A Chinese college student uses Arduino to create a touch screen fingerprint door lock in their dormitory

Isn't it a great experience to be able to enter and exit the dormitory without a key? A male student from Wuhan University of Technology turned his dream into reality. He applied what he learned and made his own touch screen fingerprint door lock, helping his roommates achieve their desire to enter and exit the dormitory without a key. So how did he do it?

He is a student majoring in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering at Wuhan University of Technology. After entering university, he came up with an idea. Because the dormitory was on the fourth floor, he often forgot to bring his keys when he first moved in, and it was very troublesome to go back and forth to the fourth floor to get the keys from the dormitory management. So he had an idea about "opening the door" and went to solve the problem of forgetting to bring the keys to open the door.

At first, he used a plastic hook to hook one end of the rope onto the door lock and the other end onto the outside of the door, using this method to open the door. Then, in order to improve convenience, he began upgrading the device by fixing the gripper to the door, with one end of the rope connected to the gripper and the other end connected to the door lock. There was also a copper pulley system in the middle of the rope to connect various components. After upgrading, the door opening experience was greatly improved. However, there was a safety issue because others could enter directly by pressing it, so he came up with the idea of making a touch screen fingerprint door lock. Coincidentally, he was studying a course called "Testing Technology", and thus he started making a touch screen fingerprint door lock.

In the early stage, he improved his knowledge through self-study, and then began to practice with the help of his senior. He entered the laboratory to perform operations such as soldering circuit boards, and also received help from another senior in the laboratory to actively debug the code and solve the problems of screen failure and button malfunction. Finally, after repeated adjustments and experiments, his self-made "dormitory version" touchscreen fingerprint door lock was put into use, helping him realize his wish of entering the dormitory without carrying a key.

Through this practice, he expressed that the success of making touch screen fingerprint door locks has given him great motivation, and he hopes that his career direction will also tilt towards this aspect in the future. From this, it can be seen that applying what he learned this time has enabled him to acquire a lot of knowledge and clarify his future development direction, with very good results.

His practice of applying what he has learned is worth learning for other college students. It not only helps them learn more knowledge, but also enhances their abilities through practice, giving them a sense of achievement.

What materials and tools are required for homemade touchscreen fingerprint door locks:

1. Programmable microcontroller board: such as Arduino or Raspberry Pi. These microcontroller boards are the core of the control system, responsible for processing fingerprint recognition and door lock operations.
2. Fingerprint recognition module: such as GT-511C1 fingerprint scanner. This module is used to collect the user's fingerprint information and compare it with the preset fingerprint.
3. Other electronic components, such as resistors, capacitors, inductors, etc., used for circuit construction and signal processing.
4. Programming software: such as Arduino IDE or Python, used to write control programs, implement fingerprint recognition and door lock control functions.
5. Other components: such as buzzer, 7805 voltage modulator, NPN transistor, 9V battery, 9V battery clip, LCD display module, wires, etc.
6. 3D printed casing: used for installing and protecting electronic components, can be customized through 3D printing.
7. Relays and servos: used to control the opening and closing actions of door locks.

Production steps:

1. Connect the fingerprint recognition module and microcontroller board: Connect the fingerprint scanner to the microcontroller board and write a program through programming software to process the fingerprint recognition and comparison logic.
2. Testing and debugging: Connect various components on the breadboard for testing to ensure that each component works properly.
3. Assembly and installation: Weld electronic components onto the circuit board, install them into the 3D printed housing, and connect the mechanical parts of the door lock.
4. Programming and debugging: Use programming software to write control programs to achieve fingerprint recognition and door lock control functions.
5. Testing and debugging: Test the functionality of the door lock in a practical environment to ensure its stability and reliability.