Mottura C38 in new blackbag category: Cut to pieces

Mottura C38

It has been a while since I added a category to blackbag, but now there is a new one called “cut to pieces”, and it is greatly inspired by the work of Peter Field.

On the “cut to pieces” image I share with you today is the inner working of the Mottura C38 lock. It is nice lock, that contains many nice features. Today I cover the magnetic pin. The pins in one of the chambers are not spring loaded, and gravity pulls the plug pin below sheer line. If the magnet in the key is at the right position, and has the right polarity, the magnetic pin in the house is pulled towards the key, also lifting the housing pin.

I hope the image(s) speaks for itself. (click on the image for a bigger version)

I am currently making quite a nice collection of images of various locking systems for my presentations and workshops. I will try to share some of the work here to keep you posted on what I am doing …

8 Responses to “Mottura C38 in new blackbag category: Cut to pieces”

  1. […] Dit blogartikel was vermeld op Twitter door Howard Fuhs, bitsecure. bitsecure heeft gezegd: RT @barrywels: blogged: Mottura C38 in new blackbag category: Cut to pieces http://blackbag.toool.nl/?p=1831 < hmm, magnetic picks to bypass? […]

  2. Elphreaker says:

    Very cool design! Will it work forever once the “dirt” factor comes into play?

  3. Barry says:

    Elphreaker: We got ahold of a bunch of these locks, and some of them were extremely dirty (to put it mildly). Yet the locks still functioned.

    And what you see on the image above is just one of my early tries. More recent images have clean pins and a much better field of focus etc. Still a lot to learn in this area. But for one of my early tries it worked out well, and tells the story I want it to tell.

  4. Julian says:

    Great Picture! But the Idea isn’t new, the German factory GERA introduced their model “3500” around 2006. It is a normal 6-pin europrofile-cylinder (not dimple) and the key has a magnet at the 5th position.

    When they released it, I made a cutaway, the picture is here: http://bit.ly/g1FKrc

  5. Julian says:

    Sorry to post again, link will not work, see here for the Gera 3500 cutaway: http://bit.ly/haEv81

  6. Barry says:

    Julian: Boy you sure make nice cutaways!

    I think the Mottura lock is much older, and the system even ran out of the patent life.

  7. mh says:

    I believe this is the patent, filed 1999 by Sergio Mottura:
    http://v3.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?CC=EP&NR=1072740B1&KC=B1&FT=D

    Cheers
    mh

  8. NKT says:

    There is a “high security” dimple lock in the UK called the ABS from Avocet Hardware. It has a 6 pin cylinder with one magnetic pin (it isn’t magnetic, the magnet is in the key, randomly polarised) and 4 regular pins in a euro format.

    It has some flaws! For one, it took me only 20 minutes to pick it the first time, including the time spent finding a magnet small enough to go in the keyway.

    The magnet position in the key is determined by the letter in the code on the keycard, A-E with A being at the front of the keyway. This also confirms the lack of magnet polarisation.

    Very expensive for what it is, and can be bypassed!