As I said in a comment, the idea of a system for parking an electric vehicle, electric bicycle or electric scooter can become a quite interesting application. I noticed around town a stand where you can leave your bicycle or electric scooter (public or less public spaces), or even at the companies that offer these vehicles for rent, in the more congested cities.
A first aspect of this stand is related to security; whether it is your own or rented vehicle, it must be locked, or at least secured as best as possible, in the stand, that is, a system is needed that blocks the scooter in the stand. I have seen this in practice, using mechanical and metal elements, a rod mounted on the frame of the scooter, which, inserted in the stand, is closed by a clamping system with an electromagnet.
Another aspect can be represented by the possibility of using a charger built into the stand. This can be done by mounting the charging station inside the stand, or placing the stand close to an electric plug.
What would RFID or NFC be good for in this case? Well, there are a few issues to be resolved. To secure the scooter in the stand (using mechanical and electrical elements) we need to establish an ID, so that not every person can leave their scooter there. So, you insert your scooter into the stand, and using an RFID reader built into the stand, it is identified by having a unique RFID card, and the internal locking system will secure your scooter or electric bike. Then, based on the same personal RFID card, the charger can also be activated, let's say it's a cable that comes from the stand to the scooter, which normally wouldn't have anything to do with the voltage, so it would be unusable if the charger inside it would not be activated either.
This application would involve the use of an RFID to create a security-like system, which will lock or unlock the lock (electronic lock, like a electromagnet) inside the stand, and activate/deactivate the charger for the electric scooter/bike (a smart switch mounted at the charger's output). So, somehow everything will be based on the identification and recognition of an RFID card, but other elements also intervene.
The discovery kit for the ST25DV64KC dynamic NFC/RFID Tag contains enough components for the realization of such a project, which could be applied and put into practice. We have a microcontroller that can be programmed at will, an RFID system used for identification, a display to display various messages for example "Secured" / "Locked" / "Unknown Person". The other hardware elements, such as a charger can be easily found, and an electronic circuit is also needed which, controlled by the uC, activates/deactivates the charger. These would be the main components.
A small algorithm of this project would be something like this:
- insert the scooter into the stand;
- your RFID card is read;
- the RFID card is known or unknown;
- a confirmation or denial message is displayed;
- the scooter is secured or unsecured;
- depending on how the system is developed, decisions are made, like securing the scooter, activating/deactivating the charger, etc..
I have not worked with STM32 before, but I have seen that it is highly appreciated and used in many projects.
Thank you!
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