A modern car is a priori protected from theft somewhat better than its carburetor ancestor 20-30 years ago. One of the steps of protection is the presence of a chip key. The first imported alarms that appeared on our market in the 90s warned the installer: they say, you can only break the circuit that controls the starter. True, there wasn’t much to tear up on carburetor cars: except for the ignition coil power circuit, which a seasoned hijacker could restore in seconds. And it was only with the advent of injection engines that it became possible to block the integrated power and ignition management system, the key programming sag can be seen on the website. The first and probably the last domestic car with an injection engine and a conventional ignition key was the Svyatogor with a Renault F3R engine. It was like a carburetor car. The ignition switch supplied power to the «brains» of the engine, and those provided the spark plugs and fuel supply, сar key programming on the website.
With the advent of the fuel injection system, Vaz cars immediately acquired the APS unit (automotive anti-theft system), which communicated with the chip in the ignition key and only after identifying its key gave the ECU (electronic control unit) permission to start the engine. Now the unit has greatly decreased in size and is located under the steering column casing. The body of the ignition lock of the car is surrounded by a frame that is connected directly to the immobilizer unit. When the ignition is turned on, the unit sends pulses to this frame and switches to reading mode, that is, it begins to receive a response from the chip key. The chip-key receives energy from the pulse and begins to transmit the code sewn into it to the immobilizer frame. The immobilizer frame accepts the code and, if the code matches, makes it possible to start the engine. After that, everything goes on as usual, and the mentioned starting circuit is no longer needed. It is clear that with this approach, the usual ignition key gives way to a chip key.
There is nothing complicated about this: even people who do not have a car at all face chip keys on a daily basis. After all, the key to the intercom, which now stands on the entrance door of almost any apartment building, is made using the same technology.
