Alright, I did crawl through all the books that could help me with this but didn't have any luck with the question. A friend of mine and I where just discussing the principle behind a maglock. I was proposing an electromagnetic doorframe that simply keeps the door shut. This, however, would simply swing open as soon as the power is out.
He suggested a normal door with bolts, which are retracted by magnets when there is a need for opening them. This would have the disadvantage that the doors will not be able to open when the power is out, unless there is some kind of emergency switch with a battery, which would, in theory, be possibly ale to bypass any locks.

So, are there any official or inofficial explanations? What do you believe how a maglock works?

Bonus question: The BBB states that voice ID locks are particularly hard to tamper because they basically consist only of a microphone while the processing and unlocking mechanisms are hidden in a well secured part of the building. But wouldn't this be possible with any maglock, even a normal keypad or passkey reader?

Cheers...

I think it is a building requirement IRL that automated locks must open in the event of a power outage. But I do not think there is an actual Canon explanation either way.

For security AND safety reasons I would say that they pop open since a poweroutage could come from several sources, and only one of those sources would be a "shadowrun".

Imagine a fire that cuts off the main power feed to a high security facility and all the doors becomes locked, with personell trapped inside while the fire is spreading. Ok, they probably have fire extinguishers in the ceiling but what if they are broken as well...

Ok, I'm taking things to extremes here but in my opinion most if not all maglocks would be cntrolled thus unless specific doors have been programmed to be locked.

Hmm, good point there... I'd say it is your choice, maglocks can probably be programmed so some doors would be locked and more commonly used doors would be open.

You could design doors so that in the event of a power failure the door remains locked but releases a catch so that it can be manually unlocked from inside without a key but would need a security key to unlock from the outside

That way doors to secure areas could be opened from inside by anyone in that area if power fails, but not from outside without a key. The security can overide the maglock even if power exists, incase the exterior maglock is damaged but the door is locked from the inside maglock.

By canon maglocks have an internal battery that will function for several years regardless of building power. They are self contained.

in short maglocks continue working even if the power is out.

Maglocks stay closed. Any place with decent security will also have back-up generators to keep such things going.

I'd say in the even that power is completely cut, the doors stay closed, but have an internal battery that will lock/unlock the door. It won't power a door (to open or close), but the locks will still work. There would probably also be a manual overide on the interior side of the door as well, just in case the battery dies.

So you party's Troll might get a good workout opening the meter thick blast door your electronics wiz just picked the maglock on after the power has been cut.

I used to work with screwed up kids in a lock-down psych hospitol that had magnetic locks on all the doors. For obvious saftey reasons they would automatically unlock if the fire alarms went off regardless of weather there was power. Unfortunately the kids knew this and would bolt for the door any time someone "accidentally" pulled the alarm.

Of coarse thats in real life, not SR. I could see a particularly evil corp setting it such that the opposite occurs. After all, it might be cheeper for the corp to pay out a few life insurance policies than if the shadowrunners get away with whatever they came to steal.

Keep in mind that also particularly heavy doors will usually either slide into the ceiling or the floor. If it's the ceiling, it's because they slam down when the power goes, if the floor, it's because they slam open. All depends on which you want.

~J

I'd say in my opinion that maglock continue to function normally after the power dies. I figure they work like the phones in RL, when the power dies a non-cordless phone still works normally, I figure the maglocks draw their power from the matrix in the same way as the phones of today.

Hmm... page 86, SOTA63:

I remeber in Supernova that a maglock was using its own 'internal power.' I thought the reason it mentioned was so it wouldn't have to be connected to the matrix. It was the maglock on the building in the end of the adventure where (trying not to give away spoilers) you go to meet the Johnson and find out everything about the advenure.

There are tools to trace where electrical cables run in a wall (point it at the wall and the light turns on if there is an active wire. Should be present in an electronics toolkit) this could be a useful tool to find the mag locks backup battery (remove it and the door should be unlocked). Holding a door closed with pure magnetic force would take a massive amount of power. More than a batty can provide even in SR (based on batty life for other electronic equipment) if there is a batty in the lock mechanism then it must be a magnetically driven bolt. Also the magnetic field necessary to hold the door shut would be very big so any ferus items for several meters would be stuck to the door (possibly preventing access to the key panel).

I do agree with you on the voice print point however codes and cards are more easily stolen and it takes a lot of cabling to centralise door access. The point of paranoia where you are wiling to run all that cabling and when you beside you need voice print are probably close together.

Of cause in any building that uses security riggers or deckers with access to the doors al that cabling is in place anyway. The car reader or keypad will take the code an send it to the door security program witch will order the mag lock to release. What you would be doing with the electronics skill is convincing the mag lock (as apposed to the card reader, number pad, rental scanner, voice mike, finger print reader or other input device) that the security program has asked it to unlock. Or just short the solenoid on the electro magnet.

Edward

Try thinking of it this way: there's not all that much difference between a maglock and the card reader locks used in most hotels these days. If the power goes, you can't use your card on them, but you can still open the door from the inside. No batteries required.

