January 16, 2026
Keys, bots, and spicy comment wars!
Lock-Picking Robot
Open-source robot sparks ethics fight, speed roasts, and TSA lock panic
TLDR: An open-source robot wiggles wires through a key to methodically open common locks, challenging reliance on “universal” keys. Commenters split between legal concerns (“get a warrant”), jokes about its slow pace, and curiosity about upgrades—spotlighting why easy-to-open locks are risky for everyone.
An open-source “lock-picking robot” just dropped, promising to poke at pins through a hollow key until your lock gives up—and the comments went full heist movie vs reality. Fans call it a clever, legal-friendly alternative to secret skeleton keys (like those TSA luggage ones), while skeptics clap back with ethics: “If cops need in, there’s a warrant,” says one voice, turning a gadget demo into a civil liberties throwdown. Others cheer the transparency and toy-factor for hobbyists, not crooks.
Then came the speed roast. The dev says it tries combos at roughly 0.7 seconds each. The crowd immediately asks, “Why so slow?” with timing memes and “This isn’t Mission: Impossible, it’s Mission: Incremental.” One unimpressed take: brute force isn’t magic—though the wire-through-the-key trick got nods for cleverness and 90s throwbacks. A broken AliExpress link sparked shopping drama (and suggestions like the “Sputnik” tool) plus “try this wild machine” YouTube.
Security folks cross-posted the “safe cracking robot” blog and Defcon talk, arguing the real lesson: more pins and messy keys can beat humans—but robots don’t care. Verdict: it’s an open-source tinker project that exposes how “universal keys” are a bad idea, while thread devolves into charts, hot takes, and TSA lock dunking
Key Points
- •An open-source lock-picking robot uses a wire fed through a hollow key to press pins and brute-force combinations.
- •The system is unaffected by security pins and takes about 0.7 seconds per combination; time scales with pins and cut depths (e.g., ~3 min for 4×4, ~35 min for 5×5).
- •Software requirements include Arduino IDE, Git, OpenRB board manager, Arduino SAMD Board Manager, and DYNAMIXEL2Arduino.
- •Hardware uses Dynamixel XL330-M288-T servos and an OpenRB-150 driver board; mechanical parts are made via FDM, SLA/DLP, and DMLS.
- •The project is GPL 3.0 licensed, with future plans for current feedback unlock detection, narrowing combinations, and attempting combing before brute force.