EEVblog #1287 - Gatekeeper Shopping Trolley Lock Investigated

Dave's local shopping centre just installed shopping trolleys with electronic locking wheels fro ma company called Gatekeeper System, how does it work?
Teardown time!

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[EEVblog]

Yes, I have upgraded my pointer, now in vibrant yellow!

[Real_Tim_S]

An idea - that looked like a byte code, that may be an address for a system, so that your installed system doesn't affect your neighbor's carts. Try all 256 byte codes, the wheel you have may not be configured for your sampled byte pattern.

[MrMacroVision]

you could walk around the shopping center broadcasting that to troll shoppers

[AppliedScience]

I always wondered about those locking wheels. The microphone pickup was genius!

[ScottWalde]

I'm guessing you weren't able to trigger it because it was a different code than you recorded. Each facility could get their own 8 bit code.

[LightSoySauce]

recording the signal from the underground loop at night, the best thing you have done for a long time ha ha ;)

[DKOBrianYT]

Almost everywhere here in Denmark, you'd need a coin to lock them up and use them. Much easier to manage it seems and we don't see these clowns leaving their shopping trolley behind in the bushes. The coin is more important for them.

[jaredj]

Send it to the lock picking lawyer when you are done.

[verybland]

You make me want to design something to lock up all of the carts in a store simultaneously.

[srdet]

I used to install and maintain Gatekeeper systems. The colored plugs identify the manufacture series and if it's a primary or secondary wheel. The basic system operates on a AM signal with a range 2-3 feet from the buried line around the parking lot perimeter.

[excitedbox]

Pushout theft is people running off with a cart full of stuff. That means their antitheft alarms can lock the wheels.

[tedpark]

Years ago, we had a similar system, made by carttronics (I think) which was much simpler. There was a wire buried around the perimeter of the parking lot that emitted a pulsed audio frequency signal that would cause the wheel to lock up (the mechanism was different, there was a shroud that would come down and make the cart difficult to push). The unlocking signal was a continuous signal at the same frequency. A colleague and I had built a small portable signal recorder to figure out what was going on, and made equipment to lock/unlock the carts. The system had been implemented at the Kensington (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) Safeway for a period of time, in addition to the regular coin lock system. My hypothesis is that the system was implemented to prevent people from taking the carts to an apartment about a block and a half away. Before the electronic cart lock system was implemented, there would be a collection of carts at the apartment, so people were taking the carts to the apartment (presumably full of groceries) and leaving the cart. After a while, the electronic system was removed. If you lifted the front of the cart up when you were going over the zone where the wire was buried, the lock would not trigger. In addition, maintaining that many powered devices would undoubtedly be a horrible pain in the ass. There must be some kind of balance between having easily accessible carts so people will buy more, and not losing the carts and having to deal with the headache of retrieving them.

[feicodeboer]

I've never seen these in Europe, mostly the carts are locked by a chain with hook at storage and you'll need a 50 eurocents or one Euro coin to unlock. Cheap as we all are here, we of-course return the cart to collect our coin ...

[kissingfrogs]

was expecting a generator in there so pushing the trolley charges the battery like some batteryless safe rotary combination locks.

[vaalrus]

So, basically an electric pet fence w/drum brakes instead of a beeping shock collar…

[vizvaz]

You are in Australia all the electrons have already fallen out, coz you are upside down.
P.S. thanks for rotating your video for easier viewing.

[jeremymcarpenter]

I think the loops in the road are for the traffic signals not the carts. The carts use a loop around the parking lot, at least in the areas where we live.

[Knitone]

The $560 is average amount of merchandise that is stolen (pushed out) not the cost of the cart.

[technodaz]

Ah shopping trolley's, the best €2 bbq ever made....

[ChiefPoints]

Interesting tear down, I've often been curious about the insides of one of those locking wheels. You saved me from getting arrested for stealing a wheel to tear down myself...lol.