Everything you need to know you can get through Google.
Google Answers: Hotel Keycards

According to the people answering, including a locksmith, and the links they provide, these types of locks operate on standard AA batteries and are never connected to main power grid at any point. They have enough power for 30,000 operations when they need to be replaced/recharged. If the lock is unpowered, the lock's battery compartment and the manual lock itself can still be accessed using a utility key to replace batteries or unlock the door. There are some cases where the battery is inside the card itself and that is used to power the lock.

Of course, this applies only to standard doorframes in residental and commerical builidings, not high stength security doors, prison facilities, etc.

Personal ancedote: I was once in a hotel that had a power failure for hours when a lightning storm passed through and fallen trees killed the juice to most of the town. I remember being taken by surprise that the door locks still worked and I was able to get into my room.

They do have a battery backup, so they'd still work normally.

However, what happens when the battery backup runs down? Does it pop open then, or stay closed? This wouldn't be a viable tactic for runners to break into a place, but it could be a good ambiance thing for GMs whose runners have happened upon an abandoned facility of some type.

there's no "popping" involved. as the name implies, maglocks use magnetic force to keep the door they lock from moving. the magnetic force comes from electromagnets. and when electromagnets don't have electricity, they stop being magnets. no power, no magnet, no lock.

If I remember the prison special I saw a while back, BitBasher is correct. The cell locks he describe are designed/programmed to lock down in case of a sudden power loss.

So, technically, if you so like, Maglocks do immediately switch to their own batteries when outside power is cut. But then, as you are the GM, you could hint that the target had old, easy-to-bypass maglocks, but then neglect to inform them that the target recently upgraded the maglocks to something a little more formidible.....

In buildings I've built (quite a few public buildings - the new Police HQ, the finance ministry building, a new prison), the electronic locking systems are default open at the lost of power. Or there must be a manual door handle that allows opening from the inside. The prison cells however are default locked but with a override open if someone triggers the fire alarm(I had headaches just leaving openings in the concrete for those conduits. If the conduits are buried in the concrete, then it is almost impossible to cut the data lines from the cells en route to the command center).

If you want stupid, the records admin area, full of nothing but LEST's, secretaries, and is a secure area, no inmates ever go in there... has prox card maglocks on the door and the inside doorhandles are NONFUNCTIONAL. ONLY the maglocks can open the door or a physical key which only a handful of people have, and it cannot be guaranteed someone with that key is in there at all times. <cringe>

Right. All the maglocks I have encountered have a bold held shut by a not too strong spring, when the lock activates an electromagnet pulls the bolt open for a second or two, then the spring returns the lock to the closed position. If you miss the 2 second window fumbling with your card or not paying attention tough, wait a few seconds and swipe again. For many locks, when you hear the buzzing sound, that's the magned pulling the bolt back, and the only time you can open the door is when it's buzzing.

bah, that's not sci-fi enough for me. i prefer my incredibly powerful electromagnets. take your reality elsewhere !!

I should log on more often. I work security and could have answered many of these questions.

There are three basic kinds of locks IRL: Mechanical, Electromechanical, and Maglock. These are not exclusive, you can and often have more than one on a paticular door. The most common is mechanical, you probably have one on your front door. I hope you know how they work.

Electromechanical obviously have both electrical and mechanical components. They are usually teamed with mechanical locks. Because they have electrically controlled components, you can use any sort of electronic key you wish. I've seen both keypad and electronic passcard, but the button by the security desk is the most common type. These use solenoids to release a catch in the latchplate and allow the mechanical lock's bolt to slide out of the bolthole. They usually buzz, but don't need to. They will always click, however. They won't work when the power goes out, unless they're on a backed-up circuit.

Maglocks use magnets to hold a door shut. Maglocks are typically placed on the frame of the door at the top outside corner and placed so the door swings away, with a steel plate for the magnet to catch on the door. If this would place the magnets on the public side of the door (unusual) they can be mounted on a plate extending past the door and contacting a steel catcher plate attached to the frame.. They won't work without power, so they are often placed on a backed-up circuit and usually have a dedicated UPS to provide emergency power. A single maglock will run for 6 hours on a typical small UPS. Multiple maglocks controlling a series of door will often run off the same UPS, reducing time. These doors will typically have a double keyed deadbolt lock to secure the door if the power remains out longer than an hour or two. If the door is glass door with a steel or aluminum frame (especially aluminum) pulling on the door will warp it enough to open a gape of two to three inches at the bottom. The most common use of maglocks now is to hold steel fire doors open. If the power is cut these doors swing into place compartmentalizing the building and slowing the spread of flame. These will typically be found where hallways pierce firewalls and around the elevators and stairwells.

Your last paragraph refers not to maglocks, but to Electromagnetic Door Retiners. They are electromagnets but are different from, and not the same thing as a maglock. They don't actually lock anything, nor are they locks at all. They just hold open fire doors so the day to day business can operate as if the fire doors weren't there. My building uses those too.

