Safe and mechanisms for operating it

SAFE AND MECHANISMS FOR OPERATING IT

SAFE DEVICE AND MECHANISM FOR OPERATING THE SAME

The present invention relates to safes and mechanisms for operating them. More particularly it relates to safes that are intended successively to be used at short intervals by different persons, such as the safes which are located in hotel rooms for the convenience of the guests.

Safes of this kind that are actuated by means of magnetic cards, such as credit cards, are known in the art. However the known safes have a number of drawbacks. For instance, they are intended to be powered from a power line, batteries being provided merely for emergency and having, when so used, only a limited life, in the order of 100 days or slightly more. This constitutes a disadvantage in hotel rooms in which several electrical appliances are already located and limits the possibility of placing the safe where one wishes. Further, it is customary to provide the user with a special card which is employed to operate the safe, and the user cannot employ any magnetic card he possesses. Still further, known safes are not adequately protected against malfunctions, which may cause great inconvenience to the user. One of such malfunctions may derive from a defect in the magnetic code of the card employed or its reading by the magnetic card reader. Still further, the electrically operating locking mechanisms of the known safes do not afford adequate protection against braking in.

It is an object of this invention to overcome all the aforesaid and other drawbacks of known card-operated safes. In particular, it is an object of the invention to provide a safe, the operating mechanism whereof is battery-powered and yet assures a long life-period between battery changes, in the order of a number of years. Of course, in order to obtain a long life-period between battery changes, it is necessary to employ batteries whose normal shelf life is not too short. Alkaline batteries, whose normal shelf life is about at least five years, will provide a similarly long life-period.

Its is a further object of the invention to provide a safe, the locking mechanism whereof will be enabled to operate only after it has been checked that the magnetic card is not defective and has been properly read.

It is a still further object to provide a safe, the locking mechanism whereof is particularly strong and proof against breaking-in.

It is still a further object to provide a safe of the kind described, which is inexpensive to make and easy and safe to operate and that it adequately protected against possible malfunctions and failures.

Other objects of the invention will appear as the description proceeds.

The safe according to the invention is characterized in that it comprises, in combination with a safe structure, with a battery as a source of power, with means for reading a magnetic card, with an electronic activating circuit, and with a locking mechanism, electronic means for permanently storing information, means for changing the power drawn from a power source, between at least one high level and one low level, means for checking the correctness of the code of the card and of its reading, and means for enabling the card to actuate the opening or closing of the safe door only if the result of said check is positive.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the electronic means for permanently storing information comprise at least an EPROM external to the electronic activating circuit.

According to a further preferred form of the invention, the means for changing the power drawn from the power sources operates between a high level, corresponding to the power required by the electric motor and other accessory devices, and a low level, corresponding to the tension required to prevent erasure of information contained in the volatile memory or memories that are part of the electronic activating circuit, such as a RAM. In general the high level corresponds to a current in the order of 150 mA, and the low level to a current in the order of 1 μΑ.

According to a still further preferred form of the invention, the means for checking the correctness of the code and of its reading and for enabling the card to actuate the opening or closing of the safe if the check is positive, comprise a RAM or the like included in the electronic activating circuits, which has therein at least one temporary buffer memory segment and one buffer card location, the magnetic card code being introduced into the temporary buffer location and checked therein and transferred to the card buffer location after the check has been completed.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the locking mechanism comprises a hand-operated lock which is mounted on the safe door and engages the safe body, strongly to lock the first on the second, and an electrically operated lock, also mounted on the safe door, and engaging a part of the manually operated lock, to prevent this latter from being manually displaced to the unlocked position, whenever the safe is to remain locked.

Other preferred and optional features of the invention will appear from the description of a preferred embodiment, with reference to the attached drawings, wherein:

- Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the safe according to one embodiment of the invention, seen from the front;

- Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary view of the inner side of the safe door, showing in a vertical view and pertly in cross-section the locking mechanism; and

- Fig. 3 is a block diagram of the electronic activating circuit and elements cooperating therewith.

With reference now to the drawings, numeral 10 generally designates ־5the safe body, and numeral 11 the safe door. This latter has mounted thereon the magnetic card-reader 12 and a handle 13 for operating a manually actuated lock.

