Chapter 50: Julian’s Speculations on the Smart Padlock Mechanism Part 1
Lavendina turned on her phone, then turned on the flashlight. She approached the padlock and shone it into the padlock hole. Leaning to the side, she answered Julian’s question.
"Here, look inside" Lavendina replied.
Julian approached, leaning in to look inside the padlock.
"See the small holes on the right and left side?" Lavendina asked.
"Yes" Julian replied.
"That’s where the electricity comes out" Lavendina said.
"So the electricity comes from the wires inside these holes?" Julian asked, his eyes still focused on the small holes.
"Yes, that’s right!" Lavendina replied.
"Where do the cables connect?" Julian asked.
Lavendina raised her head and answered.
"Of course, it’s from our family’s creation! It’s the latest and unpublished device!" Lavendina said arrogantly.
"This device is called ’Little Shock’ It sends a small electric current through two wires inside the two small holes" Lavendina continued.
Julian immediately straightened up and said.
"Wow! Are you serious?!" Julian asked, his eyes sparkling as he stared at Lavendina.
"Of course!" Lavendina replied arrogantly.
Julian lowered his head again and stared back at the two small holes in the padlock.
"Heee~... This padlock looks really sophisticated, huh~" Julian said with a look of admiration, looking at each small hole.
Julian straightened up and faced Lavendina.
"By the way, who made this device?" Julian asked.
Lavendina turned off her phone’s flashlight and answered.
"Her name is Tia—Tia Darmia. She’s the IT expert in our family. She’s made many devices, and she can even hack and disrupt the CCTV feed using one of her devices," Lavendina replied.
Julian immediately moved his face closer to Lavendina’s.
"WOW! So your family has such a talented member?!" Julian asked in awe.
Lavendina was shocked, her cheeks immediately turning red.
"Moo!... Ju-Julian, you’re too close!" Lavendina said, pushing Julian away.
"Ah!... sorry..." said Julian, who had already kept his distance.
Lavendina smiled and began unlocking the padlock with her right index finger—the padlock made a metallic sound—making it open. Julian was surprised to see Lavendina pull on the end of the padlock’s shackle—which turned out to be longer than a regular padlock, and not only that, but the hose attached to the right side of the padlock also came loose.
"Hee... so that hose is the one that locks it" Julian thought to himself, amazed to see the hole in the loose hose.
"So, probably inside the padlock is a fairly large piece of metal shaped like a long tube—when the end of the shackle is inserted, the tube is pushed, and the end of the tube enters the hole in the hose. There’s probably a spring attached to the iron tube so the tube can move up and down" Julian continued, thoughtful, as he held his chin with his right hand, his gaze analyzing each part of the hose and shackle.
Julian’s gaze suddenly focused on the back of the shackle. It turned out there were three medium-sized holes.
"So that’s it..." Julian muttered with a grin.
Lavendina, having finished tidying up the lock, turned to Julian.
"What’s wrong, Julian?" Lavendina asked.
"I was just guessing how that device works..." Julian replied, his expression still thoughtful, as his gaze fixed intently on the lock Lavendina was holding.
Lavendina was a little surprised, then she smiled and turned to Julian.
"Hoo... I’m curious. Can you explain it to me too, please?" Lavendina asked softly.
Seeing Lavendina’s smile made Julian a little nervous. Lavendina, still smiling, spoke again.
"What are you waiting for?" Lavendina asked, her expression confused and her smile still visible.
Lavendina began clenching her right and left hands, then swinging them up and down as she said.
"HURRY UP AND EXPLAIN IT TO ME~!!! I WANT TO KNOW HOW IT WORKS TOO~!!!" Lavendina said, with an annoyed expression and a spoiled tone.
"S-she’s just like a kid..." Julian thought to himself, his expression blank as he stared at Lavendina, who was acting like a kid.
"A-alright, but first you have to calm down, okay?" Julian asked, trying to calm Lavendina down.
Lavendina immediately fell silent, but her hands were still clenched.
"But this is just my opinion, because I haven’t seen the inside of the device" Julian replied, feeling a little nervous.
Lavendina’s expression immediately changed to one of joy. She pressed her fingertips together and said
"Haaa~!... Yes, it’s okay~!" Lavendina said happily.
Seeing Lavendina’s joy made Julian reluctantly tell her.
"Let me borrow the padlock" Julian said.
Lavendina handed the padlock to Julian. Holding the padlock and the loose end of the hose in his right hand, Julian began to explain.
"Ukhm!..."
Julian began to touch the right side of the padlock.
