serial lock interface

[98AB49DC5A]

The majority of locks provide a parallel interface. The key acts on multiple pins or wafers and all locking elements can be manipulated through the keyway. I propose a lock where key cut positions are passed to an internal lock mechanism serially(like in a safe). The first design I propose is essentially a modified euro cylinder. both sides of the cylinder share a common plug and there is a pin tumbler mechanism on the inside half of the cylinder. they key can be used to operate the inside portion normally, the outside half of the plug however does not operate normally at all. it reads the key heights using a single pin and sets each of the pins in the inside lock portion individually based on the read height. As the key is inserted it pushes a slider whose position determines the pin to be set and locks already set pins in place. The attacker can't manipulate the pins individually so they can't really get much feedback. Bumping is out of the question and the locking mech is on the inside half of the cylinder making drilling a pain.

[inverseentropy]

Maybe this could be done with a disc system. I have an idea of how this would work but lack the mechanical savvy to polish up the design. Imagine a sequence of discs, like in the Abloy lock. The first disc is exposed and follows a groove in the key as the key is being inserted (the key is round and the groove is a spiral/zigzag running down the length of the key). The key is not rotated, it is just inserted and the groove causes the first disc to rotate in a certain pattern. There are clutches that can connect each disc to the next. Originally all the discs are free, but as the key is inserted the first and second discs get joined to move as a group, then the first three discs, and eventually all discs are joined together. At this point the discs all simultaneously line up to the position they need to be in. The manipulation resistance comes from the fact that if you want to move the N'th disc you must move all the previous discs at the same time as a group. It still may be possible to manipulate this like a safe but it certainly would not be easy (of course the discs should all have false gates). When a disc is not connected to the previous disc with the clutch a spring returns it to the zero position. This resets the combination when the key is removed and also complicates the manipulation process.

[Evan]

@98AB49DC5A:

So you are talking about replacing a mechanical lock cylinder with an electro-mechanical one which doesn't turn, yet only "reads" the key with sensors which can read the pin positions inside each chamber...

Having such a system manipulate and position pins in another lock seems over complicated since you have to electronically read the key being inserted in the external cylinder and encode/decode this information to that other device... It would be much simpler to just use that information for a go/no go/alarm decision and have the device release a secondary device like a latch release or mag lock holding the door closed...

~~ Evan

[98AB49DC5A]

No electronics here. I may have been (probably was) unclear on my original post. The cylinder is entirely mechanical. I'm not entirely clear on how you would do it but I'm proposing an idea. the key data is"read"by a single pin which is attached to a mechanism that sets the pins on the other side of the lock. I think though that the key should have a groove milled into it for this though so that it can set pins from back to front on the interior cylinder from the outside and from front to back(normally) from the outside, this groove would provide keycuts in reverse, anyways the slider which is pushed by the key moves laterally(forwards and backwards) in the cylinder, it extends all the way from the outside half of the cylinder to the inside half. as it is pushed in it "Locks" the pins in place, it would probably end up being like a spool pin so that the bottom thick section can sit and rest on one of perhaps 10 grooves in the side of the slider(there would be one of these for each pin height). This is not an idea for an electronic lock but rather for a purely mechanical lock that uses some electronics principles.

[Evan]

I don't see how you could do this... Inserting the key in and of itself moves one pin stack first and then each of the others in a cascading fashion until they all come to rest... And if it is mechanical and able to move, you can manipulate it somehow...

Why would this cylinder not freeze the pin stacks when the key is only partially inserted ?

This idea doesn't sound very feasible in a purely mechanical lock -- trying to apply principles of an electronic device into one that isn't won't work out very well at all...

Hence my confusion as to whether or not you were trying to describe an electro-mechanical device, which as such you would be able to set a delay from the initial movement of the first pin when the key is being inserted until the pins are set by the fully inserted key before they are "examined" to see if they are set properly before the lock ignores any further inputs until the key is removed and the lock is "quiet" for a given period...

~~ Evan

[98AB49DC5A]

It would be overly complicated, I've come up with a simple way of locking pins in place, (each pin is serated, the key pushes a bar which sticks into the seration, after it is set to the proper height of course).anyways setting the proper pin based on the position of the slider/bar/whatever locks the already set pins in place would be difficult and mechanically complex so You're right. bad idea

[98AB49DC5A]

oh, I think i see what you mean and what may have confused you. I messed up in my initial description. Hopefully this one sort of explains the concept(not that it's feasible of practical in any way). so here goes:

there are no pins in the outside portion of the cylinder, there is a slider which locks the pins on the inside half from back to front sequentially(each pin is serated, the slider slides beside the pin. It's side sticks into the seration preventing the pin from moving up or down). there is also some sort of mechanism which can set these pins before they are locked. They are set to the height of the "reading" pin on the outside half of the cylinder. as the key is inserted into the outside half of the cylinder it pushes the slider and it's cuts move this single pin up and down which sets each of the pin stacks on the inside of the cylinder to the proper height sequentially from front to back. After each stack is set to the proper height the slider immobilizes it, the next stack is then set and immobilized.

[jwhou]

Or perhaps instead of a pin for each "tooth" of the key but one pin that translates the insertion of the key to an up and down motion that can be magnified through levers and gears to operate a mechanism similar to that of a dial combination lock, ie.: reset, align one com in one direction, another in the other and so on. An additional gear can be driven by the side of the key as it is inserted giving you more mechanical energy for complicated maneuvers equivalent to the turning past the number operation on a dial combination lock. That side gear can actually move a series of gates for that one pin to set things to as well hence synchronizing the levels to the position along the key.

I would assume that there is no end to the fascinating variations possible for locks, the question is whether or not we can make any money by building a better mouse trap.