A Noob, produces productive ghetto pickgun

[iburnbud]

Hi,

Ive been occasionally on and off lurking here for some time, rolling thru the posts, absorbing as i can.. the info and users here are incredible. Thanks for a great wealth of nfo.

I built this ugly pick gun, and figured it might be nice to make a post.


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parts:

motor and cheap metal housing from massage cushion.
unknown mini button switch
hacksaw blade
elec tape, clear packing tape
1' drywall screws
variable resistor - unknown

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http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d125/ ... 010024.jpg
Above are the mini button and resistor - the resistor failed and was removed. This micro button is activated by pushing OR bending on it.

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d125/ ... 010013.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d125/ ... 010019.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d125/ ... 010018.jpg
Above 3 images of the motor used ( housing top has been removed ) The motors had the offset weight on them already - nice. The power pack was originally 18-24 volts?

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d125/ ... 010014.jpg
Above is how i set up the actuator, the one pictured broke when i got extremely careless. The design allows for easy and fast blade change via
removal of the 2 screws.


http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d125/ ... 010015.jpg
Basically, i just mounted the actuator(blade) to the side of the motor housing, and anchored the back with a screw thru the hacksaw blade hole,
than in the front, another screw on the topside. Than went around it with the 2' clear packing tape.


http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d125/ ... 010017.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d125/ ... 010016.jpg
Ran the button and resistor with some wire i got off the motors, and taped it up with the button in a comfortable place.

Thats pretty much it.



Powered up with various dc adapters, 6-12v up to 500 ma. seemed real real weak -- most likely since these motors need some juice. than i hooked up a 24v 500ma adapter and the thing hummed like i knew it was supposed to.( i think heh)

Initially the actuator was too short, and after hours of playing and tweaking on a 5 pin cheap deadbolt lock, it was opening everything within 30 seconds, as i worked it. I was freaking at this point.


http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d125/ ... 010023.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d125/ ... 010021.jpg
So after all the fuss, i started wanting cordless. tried many batteries and what worked the best was 2 18v batteries in series. This felt like twice the power of the 24v adapter, and whats more-- it opened all the locks i had in seconds. Pretty much instant open. This thing BANGS very hard.

I learned that (in this case) the more power and harder the vibe the faster the lock opened. This information was unknown to me. I know i havent done anything new - but ive looked thru a lot of homebrew elec guns, and most are trivially weak devices, and I hadnt thought along the lines of power really.

Having the external power source, and heavy duty motor gets the job DONE! -- im only hurting cause all the locks here seemed all too easy.
After having built this gun, i cant see how any toothbrush could compete.(of course i plan to find out first hand.)


It has apprx 2mm stroke +/- .5mm
the playing card was there originally before the front screw was added -- this was to keep the blade from getting thru the tape. also tried it with a few handles to get the vibe off me -- but was uncomfortable and not needed. This gun feels great while in use, and theres no worries about snapping when using so much power.

again, i thank you(forum)
hope im in the right spot with this



peace

[zeke79]

36v!!! Be carefull with that much juice . Nice job on the pick. Maybe add a pot for adjustable speed just for fun .

[webidiot2]

Great work I have to say it is the most informative first post from a noob ever!!

[master in training]

I agree, a very informative post, well done!

At 36 volts does it unlock locks or simply cut them in half?!

It would be good if you could get a video of it opening a lock, just so we can see what kind of power it puts out and things like that.

You'll have to be careful with such a lot of power going through it that it doesnt destroy the pins in the lock as well as the plug etc, bear in mind that the lock is only made of fairly soft brass and the springs are very thin. I woudnt advise using this on locks you rely on untill you're certain no damage is done!

~ MiT ~

[iburnbud]

hi,

Thanks for the positive comments!

There was variable resist (pot) installed initially, and it worked for maybe 5 minutes. It heated up, than failed, (would only work in +90% position or so) so it was discarded.

I felt the micro button used may fail as well, but those were the best parts in the junk drawer. It has not failed yet though.

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Ive read(here) about how hitting the pins hard enough can damage, or jar the top pins into the lock - but i wasnt worried, since Im not working in any lock service field. This was built out of sheer curiosity, however, there
is no evident damage(yet) - whats more, barely any metal dust at all.
(glad my front and back door locks still work fine!--all the locks its opened tens(and tens!) of times still are fine)

As a matter of fact - i took the benched lock apart to try and key it to an existing key, which was successful and kind of hard-> Im not sure this lock was made for rekeying. The top had brass punch downs that would have to be drilled out to drop anything in from the top - so i tedoiusly tweezed it all back together thru the body. The convex shape of the pins was in tact with minimal scratching. Maybe cause i filed the
actuator so smoothly? At one point I did add a drop of oil tho to the actuator, realizing i had a powerful tool.


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I do have a few 4.5 meg videos but dont know where to host them.
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Also -- changing the pins to a totally different config made no difference in how fast it opened. I just insert it and make sure its flush with all the pins and tap the button -- Rarely, if at all does it take more than a second.

