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Build Your Own Electronic Key Card Lock
edBX writes "GideonTech.com has a new guide up on how to make your own electronic lock using a key card. Built using a phototransistor, infrared-emitting diode and a few ICs, they are able to turn on their computer using a punched out phone card."
Why isn't there a "Build your own" section like "Ask Slashdot" or "Apache" ? Maybe even a "Slashdot How-To Guide" could turn out useful.
__________________________________
Free your mind - Flush your toilet
But Mr. Anderson, what good is your custom made electronic lock when you can no longer find your card?
This device will keep the power switch safe
from anybody that does not understand electricity.
Anybody else can bypass the unit with a handy
suitably reshapable piece of conductive material.
Probably a piece of wire would do.
Those whom the computer is protected against
are probably not a threat.
134340: I am not a number. I am a free planet!
This has already been slashdotted! I think slashdot should mirror sites before it posts the story to prevent killing these poor servers.
Why not just use a BIOS password. There are way more than 255 possible passowrds. If someone can figure out how to open the case and reset the bios, they can figure out how to connect 2 wires to bypass that device. A bios password is cheaper and more reliable.
Here I am turning my computer on with the power button, like an idiot!
Popular Electronics had a very very similar article. Punched out phone cards.. all of that stuff.. only they had used old breadboard. Yum!
Next on "Michael's Friday-night Slashdot Bag 'O Fun:" How to make a secure telephone with two tin cans and a piece of string.
This is so low tech it's not funny. Hey did you know you can take an LED, a resistor, and a battery and get a little shining light too? OMFGLOL!!1!
Waste of time + money. Almost like women :D
First thing I thought when I read this, "Interesting to be going back to those...for security?"
excuse me for a moment, but WHAT?!?!?!?
Karma Whoring for Fun and Profit.
How to host your website with a 1200 baud modem.
I actually put a second button in series with the normal power button because I was always kneeing my computers off. The second button is on the left side of the front bezel. You just have to push both buttons at the same time to turn the computer off/on.
I do security
How about turning the web-server back on? Bet a key-card could come in handy in that matter.
GideonTech.com
Who are the fuckin' Gideons? Ever meet one? No. Ever seen one? No. But there all over the fuckin' world puttin' Bibles in hotel rooms.
Listen to it here.
Win a signed Stephen Carpenter ESP Guitar from the Deftones: http://def-tag.com/?r=0008781
Yea but how do I get my computer to spit out cash like ATM machines do?
I remember an article in Rainbow which was a computer magazine that specialized in TRS-80 Color Computers (the Trash-80 Coco).
They described the project in great detail. It was a much better system, when you pulled the card out the computer would pause until it was reinserted.
Ahh, I remember my Coco - 1.5 MHz 6809E CPU, 64k ram, cassete tape, rom cartridges, and (WOW!) floppy disks. Some great games - Lancer, Cashman, Time Bandit. I think I was 9 at the time. I still have the daisy-wheel printer my parents bought for it. Still works great.
This isnt all that great of a security measure, however its good to see slashdot posting home project kind of things again. I dont know if its just me, but there haven't been many lately and I like to see what people are up to and building, its a lot better than all of this legal and corporate stuff thats been taking over my monitor. Not that I dont love my SCO fix, or yey some senator is in favor of open source, but hey even though our interests are getting lots of press now, we can't forget things like this. I don't know if anyone else agrees, but thats how I feel.
Cheers,
Steve
I had an idea, and I almost realized it. It's very simple, but effective (not against someone who _really_ want to get inside your computer though).
:)
Think about Duke Nukem 3D. There were simple codelocks on some of the doors (on/off-switches). What about modding a row of switches (on/off) onto the front of your cabinet, and lead the cable for the almighty Power On Switch through them? So that they have to be aligned correctly for the computer to turn on. That way you have an effective way to keep people from using the computer when you don't want them too, and you have a little casemod
A simple scheme:
0 0 -0--0-\
#---1--1-/ 1 1 \
#-----------------O <- power on switch
Here the "code" is "1100". (#=pins on mainboard)
I suppose one could lock your system case, but again, someone could break the locks. This, like everything, is a compromise in security/useability. For instance, I have a military surplus .50 ammo box that I store my personal stuff in. Letters, junk, Penguin Mints... It's locked up with ~ .75" (1.9cm for the rest of the world) hardened steel chain, and a Masterlock combination lock. The paper combination has been destroyed, and the only version other than the one in my head is PGP encrypted. From an average users' viewpoint, this is pretty tough to get into. Granted, with a hacksaw, you could break the chain in a few minutes. With a jigsaw with a metal blade, about 30 seconds. But I don't expect people to actually go attacking my box, so I don't have it covered with taser turrets or the like.
Pretty sucky analogy, I guess, but hey, it works...
