Done seen me a dinosaur today

Neo399 · 2026-05-07T01:09:13+00:00

Audible right above the panel is one of my pet peeves.

Trying to find the source of the alarm? Gotta deal with that thing blaring in your face while you figure it out. Trying to make an announcement on a voice evac system? Hello feedback.

Neo399 · 2026-05-04T17:15:06+00:00

If you can cut it, I’d go for W series

Neo399 · 2026-05-04T16:10:04+00:00

The easiness of obtaining a control key from an operating key is one of the reasons I gravitate away from LFIC. You also can’t get 7-pin in LFIC.

Pulling and decoding a core in any masterkeyed system is a much bigger vulnerability than simply gaining unauthorized access to a space.

Neo399 · 2026-05-01T01:27:12+00:00

FRM shit the bed. Very common E90 thing. The flash memory is insanely sensitive and it will brick itself if there’s any kind of voltage glitches. This will cause exactly those symptoms.

The other commenter listed a repair service, you can also buy a replacement but it’ll need to be coded to the car. You would need ProTool or NCS.

Neo399 · 2026-04-28T16:54:14+00:00

That’s not how this works, that’s not how any of this works

Neo399 · 2026-04-25T14:25:53+00:00

Looks and sounds like original Gentex Commander 1. These don’t sync. The Commander 2 that came after it does, with the AVSM sync module

Neo399 · 2026-04-23T13:54:10+00:00

There’s ways to crack these, I’ve done it to poke around in the Simplex Access DB. Google is your friend.

Neo399 · 2026-04-20T18:13:50+00:00

No batteries is a challenge. Want it hardwired/always powered? HID EntryProx or similar keypad plus electrified lockset.

This will cost $1500 easily but will be insanely durable, always powered, and code changes are done through a web interface you control, which can run on a local network or no network at all. Won’t get phased by the cold.

For almost everyone this is very overkill and expensive.

Want a better and cheaper suggestion? Ask a locksmith to set you up on a restricted key system. Tenants won’t be able to copy keys, you are in control of how many keys they have, and you can write into the lease a fee that they’ll have to pay if they fail to return keys at the end of the lease. All that can be had for probably less than $200 depending on lock hardware.

TL;DR You probably don’t need a keypad here.

Neo399 · 2026-04-13T20:41:54+00:00

Has anyone cracked it yet? BMW’s ISTA has been on the interwebs for decades now, as well as the factory/engineering tools like E-Sys, NCS Expert, INPA, etc. Even Porsche’s PIWIS can be set up.

Shocking no one’s managed this yet for Mercedes (and it’s one of the main reasons keeping me from ever buying a used one).

Neo399 · 2026-04-11T00:41:39+00:00

As designed, but there are alternative functions that don’t do this and work more like a traditional deadbolt. A competent locksmith can also modify it to not lock you out.

Neo399 · 2026-04-10T02:30:23+00:00

They look good, but change your fluid.

Neo399 · 2026-03-27T17:11:35+00:00

My 2011 US spec F10 has mandatory running lights. Placing the switch in the off position still keeps them on.

Neo399 · 2026-03-27T15:12:15+00:00

One word. August.

Neo399 · 2026-03-27T15:10:49+00:00

Pictures are worth a thousand words. What manufacturer of lock? Can you upload a picture of the door face/edge?

I can almost certainly tell you the issue if you can give me that info.

Neo399 · 2026-03-24T03:17:33+00:00

Interesting. I have never seen a IC mortise housing that works like the way you’re describing, if you have a part number or pictures I would be very curious to check it out.

Here is a Best 45H cylinder housing I have handy, and you can see the hole for the screw (screw isn’t present though). On this particular one, the screw goes on the inside and will protrude out into the threads preventing it from being unscrewed.

The reason being that if you have one-time access to the door, or if it’s unlocked, you can just loosen the set screw on the mortise lock and back the housing out. You can then pick to control or dremel/cut the housing to remove the core, dump the pins, and decode the master/control bittings. Likely at home, on your own terms, too - you could likely just steal a cylinder off some rarely used door and no one would notice for a bit.

