Welcome to my project proposal entry for the RFID or NFC competition.
I have an automation system here at home using openHAB onto which I have attached different remote items, either via zigbee or direct RF modulation via custom ESP32 based boards.
That system is configured to send me emails when doors or windows get opened during predetermined hours but I wanted to be able to control this via a keypad, pretty much like what alarm system providers are offering.
I thus ordered the below keypad and have the ongoing project to hook an ESP32 at its back and use it to send MQTT messages that openHAB would pick up to activate/deactivate the "sms alarm" configuration.
There are undocumented connectors on the keypad PCB with very interesting pin names : CLK, DATA, RES, VCC... and I was kind of hoping that I would get the RFID unique ID on this pin, but using a logic analyzer did not reveal much. Both the seller and the manufacturer have not returned my emails asking for details on what could be done with those pins so I guess I'll have to stick with the simple "on/off" possibilities here.
This competition is the opportunity to push this project to completion while comparing the results that I could get with another family of RFID tags. In particular, the discovery kit looks very interesting should I want to extend the possibilities to smartphone unlocking, or ski passes reuse.
While this is a quite usual application of RFID, I believe this project would show that it is possible to bring wireless intelligence into an object that is initially meant to be used only within its own ecosystem.