It’s that time of the year again. The leaves are changing colors, it’s getting colder outside, and all the littler hackers are off to college. Which means we get to see an influx of dorm room locks and openers.
[Adam] is back at it again with a new keypad dorm room lock. Last year he had an exceptional setup using a car keyfob, so we’re a little curious as to why he would revert to such a low level system as a keypad that isn’t even color coded.
Perhaps its in his “new” way of presenting the hack. Rather than a blog or write up, he documents the entire most of the process in a little less than 20 YouTube videos. Watch him testing out the system after the jump.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFJoK4qRlwk&feature=channel%5D
Wow I really like that, it’s so clean looking and simple.
I’m still contemplating whether or not to re-assmeble my rfid/touchscreen keypad door opener from last year… The opening method was a bit sub-par (read: lots of duct tape), but at least it pulled the door open in addition to turning the handle.
http://protofusion.org/wordpress/2010/05/really-cheap-rfid-door-opener/
It would be cool if it were like the android’s lock screen, where you have to draw the password.
@andrew clean and simple?! Now i don’t what kind of electronic doors you are used to, but this is not “clean looking and simple” – Why not buy a cheap buy a cheap lock from ebay and do it with RFID? That way he could keep it all inside and get rid of the huge gears.
Buy hey this is not industrial, and only for at little dorm room, so its pretty cool.
Ramen.
A sophomore and still stuck in the dorms – how sad.
If that doesn’t scream geek IDK what does.
I get that people approach opportunities and hacks from different directions and levels of experience. Go easy with the judgemental blasts. I like it.
BTW sophomore year in the dorm was amazing for me… experiments w/ carbon arc lighting,synthesizers,quadraphonic sound,water cannons made out of rubber hose, coed by wing, catching my room on fire… Not perfect but fun!
I hope the author did not make the same vunerability as here:
http://hackaday.com/2010/08/26/hacking-a-code-protected-hard-disk/
Hey guys,
1) I go to Vassar and almost all students live in campus housing (dorms/campus owned apartment style houses) all four years. I’m actually a junior this year.
2) The reason that this set-up isn’t built into the door is because I’m not allowed to modify the door in any way.
3) The sprocket on the door knob is about 4x the size that it was originally. I had to use a MUCH larger one because the lock is old and word out and I needed more mechanical advantage.
Thanks guys.
Ugh. Am I the only one who hates video blogs, tutorials, etc? You can’t skim them, the presenter often can’t present clearly, they’re much slower to get the jist of, etc. Video tutorials of people showing you how to do something at a keyboard are the worst! The only advantage to a video tutorial is that it’s much faster to knock one together than actually taking pictures and writing. Please, hackers, don’t (only) do a video to show off your hack unless you’re trying to teach/show us how to perform some movement. Don’t put all the effort into a great hack and then cop out and make a crappy video to show the world.
Cool idea but I wonder how the buttons hold up. I saw a commercial door lock like this that was easily “pickable”. The order of the numbers didn’t matter (stupid). And the keys became worn down from the oils in your hand. Ie you could see which four buttons were pushed on a regular basis
He should serialize the keypad data then drill a small hole and put a cable through the door.
I’m sure that’s probably not allowed but a small hole can easily be filled again when he moves, and if it’s behind the keypad he can deny it’s there :)
(And common, you are student or you are a 7yo girl.)
@paul in the video he explains that you can easily change the code, even from the keypad itself, so that should avoid the wear pattern flaw.