Keys be gone! We’ve got a PIN/RFID-based entry system now.

It went down like this. Elliot returned home on Friday afternoon with an integrated access control system that he’d procured for free from his workplace. I’d been planning to home brew something like this for a while, so I already had an electric door strike on hand and a rough idea of how it was all to be done. This particular unit does what I was going to do in a much more elegant and durable way, turns out. Come Saturday morning, the work began…

The process itself was challenging, tiring and excellent fun. It involved a lot of chiseling (that new door strike extends a eight centimetres into the frame and underlying brickwork), sawing, drilling, manoeuvring (sore back), strong magnets, and swearing. The whole rig runs off a back battery (blackouts shouldn’t mean lockouts) and we even set up the strobe light and siren from the burglar alarm to go off when you enter an incorrect code too many times.

Every family member has their own code and a fob on their keyring for quick entry. I have a few RFID stickers coming in the mail to stick to the back of our phones too.

I’d originally written about cable chasing techniques and chiselling woes ad nauseam. Finding it too boring to even proof read, I’ve opted for the truncated version.