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THE DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF A 2-DIGIT ELECTRONIC LOCK SYSTEM

USING SIMPLE CIRCUIT ELEMENTS AND DIGITAL ELECTRONIC LOGIC GATES

Article · April 2017

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 THE DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF A 2-DIGIT ELECTRONIC LOCK Supported by
SYSTEM USING SIMPLE CIRCUIT ELEMENTS AND DIGITAL
ELECTRONIC LOGIC GATES

F. G. Akinboro1, H. K. Yusuf1, 2*, M. A. Adedeji2

1
Department of Physics, Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta, Nigeria
2
Department of Physics, University of Lagos, Nigeria
*Corresponding author: hkyusuf@unilag.edu.ng, haliruyusuf6@gmail.com
Received: December 11, 2016 Accepted: March 15, 2017

Abstract: The design, construction and implementation of a 2-digit electronic locking system for crime and intrusion
prevention is reported in this work. The electronic locking system was designed and constructed using simple
circuit elements and implemented with digital electronic logic gates. Like a conventional key, the electronic lock
accepts a 2-Digit code, compares it to the stored code in its memory via a comparator and switches on or off any
device connected to it if both codes match or mismatch. The device makes use of a keypad for data entry achieved
with a Binary Coded Decimal (BCD) Encoder IC (74C922), a set of shift register ICs (4035B) for memory and a
set of 4001 quad NOR and 4070 quad EX-OR logic gates for comparing and a relay for switching. During testing,
the result showed that the device switches ON or OFF any electronic device connected to it if both codes match or
mismatch.
Keywords: Binary coded decimal, comparators, electronic locks, logic, registers, switching

Introduction electrical systems, such as connecting a lock to a media player

Access control is the primary security objective of or television set.
implementing a locking system (FISE, 2014). A lock is a
device used to keep something or somebody in or out of a Materials and Methods
physical, logical or electronic facility, until when appropriate The design of this lock is based on digital electronics – the
authority and/or authentication is supplied (FISE, 2014). Lock branch of electronics which uses binary systems. The lock is
systems could be mechanical, magnetic or electronic in nature primarily composed of 4 units which are the keyboard, the
or could be implemented using a combination of any of these memory, the comparator and the lock unit as illustrated in Fig.
schemes. Mechanical locks are dated back toseveral centuries 1. The power supply for the device was 9volts direct current
ago, while the magnetic and electronics locks became popular (DC) from battery cells. A code is entered through the
in the 19th and 20th centuries respectively (Adamu, 2014; keyboard into the memory of the device. The comparator
Koenig et al., 1998; Zungeru et al., 2012). Locks have been compares whether the entered code matches the previously
continuously improved by the incorporation of different entered code (pre-set or key code) and it indicates the result
materials making themto be of increasingly complex working by lighting up the appropriate LED and energizing a relay
mechanisms and have recently included the incorporation of which either locks or releases an attached electronic device.
automatic electronic alarm and safety devices (Adamu, 2014; The keypad
Weber & Thad-L., 1985; Zungeru et al., 2012). The input of the device is a keypad which comprises of a set
Electronic locks have varying levels of sophistication, of switches arranged in a 4 by 4 matrix representing digits 0
versatility and adaptability depending on the security to F which are the digits of the Hexadecimal numbering
requirement of the intended application. Hence, these class of system (Base16) as shown in Fig. 2. The switches are
locks are being made in varieties such as in the DNA Sensor connected to a Binary Coded Decimal (BCD) 74C922 self-
Locks, Card Sensor Locks, Electronic Eye Locks (Retina scan IC Encoder and capacitors, which gives an output in
Scanners), Thumbprint Sensor Locks and Electronic binary depending on the key(s) pressed. The 74C922
Combination Locks. Electronic locks have therefore been continuously scans the keys on the keypad looking for key
described as the most sophisticated of all locks (Rashid, enclosure. When a closure is detected, it is de-bounced and if
1986). valid, gives the corresponding output. Capacitors are
In this work, we designed, constructed and implemented a 2- connected to the encoder to regulate the rate at which the
digit electronic combination lock system that can be used to encoder scans the key pad. The output of the keypad is fed
replace mechanical combination locks. The electronic lock into a shift register that is used as the memory.
accepts an input number combination with the keypad, saves The heart of the keypad is the 74C922 encoder to which a set
the input into shift registers which serves as memory, of switches arranged in a 4 x 4 matrix are connected to. The
compares the input to a previously saved input with logic encoder’s eighteen (18) pin IC encodes a hexadecimal input
gates and then switches on and off any device connected to it. into a four-bit binary output. The inputs are supplied from
Although programming and microcontrollers are not sixteen switches (marked 0 to 9 and A to F) connected in a
employed in the design, the lock is still flexible because it matrix of four rows and four columns so that only eight
allows any 2-digit combination to be used as the secret connections are made to the IC.
combination instead of a pre-coded combination which can C1 is an external capacitor whose value (0.01 uF) decides the
only be altered by changing the associated circuitry. This rate of scanning of switches by fast oscillator in the IC, to
makes it easy for the user to change the secret combination of detect the one key that has been pressed. The other external
the lock if and when it is compromised. capacitor C2 (0.1 uF) eliminates 'contact bounce' on the
As the design makes use of simple circuit elements and switches; this occurs when two contacts are pushed together.
integrated circuits, the use of programming is totally They do not stay in contact at first but make a series of rapid,
eliminated to illustrate fundamental digital electronics imperfect contacts which produce random, unwanted pulses.
circuitry principles. This makes for a great teaching resource The IC contains a circuit (except C2) to prevent this.
for academics. The open-ended design of the lock by using a Depending on the switch pressed, the IC gives out the
relay makes it possible to incorporate this design into any corresponding high and/or low output in binary through pins
electronic device, thus extending its use to electronic or 19, 18, 17, 16 (LSB-MSB).

