Saga of the Cannon Safe & Electronic Lock
Back in about 2005, I purchased a 30” wide Cannon safe with electronic lock. Overall I’ve liked it, however, about 18 months ago, I started having issues with it re-locking, i.e. I’d close the door, move the handle and could re-open it without entering the combo. I was blaming it on low batteries, as I found if I changed the battery, then the system would lock. Over time, I found that it wasn’t a low battery, but that the power cycle would clear out the lock.
I didn’t really think too much about it and just put up with the inconvenience and made sure I tested that it locked. However, one day, the combination wouldn’t work!
After trying multiple times, I got the safe into time delay mode. Sadly, this is a pretty decent mode.. as even pulling the battery doesn’t reset the count down timer… It just stops it from counting! So, breaking out my Google-fu, I found numerous sites stating that the keypads fail periodically. Having experience with membrane keypads on other devices, I got the bright idea that I’d take it apart, reverse engineer it, and hard wire the switch combo to get into the safe. No dice. Not only did I make the membrane switches totally non-responsive, even after creating a micro switch array to replace it, I still couldn’t get in! ARGG!
Alright… time to talk to a lock smith. Went into the local shop and the counter person couldn’t really give me a decent price on having them drill it, except that safe work was about $95/hour and replacement parts would be about $225.
I could see the lock smith fees rapidly exceeding the value of the safe so dropped that idea as it would be cheaper to cut the side out, recover my firearms and just replace it with new. But I’m more stubborn than that and didn’t want to give up just yet. 
Following the advice from several other forums, I decided to call Cannon support. I’ve moved since purchasing the safe so registration would be wrong, and after 15 years, I no longer have the paperwork for it so I didn’t have much hope they could assist. How wrong I was! After giving them the serial number, they were able to provide the default combination that the locks go to if they factory reset. Sadly, because of my messing around with the switches, couldn’t get it to go, and got it into timeout mode again. Even though I had put in a new battery, it was within 3 years of “expiration” and they claimed that the lock wouldn’t work with it and insisted I go get a brand new Duracell battery with at least 5 years out. But then the most surprising thing was they noted I had never replaced the keypad on this safe, and that they would ship me a new keypad and lock mechanism! For FREE!
After 15 years sending me new parts! I was happy about that, but still skeptical that I would be able to get into the safe. But I did what they asked and got a new battery, and then came back and fully reverse engineered the membrane switch and just used a small wire to manually poke the contacts on the keypad connector to “morse code” enter the factory combination. CLICK! How about that! It opened! 
Of course, the very next thing I did was to lock the mechanism with the door open! No way did I want a family member to “help out” and close the door. 30 minutes later, I had pulled the interior of the door apart and removed the lock so that I simply had a metal box, but at least I could access the guns.
So now for the frustrating part, the parts order was placed Oct 1, and I only got the parts yesterday 12/3. Installation was pretty easy except that I did have to tap 2 predrilled screw holes with 8/32 threads to mount the new keypad. Except for tapping the screws it was about 15 to 20 minutes to install everything. Another 5 minutes to change the combination from the default and I’m back to secure!
So what did I learn?
Anyway, I hope the above helps someone out!
--Rick
Back in about 2005, I purchased a 30” wide Cannon safe with electronic lock. Overall I’ve liked it, however, about 18 months ago, I started having issues with it re-locking, i.e. I’d close the door, move the handle and could re-open it without entering the combo. I was blaming it on low batteries, as I found if I changed the battery, then the system would lock. Over time, I found that it wasn’t a low battery, but that the power cycle would clear out the lock.
I didn’t really think too much about it and just put up with the inconvenience and made sure I tested that it locked. However, one day, the combination wouldn’t work!
After trying multiple times, I got the safe into time delay mode. Sadly, this is a pretty decent mode.. as even pulling the battery doesn’t reset the count down timer… It just stops it from counting! So, breaking out my Google-fu, I found numerous sites stating that the keypads fail periodically. Having experience with membrane keypads on other devices, I got the bright idea that I’d take it apart, reverse engineer it, and hard wire the switch combo to get into the safe. No dice. Not only did I make the membrane switches totally non-responsive, even after creating a micro switch array to replace it, I still couldn’t get in! ARGG!Alright… time to talk to a lock smith. Went into the local shop and the counter person couldn’t really give me a decent price on having them drill it, except that safe work was about $95/hour and replacement parts would be about $225.
I could see the lock smith fees rapidly exceeding the value of the safe so dropped that idea as it would be cheaper to cut the side out, recover my firearms and just replace it with new. But I’m more stubborn than that and didn’t want to give up just yet. Following the advice from several other forums, I decided to call Cannon support. I’ve moved since purchasing the safe so registration would be wrong, and after 15 years, I no longer have the paperwork for it so I didn’t have much hope they could assist. How wrong I was! After giving them the serial number, they were able to provide the default combination that the locks go to if they factory reset. Sadly, because of my messing around with the switches, couldn’t get it to go, and got it into timeout mode again. Even though I had put in a new battery, it was within 3 years of “expiration” and they claimed that the lock wouldn’t work with it and insisted I go get a brand new Duracell battery with at least 5 years out. But then the most surprising thing was they noted I had never replaced the keypad on this safe, and that they would ship me a new keypad and lock mechanism! For FREE!
After 15 years sending me new parts! I was happy about that, but still skeptical that I would be able to get into the safe. But I did what they asked and got a new battery, and then came back and fully reverse engineered the membrane switch and just used a small wire to manually poke the contacts on the keypad connector to “morse code” enter the factory combination. CLICK! How about that! It opened! Of course, the very next thing I did was to lock the mechanism with the door open! No way did I want a family member to “help out” and close the door. 30 minutes later, I had pulled the interior of the door apart and removed the lock so that I simply had a metal box, but at least I could access the guns. So now for the frustrating part, the parts order was placed Oct 1, and I only got the parts yesterday 12/3. Installation was pretty easy except that I did have to tap 2 predrilled screw holes with 8/32 threads to mount the new keypad. Except for tapping the screws it was about 15 to 20 minutes to install everything. Another 5 minutes to change the combination from the default and I’m back to secure!
So what did I learn?
- If your electronic lock ever “acts up”, don’t ignore it. Immediately start to work to replace it.
- I was impressed with the interior of the door. There was a LOT more steel protecting the lock than I expected. I’m very glad that I didn’t have to drill it as that would have been a bunch of time.
- There are still companies that take care of the customer. Although I had been looking at Liberty safes as my next safe, I’ll give strong consideration to Cannon.
Anyway, I hope the above helps someone out!
--Rick
