Below you'll find both the standard decoding method for resettable combination locks, and also a visual method for decoding.
Here we see the product in all it's glory. Interestingly woot actually sent me two different generations of this product. The one to the right has a small red circle over the area that the newer model has actually installed a screw. This screw does wonders, as the one on the right literally fell apart as soon as I inserted my USB device. Immediately!
The backside of the newer model.
The inside of the older model, having only a small bit of metal to jam/wedge the device shut.
The device in it's locked position, those two prongs you see hook into here:
The two open slots on a normal USB connector.
And the lock in it's open position.
The now safely locked up USB connector.
The inner workings. This is all very normal and I think you can see how the action works. The dials are turned to the right position, the long red piece is then able to fit it's prongs into the gaps made in the wheels.
Close up of the red piece in the wheel, displaying the gap.
Close up of the action required to open the lock.
Now, as I learned on LP101 you can quickly decode a lock of this style by taking a small shim and inserting it under the wheel to feel for that large gap.
As you can see, the top image is turned to a useless position as far as decoding is concerned, and the shim won't go in.
In the second picture the shim has found the gap. All you need to do is get the gap in each wheel in the exact same position, then move all of the wheels in sync. Eventually you're going to find the position in which the prongs meet the gaps.
Two angles of what's actually happening inside the lock when you insert the shim.
So, thinking back to that Masterlock Carabiner lock we had looked at a few weeks ago, I wanted to see if there was a purely visual method of decoding this lock.
At first I was pretty bummed out. Lifting the white number wheel with a pick DID allow me to see the red wheel beneath, but because of the tight space, I wasn't able to see the gap, as it starts a little bit below the top of the red wheel.
However! After some further inspection I noticed this:
It's a small line that runs the full height of the red wheel, and thus, is visible when you slightly lift the white wheel with a pick. When you find this line, you just need to turn the wheels three positions to the left, and you've got the right combination.
So, if you're stuck without a shim, and don't feel like pulling hard enough to break it off (and possibly damage the USB device it's attached to) you should still be able to visual decode this lock.
TADA! Hope this all posts right.
They're both reassembled, now.
