frequent updates and customer support along with their use of actual transponders, get my support any day. Do your due diligence to their update process these days but when I used them they offered free software updates every year.

[Squelchtone]

[EDIT: moved thread to Locksmith business area, please post topics in the correct sub forum ]