Media Lab - RFID Lock


The MIT RFID door hack is a project by Valintin Heun which allows you to remotely lock and unlock doors with an RFID card. Having recently built one of the locks for my door I found the process of controlling users to be quite cumbersome as you have to write IDs directly into the Arduino sketch and so I have written an update which provides improved user control. This new sketch provides a serial interface from which the door can be controlled and users added and removed from the internally stored access list. To view the available commands type 'h' into the serial monitor and a command listing will be provides as shown below.

Serial interface for lock

By storing each card ID within EEPROM it makes it much easier to add and remove access rights to the door without having to re flashing the Arduino each time. To add a user to EEPROM you can either use the serial monitor or simply hold a registered card against the reader for at least 7 seconds and then add the new card to the reader. If the card is already registered it will be removed from the access list otherwise a new entry will be created.

Adding a new user to the access list

If you want to build your own you will need the following components.

Components


1 x Arduino Uno
1 x Large Servo
1 x RFID Module
1 x RFID Evaluation Shield
Sheet of hardboard
Several meters of wire

Lock Design Files

Source Code


Below is the main Arduino code used to control the lock.
For the full source code and associated readme visit the GitHub repository.