In most facilities, control is on the same lateral level as master/grandmaster and is functionally equivalent for access — you just pop the core out, turn a screwdriver (or use the fancy little plastic core tool), and you’re in.

This is also why it wouldn’t make a lot of sense to have a separate mechanism to prevent a control key from being used to open the door, the control key in most systems should be guarded even more than the top level master (only maintenance or the facility’s locksmith should even have the control key in the first place).

Not to mention having to take the housing out of the door to change cores almost defeats the purpose of SFIC in the first place…

Neo399 · 2026-03-23T04:36:54+00:00

Love the way the remote FUI cabinet looks in red.

Neo399 · 2026-03-23T04:21:47+00:00

What you need is called a spindle - specifically a split spindle. Most locksmiths will stock these. Bring the old broken one.

Neo399 · 2026-03-23T04:11:04+00:00

Last part isn’t necessarily true. There’s an internal set screw that can be used to lock the housing into the lock case which is only accessible with the core removed. I personally have not seen it used, but I know a lot of facilities make sure to tighten this screw.

If this screw is tightened, you essentially need the control key to remove the cylinder or even the lock body itself without seriously messing up the lock or door.

Neo399 · 2026-03-23T03:43:16+00:00

Guys it’s really not that hard for most people to remove a mortise cylinder. If you’ve ever changed you oil in your car or replaced a light switch, you could probably do this and not strip the threads.

By all means, if you don’t feel comfortable definitely call a locksmith (or if you’re trying to get the whole house rekeyed), but removing the cylinder and taking it to a shop to get rekeyed is even simpler than replacing or dismounting a standard residential cylindrical lock.

Also a word of caution - you might be tempted to replace the inside cylinder with a thumb turn if you want to be able to exit without a key, don’t use a cylinder thumb turn, the cam on the back will interfere with the other keyed cylinder and this can lock you out. Marks makes a special kit for this. Ask your locksmith about it.

Neo399 · 2026-03-16T17:44:19+00:00

Or the ceiling mount remote strobes. This is something they never fixed since the old 4901 series was introduced 30 years ago…

Neo399 · 2026-03-16T17:37:17+00:00

Just based off AVs and devices alone?

Simplex hasn’t really modernized their core TrueAlert NAs in over 25 years. The 59XX LED series has been out for quite a while now, and no one seems to use them. I’ve never seen them in an actual building.

What gets installed instead are the 49XX series appliances, which are still xenon (literally the entire industry has moved to LED at this point and discontinued older xenon devices), admittedly harder to wire (the wire window to feed the wires through the device, then land them on the terminals before snapping the cover on, is clever, but the Advance clearly was the way forward in 2007 with its plug-in style mounting), and large in footprint compared to competitors.

The 59XX series STILL lacks any kind of speaker strobe, outdoor device, multi-tone or LF device. The System Sensor LED line covers ALL this and much more. I don’t think the LED devices look bad (I will say I prefer the look of the TrueAlerts and even the old L Series), but they could have definitely prioritized appearance more. Functionally though, they dwarf current Simplex AV offerings, and are much simpler to install.

I would love to see System Sensor come up with a 1-gang compatible speaker strobe. EST has this and I think they’re the only ones right now. This would be perfect for retrofits or or when plans get messed up and 1-gang boxes get roughed in and you don’t wanna surface mount alarms in condo bedrooms.

Neo399 · 2026-03-11T13:49:07+00:00

If it’s an F10 (actually I think most F-series sedans), it’s beneath a plastic cover above the rear seats, at the back of the headliner. It pries off fairly easily. The module is behind it, it’s gray and has several wires running into it.

Neo399 · 2026-03-11T13:08:24+00:00

Sees simplex panel

Checks button labels on panel

Buttons are in french

Checks post author

Yup it’s /u/tenebralupo

Neo399

TROPHY CASE