Just measured 6.83 amps off one of the 18v batteries used, which are only a few days old.
I bought an 18v set(drill/light) made by Coleman from *mart for 25 bucks on clearance - and its those batteries being tested.


Also - tried the unit with 14.4(2a) -- and 28.8v(2 in series 5a) and it just wasnt powerfull enough. When the lower voltage batts were used, i had to manipulate the gun more(like a mix between elec and manual), and it could take all the way up to 60 seconds at times, which seems way too long in comparisin.

It was clear - less power, more time to pick.(could be cause im noobed i admit) Even when there was clearly had enough power to get a kinetic effect, the extra power just makes it rapidly so. Maybe the top pins go up to and the vibe just keeps them there or something? since theres a slight orbital effect?

-- originally with the 24v dc adapter, i was running the motor for good amounts of time -- up to a few minutes maybe, playing with it, and learning to use it. It got warm, but didnt seem stressed by heat or odor - whats more.. no fuse was ever installed.

Another thing to mention -- i have 2 pachislo skill slot machines(babel and XXXX). I picked each one 3 times in a row with no problems at all, and no time difference from a regular 5 pin lock. I noticed the keyway looked funny. The locks are the type that use the keys with the divets on the sides.
Since this casual pick is not an exact science -- it also moves from side to side as well as up and down while oscillating. It was picking it by the same method, but slapping side to side in there. (this was before i changed the skew of the blade mount to reduce side to side motion -- it was getting 3-4 mils of side to side but not so powerful)


I think ill work on the body and cable design, untill i can realize motors that require less power(and still have torque/speed), or some type of gearing. Im semi-limited to onhand/cheap equip.



peace

[Manz_Moe]

Hey very nice work mate!!

DIY lock picking is great!!!

The next step which youve already worked out would be a reduction in power usage, a reduction of vibration and wrap the entire project up in a visually appealing way (pvc and epoxy are cheap) . With the vibration tone it down so it does minimal damage to the internals.

Very nice work though mate, and a great posting!!!

[Octillion]

I know a lot more about electronics than I do about lockpicking, so hopefully I can be of some help here.

I could be wrong, but just looking at the motor I would guess it runs on no more than 12 volts. It does not look that large, and if it starts to feel warm, too much power is running through it. I would cut the voltage down, but it is important to have enough current - the adapter may have been slow because it could not provide enough current. But if it is still to slow to vibrate pins successfully, use a smaller mass, so that there is a smaller moment of inertia, allowing the motor to spin faster. The vibrations will be higher in frequency, and have less force with a smaller mass, so less destructive to pins.

Also, speed control would be a good feature, although a potentiometer will not work unless it is a very large (it will be physically), capable of a few amps. That little guy you had was not made for more than a few milliamps, so by the time the resistance is adjusted to one low enough to get the motor running, so much current is pumping through the potentiometer it will go up in smoke. The usual way to control speed is with pulse width modulation, which is just a fancy way of saying you turn on and off the current really fast, so the effect you get is the same as if you just dropped the voltage. That cordless drill you bought will have a little IC in there that does this, so if you bought that just for the batteries, you may be able to salvage that IC as well for use in your device.

[iburnbud]

a good friend hosted these vids on request.



the first one is original 24v dc adapter and original pinset.
http://csel.cs.colorado.edu/~lmiller/2400bps.gun1.mov

this one is with 36v batts. and changed pinset as differently as poss.
http://csel.cs.colorado.edu/~lmiller/24 ... .final.mov

[illusion]

Very interesting iburnbud

The second one sounds like it may be too powerful, and damaging to the pins, however it appears to open the lock well.

Congratulations, and thanks for sharing this.

[stlbolt]

my god that things a beast be careful what locks you use that on lol... Nice job though! haha cool vids

[NKT]

It's a beast, all right!

Having it hit hard enough to open in a second probably means less wear to the lock, to be honest. I find that with long bursts, you tend to wear the wards, and the pins only get damaged after a *lot* of abuse.

I might make one - it certainly hits harder than my HPC!

[Shrub]

Looks ike a perfect tool to give you white finger but a good first effort non-the-less.

[Shrub]

What make locks are on the vids?

[ubodlaj]

hey man!!!!hihi wtf is that ...you need to wear a backpack to carry all that shit with you..hehe
cmon man..
a screw to gain strikes cmon?!
see at my ahit i created..
you even dont need do unplug the "machine" from the power source...yust plug in the current and it works...
viewtopic.php?t=11376

about resistors that you were connecting to that battery
cmon man
U=R*I
R=U/I
I=U/R
U=voltage
R=resistor
I=current


calculate a little

hihi

bye bye hehe

[ubodlaj]

OK OK!
it works preety good there is no comment from my side...yust well modify it a little bit that it will not be such a beast--size..
and reduce power:)-chose a weeker motor