Mechanical meets electronical

[TheSkyer]

So,

I'm taking a long shot here but I can't resist taking it anyway XD Could be that somebody already tought of this but i'm still gonna give it a go.

We all know that it's getting cheaper and cheaper and cheaper to produce sensors and small electronics. I was thinking you could combine the comfort of mechanical security with a bit of electronic security. I've seen some locks which have an alarm on them if you move them about to much and it inspired me to think a bit further.

What if you put a pressure pad behind the springs in the top of the cylinder that measures 2 things.

1 the order in which the pins are touched. A key for a 7 pin lock for example would touch the sensor in the order 1,2,3,4,5,6,7. If you pick it however you wouldn't touch them in that order or even if you did you'd probably not set them all at once, so the order would be 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,5,5,3,4 or something like that.
2: the force with which the the pins are pressed upwards. The key will only put so much pressure on these pads (with a certain margin for error of course) while for example bumping would put a far greater pressure on the sensor.

If by this sensor principle tampering is detected 1 or 2 pins would lock into holes in the side of cylinder causing the cylinder to be unable to turn until the right key has been inserted and the lock resets.
The whole mechanics behind it could be battery powered, you would have a separate small compartment on the inside of the door which would hold the battery for the lock.

The concept is a little rough around the edges and I like some feedback to see if we can make this into some sort of plausible concept. I realize there is a cost involve in making a system like this work but a Medico (or some other high end lock) isn't all that cheap either

[dls]

There are several problems with a hybrid lock
1 extra complexity
2 increased cost
3 need for alarm or monitoring equip etc
4 large variety of installations cold, hot,dry, wet, corrosive sea spray to name a few.
5 limited market
6 the list goes on

[nearaidobbite]

ive got all but mechanical ape, would dig it as well please

[GeneT]

I rather like the idea. The downside is that it would have to 'fail open' - so when the battery died, you'd still be able to open the lock. Then too, how does one open it after it has detected an attack and gone into lockout. Timeout? Just throwing ideas out. I think it would need a periodic self-calibration to compensate for changes in pressure that will occur due to wear, dirt, etc.

Digging the idea though - especially for locks where recording tampering or access is a key feature.

GsT

[Varminter]

I like your idea of the order of pins that are touched, a timeout of 5 minutes or so would make the picking really annoying.

I've actually thought of something like this myself, how about either a light sensor (unsure what it's really called, it measures the amount of light) so that it would have to be picked in complete darkness and/or a pressure sensor of some sort that is calibrated to the amount of pressure the correct key exerts when it's inserted all the way in.
If you're thinking really advanced you could add a feature that measures conductivity over certain points on the key when it's inserted, or should I say it measures the lack of conductivity? So when a incorrect key is inserted the lock will lock up and be unable to open for a set timeout period.

[Lock Jock]

Dunno if you've abandoned this by now, but I take it you're thinking of strain gauge transducers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strain_gauge

They're available in sizes small enough for use in cylinder locks: http://www.mflstraingauges.com/index_gauge_types.html

However, a related patent has been applied for: http://www.patentstorm.us/applications/ ... ltext.html
The application is different, but the basic idea of using them in a locking apparatus has been claimed.

[Daggers]

just have a pressure sensor that senses pressure from the springs and then have it recongnize the order and the amount of pressure (the biting of the key) so that only the actual key can keep it from locking the pins up. But people put the wrong key in sometime so there should be a limited number of times that the amount of pressure lifting the pins up is wrong but still keeping the order of the pins lifting the same. And also, when taking the key out, all the pins lift up and then that number decreases by one. Inserting the key lifts the pins and adds one pin to the number of pins that rise.