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Construction of a 2–digit Electronic Lock System

The memory unit

The memory comprises of a set of shift registers which
provide a store for the data from the keypad. Fig. 3 and Fig. 4
show a shift register and how four shift registers were
connected in pairs to form the memory unit. One pair for the 2
digit key-code and the other pair are for the entered code. The
memory unit consisted of shift registers, resistors and
Fig. 1: Block diagram of the electronic lock switches.
Two pairs of 4-bit parallel-in parallel-out (input and output)
shift registers (IC 4035B) were used to store the first and the
second pair of digits in the device. The IC pins 9, 10, 11, 12
are the input of the shift registers and pin 6 is the clock pulse
which is connected to the positive through a switch and to a
pull down resistor. The pin is normally 'LOW' until the switch
is pressed and released and it goes from 'LOW' to 'HIGH' to
'LOW’. After this switch is pressed the states of the input pin
is transferred to the output pins 1, 15, 14, 13 and this can be
reset by pressing the switch connected to the reset pin 5 as it
was done with pin 6. The reset clears the output pins making
Fig. 2: The keypad circuit diagram them all 'LOW'.
The Reset pins of each pair of codes were connected together
but their Enter keys (switch to pin 6) were separate for each of
the registers. Pins 2, 7, 16 were connected to the positive rail
while pins 3, 4, 8 were connected to the negative rail.
The digital comparator
The circuit uses XOR (Exclusive-OR) gates as Bit
comparators. Four of these XOR gates (in a single IC 4070 –
Fig. 5) compare the respective bits of two 4-bit binary
numbers coming from the output of the shift registers. If the
two numbers match bit for bit, a Green LED will light up and
if they do not exactly match the Red LED will light up.

Fig. 3: 4035 Shift register IC

Fig. 4: Circuit diagram of the memory unit

XOR gates output a 'HIGH' signal if the input signals are not common sides of the diodes will provide a 'LOW' signal state
of the same logic state. The eight XOR gates output terminals to the NOR logic. The NOR logic therefore lights-up the
were connected through a diode network which functions as Green LED when the output of the XOR gate is 'LOW' and
an 8-input OR gate. If any of the eight XOR gates outputs a turns-up the Red LED if the output of the XOR gate is 'HIGH'
'HIGH' signal meaning that the entered code and the key code (Fig. 7a). The relay (Fig. 7b) is connected to the output of the
are not identical, then the 'HIGH’ signal will be passed to the NOR gate connected to the green LED by means of two
NOR logic gates (in 4001Quad NOR gate IC – Fig. 6). If the transistors which amplifies the current output of the NOR
pair of the two 4-bit codes are identical, the XOR gate outputs gate. The relay thus energize only when the codes match.
will be 'LOW' and the pull-down resistor connected to the

258
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Construction of a 2–digit Electronic Lock System

Fig. 7b
Fig. 7a & b: Circuit diagram of the comparator. D1 – D9 are
IN4148 signal diodes; R7 and R8 are 10k ohms resistors

