Try the pigtail first… if it’s even kinda working you can then work on cleaning up the signal and shortening your wire run etc.
Any diagnostic symptoms I’ll see if it’s good bad ugly besides just not working?
Usually reduced range. If it’s a bit dirty it’ll usually work just with poor performance. It may start only working with fobs and cards at low range and not work with implants at all. Then by cleaning up your signals and getting rid of resistances you might be able to gain back most of what you’ve lost.
Got it
Appreciate the help, I promise I’m not as hopeless as I seem,
Inductance never quite clicked in my head from electrical theory
Well we have lift off
Everything works like it’s supposed to,
The antenna extension made no discernible difference, excellent read range with or without, even through the 3D printed shell
Still have some odds and ends to clean up and finish the project as a whole… some weirdly important things that somehow got left till the end
(Yes I don’t have power ran to it yet, perfect test of the UPS battery pack)
Still need to drill a hole on the back corner of the safe the run ac power in… been trying to come up with a good gromet
Then run the cord thru the Safe body in a classy manner that’s clean and out of the way
Then run the cord thru the door interior panel… more gromet procrastination
Currently have the xACv2 held in place with push pins for mock up purposes (hey it works lol)
Could 3D print something… but I like easy access maybe?
Need to play with some magnets and see how much it affects the antenna… if it doesn’t, I’ll magnetize the hell out of the front plate
Need to attach the antenna to the front plate in a manner that doesn’t involve masking tape… might take it to work and use some fun glues I have access to… not sure how permanent I wanna make it… since I’m not certain I could buy another by itself
I have verified that the digital combo front plate still works, as does the backup key… and all the wires do an excellent job at making getting access to the keyway a pain in the ass (I want this)
I might put a thin metal plate underneath the plastic mount you see, and make the wires come out of it very clean… along with using security screws to lock the plate
Added complications to try to pick, and a bit of added resistance to a punch attack
(Considering adding a reinforcement plate behind the lock body for more of this also as I feel a punch attack is currently the most likely to succeed)
Look at the spring loaded contacts in this project.
Inspiration?
Also, maybe move the ups out of the door. You’d rather run low voltage (fused) dc power through the hinge of the door than 120v a/c.
The ac isn’t going thru the hinges, just rounding the corner
2 reasons
The power adapter would add more bulk and clutter in the safe interior,
Also planning to power some led lighting system from inside the door also
I didn’t mean through the actual hinges, but through the jam area on the hinge side of the door. Hope that makes more sense. Either way, give yourself a fuse somewhere, just in case the wire gets pinched. It only takes once, ya know.
P.S. Super cool project.
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I honestly wasn’t giving a fuse much thought,
Assumed a breaker would pop but since I have to cut the power cord in half to route it, should be easy enough
Say your UPS is pulling 750ma or .75amps. A standard household breaker is 15 amps. If something goes wrong it’ll jam (15/.75= 20) 20 times as much power as normally used into a dead short. It’ll flip the breaker, but it might also cook something (wires), or start a fire (inside the safe = ouch!). Granted, it’s probably smother quick inside a closed box, but it still won’t be good for whatever you’re trying to keep safe, in the safe.
I’d put in a fuse that was just a little bigger than max draw on the UPS, assuming it’s going to power everything else. I bet 5 amps is plenty, but check your specs.
While you’re at it, I’d make sure the A/C ground wire is attached to the metal frame of the safe. That way if you do have a short, it has a safer path back to ground. Still bad, but it won’t be a trap waiting for you if you touch an energized safe and complete the circuit.
Ooof… lol
Also… note to self… figure out how to weaponize this
2 Likes
Oh by the way @amal,
Remember how you said the flywheel was likely setup to slip? Such a simple and great idea
They didn’t do it, they keyed it sigh
I do plan to implement a “slip clutch”? Before I seal everything back up
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Just thinking out loud…
have a dozen old phones just collecting dust…
I wonder if I could rig one up inside to function as a gps tracking/activity monitor
I seriously question I’ll get any signal thru the box, but I’ve been surprised before in regards to faraday cages being less effective than initially thought
Would be awesome to set up inside the door also…
Door opens or experiences a certain amount of vibration, sends a sms notification
Also… arduinos can run sound right?
I have a really cool desire but have no idea where to even start with arduino
@ODaily
So I’ll have a 4 amp draw, 2 for ups, 2 for led lights,
Possibly some other stuff…
Will be a breaker power strip inside the door,
And the exterior cable is plugged into a external breaker power strip
Start here.
https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Software
You can download and run the software without an arduino, you just can’t actually use the programs.
There are a huge range of learning example programs in that software. The first one does absolutely nothing. It just exists to show you how what the most basic possible program looks like.
The second program just blinks an led on-off. You can adjust the time on it and play around. Can’t break it.
The third is a little more, and so on and so forth. It really is self teaching. You’ll likely find an existing project or tutorial that’s pretty close to what you want, then just modify it a bit and go.
NOBODY codes from scratch. Mostly it’s just “borrowed” chunks of code strung together.
A 10 amp fuse sounds appropriate. 5 would work, but that’s close, and you might have “Possibly some other stuff”.
How will you be wiring the AC input of the UPS into the power strip? If you’re just going to put a plug in on it, that should work. If that’s what your going to do, then you can probably skip the fuse too. The powerstrip will usually have a 10-15 amp breaker internally. CHECK TO BE SURE IT HAS IT.
I’d definitely use a 3 prong plug in, and get that ground wire hooked to the safe’s metal.
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Got one of these coming in, a friend who added power into his safe did something similar
Said the easiest route was the open the strip up, and desolder the leads, run wires, and then resolder back to the original location
And yes it has a 15amp breaker
I’m back and forth on the grounding of the safe body
wire live to the safe body for extra protection!
If I wire both live to the safe, is that double the protection? sarcasm
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