(-:Stephonovich:-)
"Who needs reincarnation when we've got parallel universes?" -Me
The card reader power switch has a certain amount of retro appeal. But to really do things right, wire one of those big red 1981 IBM PC power switches into your machine!
A number of years ago in my teenage years I was going to put an electronic combination/key card lock on my bedroom door to keep people out. Only problem was my parents told me it was not on and threatened to remove the entire door!!
:)
Ahhh the memories... Still wish I'd done it though...
---
Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves. -- AE
If you could fit the nessesary components into a floppy drive, and then drill holes in a floppy disk, you could haave an almost invisible security feature.
Couldn't this easily be bypassed...just break the thing? OR, WHAT IF it did break, then you cannot get into your computer? I am a bit confused as to exactly how this would keep the computer much safer than it already would be with a properly difficult password...and maybe a roll of duct tape. ;-)
When you do something it should have some value...
Here it's obviously not for the safety, we're not at NORAD.
Maybe for the electronic know how ? well neither, i'm not a iron flux genius, but I think that everyone can obtain the same results with 1 quarter of the components (remember, in electronic, less is better, including for understanding how it works)
So maybe for the manual skills or cleanlyness of the job ? THAT's AWFULL, plastic modded with the iron flux, WOOD (!?) to place the leds where you can have done it cleanly with plastic parts from every "do it yourself" shops.
The whole article look like a big "look mum, i'm on the intarweb !".
Gyorg_Lavode reply about his second swith to power up trick is 10 times more useful (but for me it will be the reset switch that will be doubled... to many accident with this one)
Do people in Florida need to be walked through how this works?
Well, maybe welding IS an overkill :-) but there are some legitimate locks fo PC cases that can be drilled to the floor.
BIOS passwords work well on MBs built after about 1996, the vast majority these days. Some people still warn against them because of flaws that were fixed 5 to 8 years ago. Some businesses admittedly are still trying to get a little more life out of PCs that can't even run Win 95, and for them, BIOS passwords won't help (but then, what would?). One great advantage of BIOS passwords is that the earlier you limit access, the better, as a general security rule.
Who is John Cabal?
I remember seeing this type of thing on several occasions years back on those electronics magazines and such..
My trick was I found some old optical card scanners which would read the bar-codes printed onto credit-card sized plastic cards. Then I found the local gamery in the mall was using compatible cards, each coded with a different 24-digit number, being passed around to enable the various games as long as there was sufficient funds on account to the number of the card. Neat! I picked several "spent" cards out of the trash can, and went home and read them on my system, then programmed a few little AVR chips to recognize those specific cards. I keep one in my wallet to control the secure/access mode to my house alarm system and car. If it gets lost, its not obvious at all that the card has an alternate use. In the event I want some more cards, add or delete which cards work with the AVR, its not hard to put them back in the programmer and reflash their ROM with the new code list.
Actually, on mine, I never decoded the bar-code digits, I only kept track of whether it was a fat/narrow stripe and fat/narrow space by examining a counter interrupted on each rising and falling edge, and storing the counter state in an array. Upon scan completion, I examine the array and reduce it to 64 bits worth of fat/narrow of the first 32 stripes / spaces I encounter. There is a little start pattern at the beginning that helps a lot to align the data field so you are not shifted a bit or two off. To be on the side of possible error, I allow 8 bits to be bad before I declare the card invalid. This was from trial and error, as I could generate bad reads by not moving the card just right through the reader. I usually got at least one bit that wasn't right every time I scanned. I never did get it working absolutely perfectly. But then I did not really try that much on it after I had it working good enough. I think it was something to do with some focusing, and I could have used the analog side and some DSP to clean it up, I'm sure, but then I would have probably spent a good six months on it.
The only problem is I wish I had bought several dozen of those little optical slot readers when I had the chance. Anybody seen any out there ( dirt cheap ones, I mean - you know those surplus ditties they sell for a buck )? I am looking for some that just have the raw serial bar-code sensor out because I feed it right into the AVR.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
Mount 16 SPST mini toggle switches on the case. Wire them in series to pass AC or 12v or whatever when they are in the ON position. But mount some of them upside-down. 64k possible combinations, and no case mod is cooler than a row of toggle switches that actually do something.
Actually, keyswitches are a better idea. That might help you fight the urge to flip the toggles when the machine is running.
The latest Slashdot meme.
I actually HAVE met Gideons. They come to our university and hand out copies of the new testemant.
Atari rulz!!!11!!
right on.
battery backed flash memory addressable via SMBus, which you program the "code" into, and the power switch only engages when the DIP pattern XOR values in NVRAM == all zero.
Fuck Beta. Fuck Dice
Now this may not be more secure ... but I think it may have one up on the geek factor. Use the dandy/cheap little USB keychain devices to act as keycards to allow users to login/logout/freeze session. The cards we have with our Sun's are absolutely awesome, the only problem with it is the Solaris OS. Great for our sysadmin, but for GUI work, makes me wish for Windows (can't get Solaris-Gnome running).
