Instructions for cheap digital safes?

Press button B?

Consider the generic low-end digital safe, like these

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've 12 nasty sub-calculator buttons, 0-9 and "A" and "B". These aren't the same as the slightly better ones with moulded plastic buttons and a simple "Start" button.

Assuming I've now opened it, found at least one working code for it, and welded the rear panel back onto it, how should I set it? The instructions are long gone. What's the magic key sequence to tell it a new code? What's the official button sequence to open it? Does it take more than one unlock code, or just the one?

Thanks,

Reply to
Andy Dingley
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> They've 12 nasty sub-calculator buttons, 0-9 and "A" and "B". These

Don't know why you bothered, at best they are a visual deterrant, very easily opened.

Reply to
Scabbydug

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>>> They've 12 nasty sub-calculator buttons, 0-9 and "A" and "B". These

That's interesting, I often use them in hotels. Once when I screwed-up the code it needed "the man" with a "special" key to arrive so I assumed they were reasonably secure. What's the problem with them?

Dave

Reply to
NoSpam

From vague memory of the one I played with in Aldi, there's a switch accessible from inside the safe which changes between set/use modes, this stops someone resetting the code on a closed safe, as AFAICS the safe is too stupid to know whether its door is open or not.

Owain

Reply to
Owain

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>>>>> They've 12 nasty sub-calculator buttons, 0-9 and "A" and "B". These

The same problem as with any safe. IMO it needs to be either very good or not present at all. Having a safe suggests you've got valuables, and something that small is likely to just be carried off to be opened at leisure. A bigger safe is likely to cause people to tell someone with some knowhow or organisation who'll come back and have a go at it another time. The best thing you could have would be a well hidden floor safe, but most people aren't willing to go to that amount of bother.

Reply to
Doki

The usual opening sequence for these types of safe are to key in the number and then press either A or B (i.e. either usually suffices).

To set the code there is usually a reset switch on the inside of the safe - press that, followed by your code, then either A or B.

As mentioned elsewhere the security of these is questionable, however they are intended to be bolted down from the inside which should help somewhat, if only perhaps to keep it securely located in such a position/location where the ability of physical attack is limited.

Mathew

Reply to
Mathew Newton

these

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to mention; their is usually a manual key-override behind the removable portion of the front panel and, in answer to one of your questions, there is usually just the one code (of variable length - 4 to 8 digits or something).

Mathew

Reply to
Mathew Newton

Further, any valuables will almost certainly not be insured if they are in a safe in your hotel room.

You are supposed to give your valuables to reception.

Reply to
whitely525

Thanks for that. I knew about the keyhole, but finding the key is quite another matter. I'd probably have picked it thorugh the keyhole, but by the time I was asked to get involved, the owner had already started chain drilling and chiselling through the back panel... Social-engineering later retrieved a workable code number.

Incidentally, if you're going to open such a safe, please use an angle grinder and a grinding disk to break through the edges on the corner welds at a 45=B0 angle. This throws the crud outside the safe, not all over the silverware and jewellery inside, and it also leaves the back panel in an easier state to re-weld back on again. Don't drill the thing or use a cutting disk.

As to "why", then this is still uk.d-i-y isn't it? It's because it's _there_. The question of why such a useless thing was purchased in the first place is quite another matter...

As the house now has 3 safes in it (one's even secure, but the elderly inhabitant can't reach down to it any more), this one will probably be relegated to use for poisons in the garage, or somesuch. It'll Come In Handy Some Day.

As to the hotel safes, then they're quite different IMHE; usually much better made and usually with a new code-setting required each time you close the door. Although the ones in South Africa this summer were all prominently marked "not suitable for storing handguns". I don't know if this was lack of security, or explosion risk during a fire.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

They should be covered by the hotel's insurance.

The point of in-room safes is that one cannot trust the low-paid and casual staff who work in the hotel. It's not supposed to provide *real* security - just stop the maid stuffing your laptop into the laundry bag.

That's really bad. I recall reading that the manager of a very well known and exclusive London hotel found that the hotel possessed duplicate keys to the safe-deposit boxes "just in case". He personally ordered and witnessed all the keys being sawn in half, with the 'A' halves of all the keys being disposed of separately to all the 'B' halves so there was little chance they could be reunited. It would have invalidated the hotel's insurance and left them open to a claim for negligence if they had held duplicate keys.

Now if a guest loses his key, the guest has to pay for a safe locksmith to open the safe - and wait until it's done.

Owain

Reply to
Owain

these

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> Forgot to mention; their is usually a manual key-override behind the

That's the weak point, very easily picked.

Reply to
Scabbydug

Personally I would be very wary of submitting information that would help anybody opening a safe. Suggest you use an accredited lock-smith.

Don

Reply to
Donwill

You can be damn sure anyone who has attended one of H.M.Training centres for the criminally inclined knows far more about the subject than any of us.

(Actually I though the question was how to USE the safe, not how to break into it...)

Reply to
555

I wouldn't think so, especially if there was no evidence it was forced. Most hotels I know have a disclaimer for such things.

Don't think my laptop would fit in most hotel safes.

The point of giving valuables to reception is (I guess) you get some sort of proof that such an item existed.

Not so long ago when it was (alleged) a member of the International Olympic Committe was bribed he was told to say that he had $10,000 in his hotel room which was stolen and the $10,000 he was been given was merely a goodwill gesture from the host to replace what he had lost.

Which sounds completely legitimate.

Reply to
whitely525

I thought an accredited lock-smith would in any case use brute force and heavy cutting gear (rather than a stethoscope...) And that would be expensive.

So there is not much of a 'secret' to be revealed.

Reply to
whitely525

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