Thanks Fritz. My friend and I spent a while playing “Identify That Lock”. Neither of us are locksmiths but I manage to identify a fair number of them. Looks like the key shop was only open on evenings and Saturdays - is there a story behind that?
I’m working on a side project - not very far along at the moment - but I’m attempting to design display cases for individual locks - made from clear acrylic, a wood or plastic base and programmable LED “spot” lighting (full RGB). Battery or 5/12 VDC input. One goal is to keep these cases both simple and elegant but also very affordable - I want to keep it in the sub $25 range.
A second, higher priced version would be in the sub-$50 range and would include small OLED/?? or other full color screen on which to display information about the lock. The screen display as well as the color and timing of the lights will be controlled via your smart phone (i.e. an Android/iPhone app) using a low power Bluetooth interface - such as RFduino.
The price of all the required components is coming down quickly and the quality is going up. Low cost hosted design tools and rapid prototyping services make iterative development practical for even the smallest (i.e. 1-person) company.
I’m not sure there would even be a market for such items . Perhaps “success” may be defined simply by a working prototype rather than a thriving business. OTOH, I don’t want to put the cart in front of the horse.
Nice photos. Thanks
