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Medeco pins.

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barbarian

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Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2008 3:08 pm

Post Sat Apr 24, 2010 8:51 pm

Medeco pins.

Started digging through some old pictures of Medeco pins today. The first picture shows the six different length pins for the Medeco Bi-axial locks. I dug these out of old Ebay locks and some of them are pretty rough. A couple of them show serrations (3 &4) and all except the first one show false sidebar gates (two vertical grooves).

The false sidebar gates are not as deep as the real sidebar gates and they can get caught by the sidebar as you try to rotate the pins with a tool. Since the false gates are not cut deep enough, they won’t allow the sidebar to retract fully and the lock won’t open.

Notice that the chisel points can be either direction depending on if it is a Fore or Aft pin.

Depths.jpg


Here is a picture that shows the tops of two Medeco key pins. The pin on the right has a small insert pressed into it. I find about one third of the pins from my dozen or so locks have this feature. It’s a couple of extra steps during manufacture. The reason I heard for this was that each hole is drilled to a different depth and the inserts are a different weight than the surrounding metal. The inserts are also different lengths. This supposedly was done in response to a decoding method that attempted to weigh each pin while they were inside the lock and determine their length based on weight. I would like to hear from anyone that can confirm or deny this. I would also like to see a picture of the tool if anyone has one kicking around.

Inserts.jpg


Now back to the serrations. You might think they are there to make picking the lock harder like the serrated pins found in other locks. Look at the picture below and it shows a plain pin along with two different serrated pins. Obviously the pin on the far right would have to be lifted very high before the serrations came close to the shearline.

Serations.jpg


The serrations are there to prevent the use of the cute little tool shown below. The tool uses a thin wire and slides it up inside the groove along the side of the pin. If tension is held on the lock to prevent the pins from moving, you can feel when the wire reaches the end of the groove on a plain pin and determine the length of the pin. However the large serrations interfere with the operation of the tool and prevent you from decoding the length of the pins.

Medeco_tool.jpg


The Medeco guys certainly do try hard. I wish I had some of the new ARX pins to show…

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ChemicalRobot

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Location: Oregon, USA

Post Sat Apr 24, 2010 9:00 pm

Re: Medeco pins.

Great info and great pictures! I hate the false gates they put in place. Those cause me the most trouble.

Also, do you or anyone else have more information on that "special tool"?
Howdy!
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barbarian

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Posts: 370

Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2008 3:08 pm

Post Sat Apr 24, 2010 9:09 pm

Re: Medeco pins.

Won't work with the serrations. Or the ARX pins.

See the Falle-Safe restricted products catalog for more details and you will want to be sitting down when they tell you the price.
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elbowmacaroni

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Post Sat Apr 24, 2010 9:23 pm

Re: Medeco pins.

Nice work, good pics and good description! Thanks!
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elbowmacaroni

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Post Sat Apr 24, 2010 10:37 pm

Re: Medeco pins.

Glue added... now sticky
"Cave ab homine unius libri" - Beware of anyone who has just one book

(2014.02.09 - 23:26:03) huxleypig: i freaking love cream
(2014.02.09 - 23:27:11) huxleypig: hey, come on, cream is nice
(2014.02.09 - 23:27:37) huxleypig: aww, i suddenly feel very sick

(23:37:46) LocksmithArmy: you should see my school girl outfit
(23:37:50) LocksmithArmy: wait... what

(13:19:50) xeo: that chick will never be satisfied by a real dick
(13:19:54) NNFAK: I would man...

(22:59:49) PhoneMan: how do you let a forum die if users keep using it? kill the servers?

May those who love us, love us; and those who don't love us, may God turn their hearts; and if He doesn't turn their hearts, may he turn their ankles so we'll know them by their limping

If someone had prince albert in a can, does that mean they'd have a killer codpiece?

(00:52:02) WolfSpring: elbow could sell a sandbox to an egyptian
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mwilson34

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Post Sun Apr 25, 2010 6:56 pm

Re: Medeco pins.

I have a pdf file of the instruction manual for the Falle Decoding Tool.



ChemicalRobot wrote:Great info and great pictures! I hate the false gates they put in place. Those cause me the most trouble.

Also, do you or anyone else have more information on that "special tool"?
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MBI

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Post Wed Apr 27, 2011 12:06 am

Re: Medeco pins.

barbarian wrote:Here is a picture that shows the tops of two Medeco key pins. The pin on the right has a small insert pressed into it. I find about one third of the pins from my dozen or so locks have this feature. It’s a couple of extra steps during manufacture. The reason I heard for this was that each hole is drilled to a different depth and the inserts are a different weight than the surrounding metal. The inserts are also different lengths. This supposedly was done in response to a decoding method that attempted to weigh each pin while they were inside the lock and determine their length based on weight. I would like to hear from anyone that can confirm or deny this. I would also like to see a picture of the tool if anyone has one kicking around.


Those inserts are made of hardened steel and are primarily there for drill resistance. By using inserts of varying length it has the added bonus of helping randomize the weight of the pin to help prevent decoding. I was able to find a reputable source who confirmed the existence of the ultrasonic decoding tool which operated by determining the weight the pins in the stacks. The user could then compare the weights to the known weights of the different sizes of pins in order to decode the bitting and have a key made. Unfortunately this person wasn't willing to go "on the record" so I can't give the person's name, or the name of the agency who had it developed. Because of the secrecy surrounding the device, we're unlikely to find a picture of it.

barbarian wrote:Now back to the serrations. You might think they are there to make picking the lock harder like the serrated pins found in other locks. ... The serrations are there to prevent the use of the cute little tool shown below. The tool uses a thin wire and slides it up inside the groove along the side of the pin. ... However the large serrations interfere with the operation of the tool and prevent you from decoding the length of the pins.


Yes, the serrations are there to prevent decoding, although Medeco refers to them as "ringed" pins. Partly they are there to interfere with thin wires inserted alongside the pin. The original tool made to exploit this flaw was made by Lock Technologies but less than 100 of them were sold. Medeco tracked down and bought back the majority of these decoders, so if you manage to find one of the few remaining kits they should be a valuable collector's item.

A second reason for the ringed pins is that by using different numbers of rings on some of the pins, it varies the weight of the pins to help frustrate the ultrasonic decoder.

If you'd like more details, here is a link to issue number four of NDE magazine with an article I wrote on Medeco ARX a few years ago.

http://ndemag.com/issues/nde4.pdf

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