Uploaded January 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
If you're thinking of creating an escape room, you'll almost certainly end up needing to become familiar with electro-magnetic locks. Maglocks are used to control the flow of an escape room game - gating off hidden areas, creating surprise reveals, or keeping puzzles and components inaccesible from players until they solve certain required puzzles or tasks first. The lock can be released by a manual trigger from a button or switch, or automatically controlled by a microprocessor like an Arduino, Raspberry Pi, or ESP32, or a PLC controller.
In this video I'll share some tips and tricks I've learned from my experience of working with different maglocks - comparing "fail secure" and "fail safe" varieties, I'll reveal how they work internally, describe the situations in which each are suitable for use, and methods to use them safely and reliably by installing flyback diodes and switches to automatically cut power on release.
Timings
---
00:00:00 - 00:00:50 Introduction
00:00:51 - 00:04:01 Standard Fail-Safe Bar Maglock
00:04:02 - 00:05:06 Mini Fail-Safe Bar Maglock
00:05:07 - 00:08:13 Suppressing Back EMF with a flyback diode
00:08:14 - 00:12:26 Fail-Secure Cabinet Maglock
00:12:27 - 00:18:31 Fail-Secure Cabinet Maglock with automatic power cut-off
00:18:32 - 00:19:01 Wrapup
For more escape room-related tech projects, please check out my Patreon at patreon.com/playfultech, and do ask any comments or questions below!
If you're thinking of creating an escape room, you'll almost certainly end up needing to become familiar with electro-magnetic locks. Maglocks are used to control the flow of an escape room game - gating off hidden areas, creating surprise reveals, or keeping puzzles and components inaccesible from players until they solve certain required puzzles or tasks first. The lock can be released by a manual trigger from a button or switch, or automatically controlled by a microprocessor like an Arduino, Raspberry Pi, or ESP32, or a PLC controller.
In this video I'll share some tips and tricks I've learned from my experience of working with different maglocks - comparing "fail secure" and "fail safe" varieties, I'll reveal how they work internally, describe the situations in which each are suitable for use, and methods to use them safely and reliably by installing flyback diodes and switches to automatically cut power on release.
Timings
---
00:00:00 - 00:00:50 Introduction
00:00:51 - 00:04:01 Standard Fail-Safe Bar Maglock
00:04:02 - 00:05:06 Mini Fail-Safe Bar Maglock
00:05:07 - 00:08:13 Suppressing Back EMF with a flyback diode
00:08:14 - 00:12:26 Fail-Secure Cabinet Maglock
00:12:27 - 00:18:31 Fail-Secure Cabinet Maglock with automatic power cut-off
00:18:32 - 00:19:01 Wrapup
For more escape room-related tech projects, please check out my Patreon at patreon.com/playfultech, and do ask any comments or questions below!
