by BbGenesis » 17 Dec 2016 12:45
Sorry to chime in on an old thread, I was around lurking and thought I might have some stuff to add on this one. I like this idea a lot, especially the key insertion idea where the lock waits for key and pin interactions to determine if it's picking or a key. You could do this with a microcontroller fairly easily and, I'm going to make it a little more elaborate here, but it would be more dependant on software vs hardware so it wouldn't really cost or add anything extra to building it. I'm not sure how well I'll be at explaining it but I'm going to try and hopefully ya'll will get it.
For simplicity of the example lets say it's a 5 pin lock pinned 32554. As you insert the key it's going to contact the first pin lifting it up to the incorrect height (4----) then as it hits the second pin the status of the pins will be 54---, then 554--, etc. Hope that makes sense, the pins will be raised to the incorrect height multiple times as you insert the key but the correct key will lift the pins to the same incorrect heights every time in a pattern that won't change. So you can identify the key by what I'll call the insertion signature.
Now this isn't an in depth explanation, just a rough idea. As far as the pins being electronic why not make sleeves in the holes that the pins ride through while the driver pins are an electrically conductive material connected by a wire or something (there's other ways to do this but for simplicity of the explanation lets assume it's a wire. The sleeves the pins are in are also electrically connected. So with all of this you essentially have 5 potentiometers sending a resistance reading back to the mpu. The mpu can read the resistance to know the pin height so that's how it can read the insertion signature. If the pins aren't manipulated in the exact pattern the key would manipulate them in then it locks out the actuator and won't let the lock turn. You could still have the time delay on it as well if you wanted for extra security but I don't think it would be totally necessary.
Idk, I was just reading the posts and it got me to thinking.
