wireless lock

[slyyke]

adafruit community,

I'm a current electrical engineering student at Southern illinois university carbondale. As part of a senior design project me and a group of classmates are looking at developing a "wireless/rf/bluetooth" padlock. Or something of similar design.

The idea is to use a smartphone app (most likely android for now) to unlock the padlock. Locker-room lock, storage locker lock, etc. We are still in the brainstorming phase so we need ideas on what devices to use and how we can implement such a device.

On that note I have been browsing the mbed site and it looks like i would need an mbed controller and bluetooth or wifi addon/shields although im not sure what to do along the lines of the lock mechanism. It only needs use one communication method not both(trying to minimize size and cost) and run off of battery.

I did mention padlock but it can also be some kind of electronic locking mechanism as long as it can be used for the "storage locker" situation.

I'm fairly new when it comes to all this microcontroller stuff but any input or direction you guys can give would be great.

[adafruit_support_mike]

The two most obvious options for a latching mechanism would be a solenoid like this one: http://www.adafruit.com/products/412 or a servo like this one: http://www.adafruit.com/products/169

The solenoid would work like a deadbolt. Arrange things so the solenoid's slug runs through holes in both the locker door and the frame around the door, then apply a signal to pull the slug back and allow the door to open.

The servo would act more like a lock cylinder. Rotate the horn to fit in a slot that locks the door in place one way, rotate the horn out of the slot to allow the door to swing open and shut the other way.