This code secures Sunlight's office door with an RFID system built out of an Arduino, Raspberry Pi and a 13.56 GHz RFID reader component. The reader is connected to the Arduino, which is connected over USB to the Pi, which is connected to your network, which is connected to a secured device that can open the door in response to network commands issued by the Pi. That's the plan, anyway.
- Program the Arduino with the included .ino file
- Flash a stock Raspbian image to an SD card
- Clone this repository and run
sudo bootstraph.sh - Use virtualenv's
mkprojectto create a viable clone of this repo. pip install -r requirements.txt- Customize config files; hook doorman.py's allow() routine to code that actually opens the door!
sudo apt-get install redis-server- Copy sunlight_rfid_doorman.conf to /etc/supervisor/conf.d/ and customize as appropriate.
- sudo service supervisor stop && sudo service supervisor start
Raspberry Pis and Arduinos are easy to find. The RFID component is based on a ~$10 breakout, like the one found at this link. Compatible key fobs can be found easily on eBay, too (search for 13.56 and "MiFare").
Its pin mappings are based on an Arduino Uno and this post:
- Reset > Pin 5
- SS > Pin 10
- MOSI > Pin 11
- MISO > Pin 12
- SCK > Pin 13
- Ground > Ground
- 3.3v > 3.3v
Additionally, the code expects a common anode RGB status LED with the R, G, and B channels connected to pins 3, 6 and 9, respectively. Sorry, no PCB layout files -- I just used perfboard. This could easily be implemented with multiple LEDs, or omitted entirely.
Access is controlled and logged in a Google spreadsheet like the one found here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ao2x9OwoRgcCdE9icnBad2FESkZCSFNDdWdPYWNHTGc&usp=sharing
The access control list is refreshed in three ways:
- At boot
- Every five minutes
- The first time an unrecognized RFID fob is seen. To avoid hammering the Google Drive API, subsequent scans of that fob will not force a refresh until a valid fob has been scanned.
Logs are stored in memory and dumped to monthly worksheets in the same spreadsheet every five minutes.
The unlocking is achieved by firing off a command via SSH on a remote server. We already built something to handle this:
https://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2010/02/16/our-door-opener-science-project/
In truth, this system doesn't use RFIDs to open a door: it uses RFIDs to fire off a command via SSH on a remove system. Sorry, I know it's kind of a letdown. Making your door open electronically is a whole other issue, though if you have a system installed (by a security professional!), connecting a relay circuit to a Raspberry Pi is pretty easy. The PiFace is a good place to start.