As seen in Fig. 2, the inner side of the door is provided with a manually activated and an electrically operated lock. The lock is connected to the safe door through the two bores 67 and 68 through which a bolt can be passed to connect the lock to the door body. The first one comprises four bars 20,21, 22 and 23, the first three of which cooperate with and engage seats solid with the safe body, to effect closure of the safe, only one of said seats, indicated by numeral 24, being shown in the drawing. A toothed wheel 25 is turned by operating handle 13 and will in turn rotate a larger tooth wheel 26 about the axis 27. The rotation of this latter will cause the swinging of rocking levers 28, only one of which is shown in the crosssectional part of the drawing, which will shift the corresponding bars 20 to 23 outwardly. Thus the first three of said bars will engage the corresponding seats on the safe body, while bar 23 will actuate a microswitch 30, indicating that the manually actuating lock is in the locked position.

The electrically operated lock comprises a motor 31 mounted on a plate 32, also attached to the inside of the door. On the shaft 33 of the motor is mounted an eccentric 34 which carries a pin 35 on which is mounted a rod 36. In the position shown in the drawing the motor has rotated so as to bring the rod 36 to its outermost position. In this position a pin or cam pivoted at 38 to the rod 36 and supported in a support 39 will reach a position in which it will not permit the manually operated lock to return to its unlocked position, because it will engage the stopper 40, mounted on rod 23. Support 41 serves to guide rod 23 in its sliding motion. Microswitches 42 and 43 will signal whether the electrically operated mechanism is in the locked position, as shown in the drawing, or in the unlocked position, in which pin 35 will engage microswitch 43.

Plate 32 is mounted in such a way that it may be slid away from rod 23, in case of emergency, to free the manually operated lock, even if the electrically operated lock remains in the locked position. For this purpose grooves 44 and 45 are provide, in which bolts 46 and 47 may slide. The mechanism is held in its normal position by bolt 49, which is eccentrically located in bore 51. Bolts 48 and 50 do not apply a pressure on the plate 32. When it is desired to shift the plate 32 to free the electrically activated lock, a bore must be made in a plate which covers bolt 49 and bore 51, not shown in the drawing, so that said bolt 49 is reached. The eccentric bolt 49 is then turned and the lock is then slid away from the locked position by the rotation of the said eccentric bolt 49.

Fig. 3 schematically illustrates, in the form of a block diagram, the electronic circuit controlling the safe mechanism and parts cooperating therewith. Numeral 60 designates a battery, consisting, in the embodiment described, of four elements, and delivering a voltage of 6 Volts. A voltage regulator 61 is connected thereto, to maintain the voltage normally at a value of 5 Volts, and to deliver the power to any parts of the device with require it.

designates a magnetic card-reader of any suitable conventional type.

Numeral 63 indicates a microprocessor, which is preferably of the type known in the art as 80C31, and which includes a CPU, a RAM, and any other accessory components, such as for instance two timers, a UART, and output and input ports. Numeral 64 designates an EPROM. Numeral 65 is a driver receiver, which connects the circuit to outside sources of information and instructions, such as a central computer. Numeral 65 is an output port. Numeral 66 a motor driver which controls the electric motor 31, already mentioned.

The operation of the device is essentially as follows. At the beginning of the operative cycle, no parts of the electronic circuit is under tension. Nevertheless, information is stored in the EPROM, as well as of course in the CPU, and this information comprises at least the code of a master card, which can be used to open the safe in case of emergency. The safe door is open. The upper part of the safe door houses a seat for a key, not shown in the drawings, but essentially conventional. All the timers are of course at zero. The user then inserts a key in the key-seat and turns it, and thereby connects the storage batteries with the activating circuit and provides voltage for it. The user then closes the door. High power level is established for a very short time, e.g. 100 msec., and the appropriate luminous signal is given to show that the safe is locked or unlocked, whereafter the circuit goes to the so called sleep conditions, viz. to the low power level. This power level of course is sufficient to activate the RAM, so that the master card data may be and are moved from the ROM to the RAM.

