Transform Your Oyster Travelcard With Sugru!

We love our oyster cards in London. They are electronic ticketing RFID cards that make travelling around London so simple — just tap in and tap out on the tubes, buses, trams and even boats down The Thames! No more fumbling around for change to buy a ticket ever again, yay!

But we're a bunch of makers and hackers here at sugru, we like to tinker with things...

So the other day, Jude from team sugru (you'll probably know him as Hey Jude on Instructables), came in with a big grin on his face. This usually means one thing, he's been making something cool!

Well we were right, he had deconstructed an Oyster card and rebuilt it into a fully functional sugru Oyster key fob! (classic Jude). We thought it was so good that we've made a guide for the 'Ible community.

Tip: write down the card 'serial number' on the back before you dissolve it, that way you can still check your account information online.

NB — We're totally not the first to try this, we spotted Frank Swain's video from way back in 2008! But thought we'd give it a little sugru twist :)

Step 1: What You'll Need for This Project

- an Oyster card

- nail varnish remover (acetone)

- latex gloves

- old cable flex (ours is salvaged from an old CD player)

- a glass chemistry beaker from the sugru lab (you could use a jam jar)

- a scalpel and cutting mat

- cling film (saran wrap)

- masking tape

- a piece of paper

- x2 5g minipacks of sugru (the colours are up to you!) — buy some sugru

Step 2: Dissolve the Oyster Card in Acetone

- Pour the nail varnish (acetone) into non-plastic container. You'll need it about 1cm deep *

Top Tip: you'll want to use some latex gloves while handling the acetone.

- We stole this glass dish from the sugru lab (shhhh!), but you could always use a jam jar (might want to wash it first!). Just don't use anything plastic because the acetone will probably dissolve it!

- Leave the card submerged overnight (6-12 hours)

Step 3: Remove the RFID Chip From the Dish

- After 6-12 hours, the card will be a mushy shadow of it's former self

- Look for the little black RFID chip

- Make sure that the RFID chip and antenna are totally free from the plastic card before removing it

Top Tip:Careful not to pull the RFID too hard, as it pretty fragile

Step 4: Wash the RFID Chip

- Once you have removed the RFID chip and antenna, wash it in acetone again

- The rinse it carefully in water and dry off

Top Tip: You might want to let it air dry somewhere warm for 20mins

Step 5: Time to Test the Configuration

- At this stage before going any further, we'd suggest you test that the RFID still works

- To test ours, we used masking tape to attach the chip and antenna to a piece of paper and folded it into our wallet (helps avoid getting any funny looks!)

- Then we jumped on the nearest bus to try it out... beep!

Top Tip: Instructables user xenobiologista4 told us about this free Android app that lets you test your RFID is working! :)

Step 6: RFID Tested and Working? Time to Choose Your Sugru Colours

- For this project we matched the Oyster card colours - blue, cyan and white.

- If you want to mix things up, you can blend sugru colours to find the shade you want.

Top Tip: The sugru colour mixing chart will come in handy here

Step 7: Cut Your Piece of Wire

- Choose the coloured wire you prefer and cut a strand about 10cm long. (this will be used for the tag)

- To get these wires, we travelled back in time to the 1990's to salvage them from an unwanted CD player ;)

Step 8: Time to Make Your Sugru Fob

- This bit is really up to you, so get creative :) If you want to match the Oyster card colours, you can follow these instructions:

1. Mix 90% white sugru with 10% blue sugru to get a cyan colour
2. Roll the cyan sugru into a little sausage (we call it the 'Sausage of Cyan'!)
3. Roll out a flat piece of white sugru and wrap it around the cyan sausage
4. Roll out a second flat piece of blue sugru and wrap it around to make the outside layer.
5. Cut a little bit off the top and bottom of the sugru sausage (you can use these little bits for something else)
6. Cut the reminder in two, these will be your two halves (cut it quickly and confidently with a scalpel to avoid streaks)

(The panda version for Jude's wife – super cute!)

Step 9: Adding the RFID and Antenna

- Flatten out the two halves between two pieces of cling film

- Add the RFID and antenna to one piece (try not to cross the wires too much)

- Add your wire to the other piece, to create the key fob loop

- Between two sheets of cling film, press the two halves together (with the RFID and wire are on the inside)

- Seal the edges of the two pieces of sugru to ensure a good bond

- Leave it to cure for 24 hours!

Step 10: Now Go Show Off Your New Oyster Card... Beep!

As always, thanks for being part of the sugru community!