Sun Jan 16, 2022 7:17 am
UrbanAlps Stealth key gen. 1
This lock uses several new ideas, that differentiate it from other locks; first and foremost, there is the key formed in such a way, that prevents visual decoding of the bitting. This key is 3D printed (it would be hard to manufacture it otherwise), but also quite expensive... And it is the cost, that I think prevents this design from spreading.
The locking mechanism consists of two sidebars, each controlled by seven levers. Levers riding the left side of the key control the right sidebar and vice versa.
There are only three lever types: zero-lifts, which start directly in their true gate, but can be pushed to a false gate; mid-lifts, which needs to be nudged to fall into their true gate and max-lifts, that start in the false gate and need to be pushed into their true gate.
There are also two pins on the bottom of the core, but they seem to be there mostly to secure the core against pulling attacks (they can drop into the key space when the core is turned too far without the key, but pushing them back down is relatively easy).
The lock also contains decent amount of anti-drill protection, that protects main points of the lock.
Pickingwise, I find this lock quite nice, once you get to know it. I struggled a bit to learn to orient myself in the lock, but bigger problem I faced was tendency of the levers to ping-pong. Once I pushed one max-lift to its true gate, pushing the other caused the first one to spring back to its initial position.
It turned out this problem mostly went away once I started to use light tension at first, pushing max-lifts gently out of their false gates; once they were out, I increased the tension and continued gently nudging the levers until they entered their true gate. This was usually accompanied by a slight core rotation. When max-lifts were seated, mid-lifts needed a nudge to enter their true gate and that was it - zero-lifts truly are zero lift, so there is no reason to touch them at all.
Also be aware, that when a zero-lift lever is in its true gate, its spring doesn't produce much force and I was not able to feel it directly; but what is noticeable is that when the lever is pushed up by the flag, the spring pushes the flag back and the pick handle rolls on my finger, even when I lift it a bit to make a slope upwards (so the pick wouldn't roll back by itself due to the gravity). This trick helped me with the Twin Combi fingerpins jiggle testing too...
In my case the two sidebars isolated nicely, so only one tensioner switch was necessary for me; that said, I saw some videos where the picker was switching sides several times, so I might have been just lucky.
My weapon of choice were Multipick flags 3 and 6 - they fit the keyway nicely and provide a good feedback when jiggle testing. Another option is a specialized tool such as legendofthesamurai invented - see https://youtu.be/BSj7Hmjcix0 . I tried to create something similar, but the music wire I used proved way too soft and did not provide reasonable feedback.
I'm also thinking about dedicated tensioner, that would allow picking both sides in one go - once it gets warmer outside, I'll try to come up with some.
All in all, this lock is quite enjoyable to pick and I'm looking forward to trying out the new second generation cylinder.
If you want to see the lock in action, here is the video that I made: https://youtu.be/r_-MfYMU0yk
Kind regards,
Michal
PS. Be careful with the core retaining pin springs - one of them didn't want to come out when I was gutting the lock (so it is missing on the full photo), but then "jumped" out of the core without me even noticing it... Fortunately I was able to find it and noone stepped on it in the meantime, so all ended well...
The locking mechanism consists of two sidebars, each controlled by seven levers. Levers riding the left side of the key control the right sidebar and vice versa.
There are only three lever types: zero-lifts, which start directly in their true gate, but can be pushed to a false gate; mid-lifts, which needs to be nudged to fall into their true gate and max-lifts, that start in the false gate and need to be pushed into their true gate.
There are also two pins on the bottom of the core, but they seem to be there mostly to secure the core against pulling attacks (they can drop into the key space when the core is turned too far without the key, but pushing them back down is relatively easy).
The lock also contains decent amount of anti-drill protection, that protects main points of the lock.
Pickingwise, I find this lock quite nice, once you get to know it. I struggled a bit to learn to orient myself in the lock, but bigger problem I faced was tendency of the levers to ping-pong. Once I pushed one max-lift to its true gate, pushing the other caused the first one to spring back to its initial position.
It turned out this problem mostly went away once I started to use light tension at first, pushing max-lifts gently out of their false gates; once they were out, I increased the tension and continued gently nudging the levers until they entered their true gate. This was usually accompanied by a slight core rotation. When max-lifts were seated, mid-lifts needed a nudge to enter their true gate and that was it - zero-lifts truly are zero lift, so there is no reason to touch them at all.
Also be aware, that when a zero-lift lever is in its true gate, its spring doesn't produce much force and I was not able to feel it directly; but what is noticeable is that when the lever is pushed up by the flag, the spring pushes the flag back and the pick handle rolls on my finger, even when I lift it a bit to make a slope upwards (so the pick wouldn't roll back by itself due to the gravity). This trick helped me with the Twin Combi fingerpins jiggle testing too...
In my case the two sidebars isolated nicely, so only one tensioner switch was necessary for me; that said, I saw some videos where the picker was switching sides several times, so I might have been just lucky.
My weapon of choice were Multipick flags 3 and 6 - they fit the keyway nicely and provide a good feedback when jiggle testing. Another option is a specialized tool such as legendofthesamurai invented - see https://youtu.be/BSj7Hmjcix0 . I tried to create something similar, but the music wire I used proved way too soft and did not provide reasonable feedback.
I'm also thinking about dedicated tensioner, that would allow picking both sides in one go - once it gets warmer outside, I'll try to come up with some.
All in all, this lock is quite enjoyable to pick and I'm looking forward to trying out the new second generation cylinder.
If you want to see the lock in action, here is the video that I made: https://youtu.be/r_-MfYMU0yk
Kind regards,
Michal
PS. Be careful with the core retaining pin springs - one of them didn't want to come out when I was gutting the lock (so it is missing on the full photo), but then "jumped" out of the core without me even noticing it... Fortunately I was able to find it and noone stepped on it in the meantime, so all ended well...
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