At this time, the magnetic card-reader power is turned on, the temporary buffer in the appropriate memory segment of the RAM is filled with zeros and the card is read into said temporary buffer. If, however, this is not done or the operation is not completed within a given time, e.g. 2 seconds, the device signals an error and goes to the aforesaid sleep condition. In any case, as soon as the card has been read, the card reader power is turned off and the card is checked. The method of checking the card is a well known and conventional one. Since the card is supposed to contain an even number of digits and an equal number of 1 and 0, the various digits are individually read and it is checked that the number of 1 is equal to the number of 0, and then the total number of digits is also read. If these are correct and the check is therefore positive, the operation will go on as will now be described, and if the check is negative, the device signals an error, and goes to the sleep condition.

Assuming then that the check has been positive, the following operations depend on the condition of the safe. If the door is closed an unlocked and the battery is in good conditions, the content of the temporary buffer is moved into the card buffer, to be stored therein until further notice, and as long as the RAM is under tension, and the motor is activated in the lock direction. A certain time, e.g. 2 seconds, is allowed for the motor operation, whereafter it is stopped. After a short wait of a few milliseconds to eliminate bounce the condition of the door is checked. The door should be closed an locked. If it is so, the locked condition is indicated by turning on the locked LED for a short time, say 2 seconds, and then the circuit goes to the sleep conditions. If the door is not closed and locked, the motor is activated in the unlock direction, and stopped after a given time, say 2 seconds. An error is then indicated and the circuit goes to the sleep conditions.

If the door is not closed and locked, or the battery is not good, the above operations cannot take place, and the content of the temporary buffer is checked against that of the card buffer and of the master card. If the contents do not correspond the counter is incremented up to 5 and thereafter an error is signaled and an alarm is set on for a number of seconds, whereafter the circuit goes to the sleep conditions. If there is agreement of the temporary buffer with the card buffer or the master card, the motor is activated in the unlock direction and a short wait, say 2 seconds, occurs. If after that wait the door is not unlocked, an error is signaled and the circuit goes to the sleep condition. Otherwise, if the door is unlocked, the unlocked LED is turned on for a short time, say 2 seconds, and then the activating circuit goes to the sleep condition.

At this point all the electronic and electric operations have ended, the safe is either in the locked condition and is left as such, or is in the unlocked condition and then the handle 13 can be turned to open the manual lock, and to open the safe.

As long as the same person uses the safe, the key, which connects the activating circuit t the power source, remains in its place, so that the RAM is always under tension. When a person ceases using the safe and opens it for the last time, he removes the key and leaves the safe in the initial conditions from which all the aforesaid operations started.

It is within the skill of the skilled person to devise a program that will carry out all the aforesaid operations and all the accessory ones that may be desired.

It is clear from the above that the safe can be unlocked either by using the same card by which it has been locked, or by using the master card. It is also clear that the various checks described, and in particular that referring to the correctness of the card data, will prevent many malfunctions and inconveniences deriving therefrom.

It is also clear that, while the electric lock assures that the safe cannot be opened by an unauthorized person, the actual mechanical lock is manually provided and is very much stronger and reliable than that which might be obtained purely by an electrically operated lock. This latter, in the embodiment described, has ־ so to speak ־ an auxiliary function, viz. does not provide the locking engagement of the safe door with the safe door, but merely prevents improper and unauthorized operation of the manual lock.

Nevertheless, if high locking safety is not required, the device may be simplified in an obvious manner, by eliminating the manual lock and causing the electrical lock, such as for instance the rod 36 or the cylinder 37, or any other part mechanically connected with an eccentric actuated by the electric motor, to engage a seat on the safe body and therefore directly provide the mechanical engagement of the safe door with the safe body.

It is also clear from Fig. 3 that other operations, depending on information and/or instructions received from outer sources through the driver-receiver 65, can be performed by the activating circuit.

The motor driver 66 has not been described in its inner structure, since it may be conventional and comprise the usual electric and electronic elements required to cause the electric motor to turn in one or the other direction and to stop whenever desired, responsive to the signal received from the microprocessor. The microprocessor itself is a component which can be purchased on the market or substituted with equivalent electronic devices, also obtainable on the market. The electronic cardreader likewise is a conventional device.

־12899/88

It is seen that the safe and the safe operating mechanism described fully attain the purposes of the invention, set forth in the introductory part of this description. It is also understood that many modifications and adaptations can be made therein, without departing from the spirit of the invention and from the scope of the appended claims.