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Swipe Card Options for User Managment

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  • 20-08-2015 4:27pm
    #1
    bonzo_k
    Closed Accounts Posts: 87 ✭✭


    Hi there,

    I am developing software for tracking clients usage of a gym. I need some advice on smart card hardware that would allow clients to 'swipe in'.

    The following requirements are important.

    The media reader / writer should connect via USB.
    It needs to be supported by Linux and communicate via serial port.
    I need to be able to read and write a UUID to the media.
    A media should have a customised design
    The media should be cheap.
    The reader should be reliable, robust and easy to 'swipe'

    The 3 hardware options I have identified are
    1) Card Reader / Writer
    2) NFC Reader / Writer
    3) RFID Reader / Writer

    I am tempted to go with the NFC reader as it seems to tick all the boxes. I have ordered an Arduino NFC reader for experimentation.

    Any advice would be appreciated.
    Tagged:


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    #2
    ShRT
    Registered Users Posts: 523 ✭✭✭ShRT


    I would consider NFC and RFID interchangeable for the most part as the same frequency is used on most of their standards. Have seen a good few RFID readers that output as a keyboard over usb.

    When you say serial port - do you mean the reader? Check out the wiegand standard if you are looking for that kind of connectivity. I think it uses RS485 but not certain. Plenty of these on offer from lots of vendors.

    You might also want to consider security. With a plain tag, there is no encryption so would be easy to clone a tag - You can get the cloning kits for a couple of euro from china. Might not be an issue if its just for logging, but if you are bringing billing and access into the system it may be worth investigating.

    How do you want to customise the tags? A printer to do the cards is quite expensive as its a non-standard printer. (they use a four colour thermal ribbon). If its just to do the same logo on all tags, you can get them done for a couple of euro a tag if you shop around and buy in batches.

    Sounds like a fun project!


  • Options
    #3
    bonzo_k
    Closed Accounts Posts: 87 ✭✭bonzo_k


    Hi, thanks for the reply.

    When I connect the reader / writer to the linux box using USB it is mounted as a serial device in the /dev filesystem . I can poll this for data or write data to it.

    Security shouldn't be a problem for the intended use cases, but just for pig iron, can you recommend a resource where I can read up on this a bit more ?

    The customization would be just some simple branding to make the card / fob stand out and hopefully not get lost by its owner.

    Can you recommend any hardware vendors where this stuff could be purchases. Obviously my arduino test system is not going to cut it in a live environment.

    Yeah, the project is fun. Getting to use lots of tech that I don't usually work with.


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