[Colin Merkel] had a little problem: he was continually forgetting his electronic key card, locking himself out of his own dorm room. Like any normal Hack a Day reader, rather than getting in the habit of always carrying his card, the natural impulse of course is to build this elaborate rig of electronics and duct tape. Right?

The result is an additional keypad that can be used to gain access…not by altering the existing electronic lock, but with a secondary mechanism that operates the inside door handle. An 8-bit PIC microcontroller scans the outside keypad (connected by a thin ribbon cable), and when a correct access code is entered, engages a 12 volt DC motor to turn the handle. It’s a great little writeup that includes a parts list, source code, and explains the process of keypad scanning.

It’s similar to the RFID-based dorm hack we previously posted. By physically operating the handle, most any approach could be used: facial recognition, other biometrics, DDR pad, or whatever inspired lunacy you can dream up.

[Michael] has a keypad in his previous car’s door and he missed it enough to hack one into his Dodge Caliber. He bought a Ford keypad and mounted it inside his door with some custom electronics. He started with an Arduino nano to receive and authenticate button presses. This then splices into wires in the door that control the door lock. The program has a 5-digit code to unlock the door, but simply pressing 1 twice will lock the doors. He also implemented a lockout feature to prevent people from brute-forcing the combination. Although it isn’t wireless, it’s significantly simpler.

[thanks Michael]

In part 1 we showed you how to build your own prototype RGB keypad. Today we’ll show off some new ideas we worked on to create the project and turn it from prototype to fully functional battle station er door lock.

Read the rest of this entry »

Part 2 can be found here

Putting a custom designed electronic lock on your space seems like a geek right of passage. For our latest workspace, we decided to skip the boring numbered keypad and build a custom RGB backlit keypad powered by an Arduino. Instead of typing in numbers, your password is a unique set of colors. In today’s How-To, we’ll show you how to build your own and give you the code to make it all work.

Read the rest of this entry »