"Alright... so I think, inside the padlock body on the right side, there are tubular pieces of metal. One piece is larger than the end of the shackle and is positioned vertically—let’s call it BIG..." Julian said, pointing to the right side of the padlock body.
"Then there are the pieces of metal that are probably smaller than the end of the shackle and are positioned horizontally—let’s call them LIL’S... I know their size because I see the holes behind this shackle..." Julian continued, showing Lavendina the holes behind the shackle.
As Julian was explaining, Lavendina secretly recorded him with her phone. To avoid being caught, Lavendina held her phone—holding the tip of it to her chin.
"Inside the hole for the end of this shackle... there must be three chambers, right?" Julian asked, showing her the hole where the end of the shackle fits.
Lavendina nodded.
"Maybe..." Lavendina answered, because she herself didn’t know.
Julian began touching the right side of the padlock, touching the top first.
"Nah!, I think the three chambers in the lock have their respective functions. The top chamber is for the shackle end..." Julian said, touching the top right side of the padlock.
"... Then the middle chamber serves as a divider between the shackle end and the BIG chamber. This middle chamber is the same size as the shackle end, and there are holes above and below the middle chamber—what are the two holes for? For the shackle end to fit through, so that BIG can be pushed down by the shackle end..." Julian continued, touching the center of the right side of the padlock.
Julian took a breath, then continued his explanation.
"... and lastly, the bottom chamber is for BIG—it’s also probably slightly larger than BIG" Julian continued, touching the bottom right side of the padlock.
"Besides that, I also think the LIL’S are placed in two chambers—one in the BIG chamber and the middle chamber. LIL’S is placed on the left side—and the one to the right is clearly the wall on the right side of the padlock" Julian continued, tapping the right side of the padlock.
"...as for the number, I think there are four—three of which are LIL’S that lock the shackle holes.." Julian continued, pointing to the shackle holes.
"...and to lock BIG there’s only one LIL—probably the same size as BIG" Julian continued, glancing at Lavendina.
"Hmm... So how does it work?" asked Lavendina, still smiling.
"As for how it works, according to my speculation—when I saw the long end of the shackle, I thought its function was to push the BIG—the end of the shackle pushes the BIG until the BIG end fits into this hose hole..."Julian said, pointing to the end of the shackle and then the hole in the hose that had been removed from the right side of the padlock.
"Then?" asked Lavendina, still smiling sweetly.
"... BIG can’t be without a spring, so with a spring—BIG can go up and down. When the end of the shackle is pulled out, BIG doesn’t come out because the space above it is smaller than its size and only fits for the end of the shackle—the reason I know this is because when you opened the padlock earlier, i heard the sound of metal clashing" Julian said proudly.
"Hee~... So how does LIL’S work?" asked Lavendina, still smiling sweetly.
"... and LIL’S definitely works when the fingerprint sensor reads the correct fingerprint, then LIL’S will move—first LIL’S moves to lock BIG, then second LIL’S moves—which is located on the divider between the shackle chamber and the BIG chamber—this second LIL’S will lock the holes in the shackle" Julian continued, showing the holes in the shackle again.
Julian suddenly stopped talking because he noticed two small indicator lights located to the right of the fingerprint sensor hole—seeing these lights, Julian smiled.
"What’s wrong, Julian? Why did you stop explaining?" Lavendina asked.
"I just realized there are two little lights here, hahaha" Julian said, pointing to the two small lights attached next to the fingerprint sensor hole.
"Do you know what they do?" Lavendina asked.
"Looking at the colors, it seems like they’re just indicators. The red one indicates that all the LIL’S have entered the holes, and the green one indicates that the LIL’S have been released from the holes in the lock body" Julian replied, pointing to each light one by one.
"Yep, you’re right!" Lavendina said with a sweet smile.
Julian was immediately delighted, then Lavendina asked again.
"Do you know what moves the LIL’S?" Lavendina asked.
Julian took a deep breath, organizing his words before answering. His eyes continued to stare at each part of the padlock as if unraveling the mechanical puzzle within.
"Seeing the size of the padlock, it’s quite large and thick... makes me speculate that there are two small electric motors or micro linear actuators that move LIL’S to directly lock the holes behind the shackle and BIG" Julian said, pointing to the holes on the back of the shackle.
Lavendina seemed surprised by this explanation, then looked at the padlock in his hand curiously.
"Small electric motors? Micro linear actuators?" Lavendina asked.
"Are you sure there’s a component that small inside this padlock?" Lavendina continued.
Julian nodded slowly.
~To be continued~