Introduction: RFID Bicycle Lock Prototype

By gustavomerckel.com
About: I'm Gus, STEAM and Maker coordinator, cyclist and recycler.

Welcome to my RFID Bicycle Lock Concept tutorial,

I just got my RFID Chip from www.dangerousthings.com implanted in my arm and I thought about things to do with it.

The first thing I thought about was writing my will and organ donar data to the chip, so if I´m in a bicycle accident, the people could identify me. But this idea is kind of easy.

The other idea is some lock that could replace the big, bulky locks I carry around while cycling.

This concept is only the beginning of the development.

Step 1: Tools and Materials

Materials:

  • 1" by 2" pinewood
  • A scrap sheet of MDF, 3mm width

Tools:

  • Bank drill
  • Band saw
  • Band sander
  • Dremel motosaw

Electronics:

  • RFID Reader RC522
  • Arduino UNO
  • 5 jumpers
  • Buzzer
  • Servo motor

Step 2: Cutting Out Rear Wheel Blocker

The idea of the rear wheel blocker is the same used in some old bicycles, like the one in the first picture.

I´m using wood as a prototype material, but in the future I´m planning to use aluminum.

  • We take the scrap MDF sheet and draw a freehand "moon" shape that is 8-9 cm in diameter.
  • Then we cut the sheet with the Dremel motosaw

Step 3: Attaching the Blocker to the Servo

The servo comes with a white plastic part with holes on it and 2 screws.

  • We take the bank drill and drill to holes on the blocker.
  • Then we take the 2 screws to adjust the blocker to the plastic part of the serve.
  • With the blocker and the plastic part joined together, we can adjust it to the servomotor.

For further prototypes, we should think about how to fix the blocker to the servo permanently.

Step 4: Building the Servo Mount

The servo mount help us to fix the servo to the rear fork tube of the bike.

  • We take the 1"x2" pine wood piece
  • We draw a rectangle of 1.5 cm x 3cm on the front.
  • On the side of the pinewood we draw a rectangle of 5cmx 3.5 cm.

The we cut with the band saw the rectangles and then we use the dremel so sand it down.

At the end we drill a 1 cm diameter hole in the side of the mount.

Step 5: Attach the Servo to the Servo Mount

  • We take a small screw to fix the servo to the front of the pinewood.

Step 6: Fix the Mount in the Rear Fork Tube

Then we take the screw and the nut and adjust the servo motor mout to one of the tubes of the rear fork.

Step 7: Arduino Circuit

For the electronic part, I used the tutorial by Enrico S. (https://plus.google.com/+EnricoS/about) posted in german on this url: http://fluuux.de/2015/08/eine-tuer-mit-rfid-chip-o...

The steps for this part are:

  • Connection of the rc522 RFID reader to the Arduino UNO

Arduino UNO | RFID-RC522

Pin 10-----------SDA

Pin 13 ----------- SCK

Pin 11-------------MOSI

Pin 12-------------MISO

- IRQ

GND---------------GND

Pin9-----------------RST

3.3V-----------------3.3V

  • Connection of the servo and the buzzer

Arduino / Buzzer

Pin7 + (red)

GND - (Black)

Arduino / Servo

Pin8; Yellow Cable of the servo

3.3V + (red)

GND - (black)

  • Upload the Arduino Sketch "RFID_Karte.ino" (see attachment above)

  • Add "authorized" RFID Card Numbers to the system

This is pretty easy, you just upload the sketch and scan the card you want to register. In the terminal of the Arduino, you will read "[NICHT BERECHTIGT]", german for "not authorized", followed by the card number.

Copy that number and put it here:

// Hier die UUID fuer erlaubte Karten eingeben und in "erlaubteKartenCount"
// Anzahl der Eintraege angeben long erlaubteKarten[] = { 1011520, 2492530, "PUT THE NUMBER OF YOUR CARD HERE"}; byte erlaubteKartenCount = 3;

Attachments

Step 8: Try It Out

Now take the RFID you registered changing the code and pass it through the reader, as you see on the video, the motor should open if the card is authorized.

For future prototypes:

  • Comment in english the code from Enrico with some changes and adaptions
  • Use an alternative reader: The RC522 reader hasn´t power enough to read our 125khx Dangerous Things Chip, so we need other chip.
  • Totaly different materials for the lock: Of course MDF and wood it´s not optimal, I´m thinking about aluminum and other metals for the lock.
  • Comment below what we should think about in later projects ;)

Attachments