No maglocks in my building are placed at the corner of the frame, they are mounted in the doorjam, not the door itself, where the reciever plate usually is that the bolt slides into.

I had a maglock on the lobby doors of my previous employer. The doors were glass doors, with brass at top and bottom. The top brass part had an electromagnet built into it (or a ferrous block and the electromagnet was in the door frame) that was the only thing that held the door shut. I suspect they could be forced, but I also suspect the door would shatter first. This particular lock came unlocked when the power failed. The door also had floor and handle mechanical locks, which were only used at the end of the day.

If you wanted to exit past the doors when they were mechanically locked (generally after 6pm), there were alternative doors in nearby rooms that were always locked to the outside, but you could always go through from the inside.

Even though my experience with maglocks has been "unlocks during power failure," I voted for "works normally." However, were I designing doors in Shadowrun for a secure area, the maglocks would have their own power supply, or at least a self-activating mechanical lock that took over when power failed. For safety's sake, the door handles would work for people inside the building even with the mechanical locks (unless it was a really, really secure area).

That's a good point I really glossed over. Upon cutting the power ultimately the lock will do what the designers wanted it to do.

If it's a secure area the lock will likely default to closed.

If it's a fire or exit door the lock will likely default to open.

Many may have battery backups and continue to work normally.

It's ultimately up toi the GM and (hopefully) common sense. All answers are plausible.

I thought an SR Mag-lock just used a magnetic card as a passkey, kinda like an ATM or the like? I thought is was a mechanism of locking/unlocking, not a method of how the portal would be physically secured.

I don't have my BBB handy, anyone got the text handy on this?

Maglock is the method of locking. Pass code, card reader, vocie recognition, and thumb print are some of the methods used as keys (along with taggnets and transponders among others).

OK, finally I get to rant on something I know a hell of a lot about. Just to qualify my post, yes I am a locksmith. Also, keep in mind game balance. Locks in the game can pretty much do anything you'd like, just like in real life. Open, close, timelock, delay exit, they build everything you could possibly want.

That being said, what you are looking for is the difference between fail-safe and fail-secure. Fail safe uses power to hold door shut. No power, door becomes unsecure. Fail-secure uses power to unsecure a door. No power, door remains secure, and a big damn obstacle in an emergency.

Others have listed a few of the types that exist and the info provided on how they work is good enough for this purpose. Just a couple of things though, Maglocks and other electronic devices do not have to click. They make noise so that people know when the damn things are unlocked and can enter. I can't imagine why you would want a silent door but it is possible to have one. Also, the most common type of door security in use with a cardreader/retinal/passkey whatever is an electric strike. The lock set is a generic mechanical lock that functions as normal and the strike (the part set in the jamb) is the part that moves. Although very uncommon, this could let you have a door that pops open when the proper key is used. Again, no real point but possible.

Just to screw with your players, let me introduce you to some of the nasty real life door security measures.

1.) Delayed exit device. These things look very similar to the panic bars you see on large building that hold lots of people. Like movie theaters and community centers. Also called push bars or crash bars they can be bought to not open when you push the big bar. Instead, a buzzer sounds, the security office is notified, and you get to wait 15-30 seconds before the door opens. Imagine the fun you can have as your players get to wait 5 to 10 combat turns as the door counts down until it will open. Did I mention that security can simply override the open command with the push of a key.

2.) Transponder equipped Maglocks. The locks are combo electric/mechanical/computerized devices that depend on three things to open. The first, power. Second, the right key. Third, the correct transponder code embedded in the key. Transpondered keys use radio frequencies as a power source to return their own signals to a source unit, in this case, a maglock. I have no idea how, ask an engineer. A central output unit is placed in the building that constantly transmits a signal. All keys within the radius are kept active by the signal. The radius usually doesn't extend past the building permitter. If a key "drops carrier" its memory is erased and you have to return to security to have it reprogrammed. Sure, your employees have to pick up their keys each day but it does cut down on theft of keys. As an added bonus, if the alarm is tripped, the central broadcast tower shuts down and all keys become worthless. Emergency keys exist because they operate on a different frequency and are usually kept in the safe or security office.

3.) Purely mechanical pushbutton locks. These are old school but highly effective. They have a keypad over a lever. You enter the right code, you push the handle, you are in. There exists only two methods to bypass said lock. The code and destruction of lock/door. Simple yet effective.

Of course using this stuff on your players might get you beat to death but hey, it sure is funny the first time.


Mini rant. I know the rules are simplified for game play but come on. Who in the hell would make a device that could be detached from the outside? "Take the case off...." What!!!! The freaking lock is bolted on, from the inside. Sure, some external mounts aren't but its funny how no one in 2064 has realized that using non-front mounted locks leads to better security. That and buy some damn pick proof locks. They are cheap.

This is shadowrun; even assuming you cut all power and override every fail-safe, security is more important than employee lives.

Here is a thought, for those 'soft-hearted' employers; if the power dies, the maglock can be manually opened from the inside. That way, you can get out during a major emergency but not in...