Electronic locking method and apparatus

Abstract

An electronic combination lock uses a single pair of contacts which are connected to a door opening actuator such that a code may be input into the electronic combination lock by sequentially moving the door opening actuator in a predetermined pattern. The device is especially suitable for use in car doors such that the appearance of a conventional car door is maintained, but the ease of entry with an electronic combination lock is provided. A detecting circuit detects whether the car door pushbutton or movable handle is moved in the correct timed sequence. The initial movement of the pushbutton or door handle is used for starting a timer running and initiating the supply of power to the detecting circuit. A pulse generator outputs a series of pulses which are fed into a pulse sequencer. The pulse sequencer is used for gating the switch position (open or closed) to one of a number of parallel disposed registers in a latching circuit. A code selector and decoder are used to determine whether the latched code is equivalent to the preprogrammed code. A lock sensing switch is used in the system to minimize power consumption.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.