Anyways I think that a standard USB "keycard" would be an awesome Linux project (sorry GNU/Linux) and I am totally suprised that I haven't seen one on SF. It makes me think I must be blind.
Sig Nazi- "No Sig for you, come back 1 year."
This sounds an awful lot like using punch cards...are they making a technological comeback?
In soviet russia, key card punches YOU!
With great numbers come great responsibility!
GO BUILD IT!
(on your own)
What use is a keycard lock without a giant stainless steel door protecting a diabolical evil invention clothed in dry ice and lit by a dull green glow?!
All things in moderation; including moderation
It's so rare today that you see someone building something out of small-scale logic ICs like shift registers and gates.
I mean, a perforated phone card is kind of sad.
How about a remote control: as I walk into the room I zap my PC and it wakes up and says "Hi Heirony!"
Or, proximity sensors tuned to my DNA. C'mon, just five minutes with a soldering iron, some capacitors, and a steady hand.
But the ultimate, and I am seriously working towards this goal, is one's own personal PC assistant. "Good morning, Mr Heirony," says PC assistant 1 (I have a backup, but she's doing her nails this morning), "I saw you coming up the drive so I booted your Mandrake 9.2, did a quick apt-update and I've made you a coffee. Would you like the neck massage now, or later when Sue " (this is her colleague) "gets back...?"
Yes, it sure beats a phone card.
Ceci n'est pas une signature
stop being an ignorant anus
You know how to fucking spell slashdot,
you know how to use the site,
Why can't you find the fucking manual
on how to install slash you fucking
ignorant anus?!?!?!?!?!
PS - I AM AN ANGRY GUMBALL!!!
Most pointless project ever !
Haven't these guys seen a keyswitch ?
In why intelligent and articulate documentation writers remain employable. The technology here is trivial - but I lost about 7,209 neurons trying to parse out the sentences.
I'm planning to make a device based on a PIC12F675 8-pin microcontroller to do just this. I'm even considering adding a hardware watchdog timer, for good measure. For the less hardware-inclined, they sell serial and parallel-port cables that allow software to do the work instead.
The embedded readers are small enough that they could easily be mounted on a peripheral (a monitor or keyboard), or possibly even fitted into the case of a laptop. The embedded readers require dedicated hardware, but this can be a single 12-pin SSOP, taking a negligable amount of space.
The best part is that even the bare ROM version of the iButton has a 64-bit, factory-lasered, guaranteed-unique key.
Hardware, software, and blinking lights!
They used to sell keylock switches for security systems. I suspect they still carry them. This would just be a straight replacement of the power switch with another switch. Simple enough. You could also pilfer these out of old machines that used to have a keyboard lock.
As for the little sound device, the chip you are looking for is the ISD1000A (or, since it's now out of production, one of the newer versions of the same line). Radio Shack used to sell this chip a while back. It's a 20-second audio record/playback IC. Just flash in your 20 second clip of a car starting, and wire it up to trigger when you boot (tie the trigger line to the /reset line on the ISA bus and you will be fine).
Hardware, software, and blinking lights!
just like Slashdot
I'm not sure why this article is supposed to be intersting and/or amusing. The "card reader" mechanism is lame, so it's not his engineering prowess that's interesting. His fabrication skills are abyssmal (did he cut the card slot in the plastic box with a soldering iron? cripes...), so it's not the elegance of the unti that's impressive. Is this supposed to be amusing because it's "kewl and 1337"? Please. OK, so the novelty of a computer that turns on with a card is worth something, but how much, really? I don't think this project rises above "case modder" coolness level.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
um.. well...
:) ph33r !!
It's been posted before, I'm sure... but...
Why not use a nice microcontroller which reads a standard chipcard ? It's much safer and waaay more l337 than this lame mechanical lock...
I built a chipcard reader which read german phonecards to open my door at the age of 14 using an commodore 64... that was kinda cool... now an Pic18F84 does the job... programmed in oure assembler
Crivens! I kicked meself in me own heid!
Actaully, this also happens to be the case with about 80% of Slashdotter's computers... interesting.
Manipulate the moderator system! Mod someone as "overrated" today.
As a side-project to this, how about something on how to modify up a little card-reader on the serial (or perhaps usb/parallel) port in order to access a machine. I mean, it's not a big deal to turn it on, that's fairly easy to bypass, but how about to login to the operating system.
Personally, I'd find it much cooler to have somebody get to my personalized spiffy "Authorized Access Only" logo screen and have to put in a card (or click a special point onscreen and enter a username/password as backup).
On the aside: for just turning on my machine, I saw a nifty little "Remote Xmas tree switch" for $20 which basically sits between the wall outlet and power plug, and then turns on with a car-alarm-style remote.