RFIDisk: When Floppy Drives Go Contactless

October 16, 2025 by Matt Varian 14 Comments

Not too long ago, part of using a computer was often finding the correct disk for the application you wanted to run and inserting it into your machine before you could start. With modern storage, this is largely a thing of the past. However, longing for some of that nostalgia, [ItsDanik] has been developing the RFIDisk, a 3D printed floppy drive that can kick off applications when their disk is inserted.

The desktop enclosure is printed to look like a standalone floppy drive, allowing use with either desktops or laptops. There’s the familiar 3.5 inch slot ready for your floppy disk, and there’s also a 1.3 in. OLED display on the front giving you feedback on the status of the RFIDisk — including telling you what’s currently inserted. Inside the enclosure is an Arduino Uno and an MFRC522 RFID reader. As the name would suggest, the way the RFIDisk enclosure reads its media is via NFC, not the traditional magnetic reader. Due to being RFID-based, the disks printed for the RFIDisk are solid without moving parts, but enclose a 25 mm NTAG213 NFC tag.

On the software side, [ItsDanik] has developed the RFIDisk Manager Python application, which is used to tie specific NFC tag IDs to commands to run when that tag is read. The application includes some nice features, such as being able to adjust the commands for both when the disk is first read and when it’s removed from the RFIDisk. You can also change what shows up on the OLED screen when the cartridge is inserted.

Using NFC to simulate physical media is a clever trick we’ve seen before, but if you’re looking for something with a bit more physical engagement, you could always put your USB devices into 3D printed cartridges.

Held Captive By Arduino And Multiple RFID Readers

May 13, 2018 by Tom Nardi 18 Comments

If you’re the kind of person who has friends, and/or leaves the confines of the basement from time to time, we hear that these “Escape Rooms” are all the rage. Basically you get locked into a room with a couple other people and have to solve various problems and puzzles until you’ve finally made enough progress that they let you out. Which actually sounds a lot like the working conditions here at Hackaday HQ, except they occasionally slip some pizza rolls under the door for us which is nice.

Whichever side you find yourself on in one of these lighthearted hostage situations, knowledge of this multi-tag RFID lock created by [Annaane] may come in handy. By connecting multiple MFRC522 RFID readers to an Arduino Uno, she’s come up with a method of triggering a device (like an electronic door lock) only when the appropriate combination of RFID tags have been arranged. With a little imagination, this allows for some very complex puzzle scenarios which are sure to keep your prisoners enthralled until you can lower the lotion down to them.

Her code allows you to configure the type and number of RFID cards required to trigger one of the Arduino’s digital pins, which usually would be connected to a relay to fire off whatever device you want. The Arduino sketch is also setup to give “hints” to the player by way of a status LED: fast blinking let’s you know the tag scanned is wrong, and slow blinking means you don’t have enough scanned in yet.

The video after the break shows some highlights of the build, as well as a quick demonstration of how both the RFID “combination” and manual override can be used to trigger the attached relay.

Hackers do love RFID. Using them for physical access control is a fairly common project around these parts, and we’ve even seen similar setups for the digital realm.

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