IDeal Lock

IDeal Lock increases homeowners' safety through RFID keys & tracking when the door was opened. Gone are the days of children out past curfew or worrying about getting your keys stolen and replicated.

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Our Story

When you carry your credit card, you aren't anxious or worried about getting stolen because you know it can be easily disabled. Keys are a completely different story. If your keys are stolen, they can be replicated, and your only solution is to change locks. We strived to create a versatile system where keys can be accepted or declined with a few clicks.

Apart from that, homeowners have little control or knowledge over their doors. Receiving a notification and being able to track the times a door was opened significantly improves security. From allowing you to track precisely when your children are getting home to knowing if a burglar is breaking in, IDeal locks will become a staple in every household.

Our Process

Using Arduino Uno, we set up an RFID scanner. We then used this to read the ID tags in different keys and even in credit cards. Then, we approved those tags in our Arduino code. We incorporated a Servo motor as the lock: when the RFID scanner detects an approved card, the Servo moves. We also used a green and red LED to show when cards were approved or denied.

For the Blynk app, we connected the NodeMCU to the same rail as the green LED. This means that when the lock is opened, a Blynk pin receives a "HIGH" status, triggering notification and recording it in a graph.

We were both able to work on building the same circuit because we both live in Panama. Abraham focused more on the hardware and Leah worked on the code as well as connecting the device to Blynk.

Our Challenges

Our biggest challenge was connecting the RFID Arduino module, previously unfamiliar to us, and the NodeMCU. Initially, we were planning on attaching it to the NodeMCU directly. This was extremely challenging for us because we couldn't run some of the RFID's necessary code through the NodeMCU, so we realized those weren't too compatible.

Therefore, we choose a different path. We connected the RFID to the Arduino and were able to get it running correctly. Once we had done that, we connected the NodeMCU only to the green LED rail. This served as the indicator of what was happening with the RFID scanner without connecting the RFID and NodeMCU. Accomplishments that we're proud of:

What's next for IDeal Locks

We would love to create a platform that integrates credit cards and IDeal locks. That way, each person could create an account and write their credit card RFID tag number. If this is integrated into user-friendly software, it could give one time or time-specific access to different users. For example, a maintenance person is going to your house while you are at work. Through this app, you could add him and his details to your house lock for a couple of hours. After he leaves, his card no longer works on your lock.

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