RFID on Arduino

 

 I've been wanting to get develop a low security wooden lock box that I can use for a project. I've had these RFID-RC522 units for quite awhile and it was time to get back playing with them.

Rui & Sara Santos of Random Nerd Tutorials have a great tutorial on how to hook this up to an Arduino Uno as shown or ESP8266 or even ESP32 (both with WiFi). They also have a tutorial for using this RFID reader as an attendance checker.

I picked these up off from Phillip Fry Electronics Canada however they seem to be offline since Canada Post went on strike last fall and you can also get them off ebay. Inexpensive devices and the kits usually come with a card and keychain dongle. 

I've got a red LED inbetween the wires that I've hooked to a GPIO on the Uno and if the card ID is accepted, the LED lights. I could use that output with a FET to power a solenoid to unlock the door of my lockbox. 

Thanks for reading,

Robin

08 Feb 2025