Whilst PINs are easy, RFID is much more suitable, and a little plus is that you can let users scan an existing card instead of carrying an extra one (or remembering a PIN).
Unfortunately I'm frankly surprised that nobody has apparently developed a solution that covers all the RFID use cases. Several of the hosted apps do have their own options for using RFID cards, Cobot for example integrates with PC-connected USB RFID readers for logging/checkin (https://www.cobot.me/guides/rfid-swipe-card-check-in), and if your management app has an API (e.g. Nexudus), you can hack together a quick script to poll your own RFID reader and query/update that app. The most flexible system is to connect an RFID reader to a $20 RaspberryPi board computer or similar which can even be embedded in the wall near a lock to control it too. This runs a small program ('script') that receives the card number, checks it (e.g. against a provided list of IDs, or by querying your hosted management app) and then (optionally) uses a relay also connected to the RaspberryPi to provide current to the lock. (It gets quite complicated if you have multiple doors.) At the same time as querying the validity of the ID it can of course also check the user in or at least log that they used the card at that time. Here's a (technical) example of a slightly better setup like this with feedback LCD. https://www.hackster.io/nile-mittow/rfid-front-door-access-control-88d7cd The complexity of the script that acts as the controller for the RFID reader depends entirely on what it is being integrated with, how IDs are provided, and how you set feedback such as when expired. Pretty darned easy just to read and write to text/spreadhseet files though. The disadvantage of validating against a hosted application is that it is both slower to provide feedback/unlock which leads to a common scenario of multiple checkins or a checkin in followed by a checkout, and requires internet as mentioned by Matt. Both issues can however be avoided. For access control, most commercial door locks are fail-secure electric strikes which open/release when a current is applied to them (the buzz sound). Any system that grants access is simply arbitrating between an input (RFID/PIN) and the current to the bolt. Often such doors only have the access restriction on the outside with a simple release push button on the inside which gives current to the lock directly. Adding an additional controller or replacing one, is thus as simple as wiring the lock's current input cable to the controllers current output. Same principle is used with residential interphone systems. Unless not having 100% accuracy is fine, I think that an RFID checkin system when not also linked to access control is unhelpful, but even still if multiple people arrive at the same time one slips the door behind the other without swiping, you'd still need device/WiFi checkin to achieve 100% coverage. -- Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