Discussion
The device was tested and demonstrated as follows. A two-
digit code was entered by pressing the first digit, press the
Fig. 5: 4070 Quad EX-OR gate IC enter key for the second digit. The two digits entered are
stored in the shift registers and the device changes state to the
lock mode. The relay breaks connection and the RED LED
indicator comes ON. To unlock the device, the same two
digits must be entered one after the other as was done the first
time. In this case, the relay makes connection and the GREEN
LED indicator comes ON.
When a key is pressed on the keyboard, the four outputs of
the encoder go HIGH or LOW as shown in Table 1. For
example if ‘3’ is pressed, A and B are HIGH while C and D
are LOW. The binary output from the keypad is applied to the
input of the four shift registers. The clock input (pin 6) on the
shift register is normally LOW since they are all connected to
the negative through 10K resistors. When the entered key for
a register is pressed, the resulting rising edge from 0 – 9V
causes the HIGH or LOW states of the four input on the
register to be shifted to the output. The output states of the
register are therefore; A=1, B=1, C=0 and D=0. But the other
Fig. 6: 4001Quad NOR gate IC outputs of the other shift registers remain 0 or in their
previous state unless their ‘Enter’ button is pressed before
they assume the state of the key pressed on the keypad.

Fig. 7a

Table 1: Binary output from the Keypad of X row and Y column switch matrix Adapted from Tom (1993)
X1 X2 X3 X4 X1 X2 X3 X4 X1 X2 X3 X4 X1 X2 X3 X4
Y1 Y1 Y1 Y1 Y2 Y2 Y2 Y2 Y3 Y3 Y3 Y3 Y4 Y4 Y4 Y4
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
A (LSB) 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1
B 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1
C 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1
D(MSB) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

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 Construction of a 2–digit Electronic Lock System

Since only 3 (0011) was pressed and the other inputs are 0 and perfect means of controlling access to electronic devices,
(0000), the EX-OR gate gives a HIGH output which is passed machines and physical facilities as well as provides a good
to the NOR gate which makes the mismatch pin HIGH and teaching resource for digital electronics. The strength of the
RED LED comes ON and the relay breaks connection until lock can be increased by including more digits which can be
another 3 is entered and it goes through the previous process achieved by adding more bit comparators. This will however
as the previous digit and the circuit will now indicate code lead to an increase in the circuit’s size as well as the total
match by switching on the GREEN LED and the relay makes number of components. The long presented in this report is
connection. The input data can be reset or cleared by pressing comparably cheaper than locks of similar complexity made by
the reset (pin 5) on the shift register which is kept LOW by a other methods.
10K resistor connected to the negative to load the registers.
References
Adamu MZ2014. An Electronic Digital Combination Lock: A
Precise And Reliable Security System, School of Electrical
and Electronic Engineering, University of Nottingham,
Selangor Darul-Ehsan, Malaysia, pp. 2-5.
All About Circuits 2012. Simple Combination Lock.
Retrieved from
http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbook/experiments/chpt-
7/simple-combination-lock/, on Oct., 1st, 2016
FISE2014. Mechanical versus Electronic locks: Security
implications of the two paradigms, downloaded from
www.securityevaluators.com;on Oct., 1st, 2016, pp. 2-4.
Koenig JA & Taylor L 1998. Perimeter Security Sensor
Technology Handbook. Electronic Security Systems
Engineering Division, North Charleston, USA, pp. 67-86.
Rashid MA 1986. Power Electronic Circuits, Devices and
Applications, Longman, England, 1986, pp. 245-248.
Tom D 1993. Adventure with Digital Electronics, John
Murray Publisher, England, pp. 58-61
Weber R& Thad L 1985. Alarm Systems and Theft
Fig. 8: Picture of the electronic lock Protection; 2nd edition, Stoncham, MA: Uutterworth, pp. 7-8.
Zungeru AM, Kolo JG& Olumide I 2012a. A simple and
Conclusion reliable touch sensitive security system. Int. J. Network
The 2-digit lock (Fig. 8) designed and constructed performed Security & Its Applic. (IJNSA), 4(5):149–165.
as expected and the intended aim of using basic digital Zungeru AM, Maidawa KD, Ambafi JG& Omokhafe JT
electronics to design a complex electronic lock was achieved. 2012b. Design and implementation of a low cost digital bus
Components for the device are readily available in the market passenger counter. Innov. Sys. Design &Engr., 3(4): 29–41.
and hence can be easily purchased and implemented by
students and academics for illustrating digital electronic
principles. The designed electronic lock provides an efficient

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