S14: Hyperintelligent NFC Locker of the Future

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  • Software Block Diagrams
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Abstract

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The team's idea behind the Hyperintelligent NFC Locker of the Future was to reinvent the currently outdated system of rental lockers. Current rental lockers require a user to input money to release a key and lock the locker. Then, when the user is done with the locker, they use the key to unlock the locker and the key is now stuck there for the next user. The Hyperintelligent NFC Locker of the Future is modernizing this process by using NFC technology from a user's smartphone as the "key".

Objectives & Introduction

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Objectives

The objectives of the Hyperintelligent NFC Locker of the Future include:

1. Constructing a fully functional locker system
2. Interfacing NFC with the locker system
3. Allowing our phones to lock or unlock the locker

Introduction

A user of the Hyperintelligent NFC Locker of the Future will walk up to a locker not being used and request a key by placing his/her phone on the NFC module. The key will save to the phone application. After receiving the key, the user can now lock the locker by issuing a lock command with the phone application and saved key. After unlocking the locker, the key will now be erased so the user can't use the lock again unless they go through the process again.

Team Members & Responsibilities

• Devin Villarosa
  • Driver Development, Project Manager
• Hien Nguyen
  • Locker Construction, Mobile Application Development
• Gregory Pace
  • FreeRTOS Software Design, Networking

Schedule

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Week#	Task	Projected Completion Date	Actual Completion Date	Status	Notes
1	Order Parts	3/21	3/21	Completed	Some changes to the designs were made and extra parts were ordered after the initial date.
2	NFC Module	3/28		Incomplete	Documentation was limited and getting started on the code was difficult
3	Locker Application	4/4	4/18	Completed	Constructing the locker was fairly quick and simple. However, figuring out how to attach our locking mechanism and place our components in the box took longer than expected.
4	Android Smartphone Application	4/11		Incomplete	A lot of documentation on NFC applications is provided by Android.
5	Communication Between Phone and Locker	4/18		Incomplete
6	Implementing a Two Locker System	4/25		Incomplete	Actual completion date was pushed back to do difficulties of finishing the NFC module component.
7	Reserved to Catch Up	5/2		Incomplete	Used time to figure out how to get NFC module to work.
8	Reserved to Catch Up	5/9		Incomplete	Finalized NFC module and multiple locker system.
9	Final Tests and Aesthetics	5/16		Incomplete

Parts List & Cost

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Bill of Materials

	Quantity	Part	Price Per Unit
1	(3)	SJ One Board	$80
2	(1)	1 in. x 12 in. x 8 ft. Select Pine Board	$33.46
3	(2)	ITEAD PN532 NFC MODULE	$17.00
4	(2)	Universal Heavy Duty Power Door Lock Actuator Motor 2 Wire 12V	$5.13
5	(2)	Leegoal L298N Stepper Motor Driver Controller Board Module	$7.50
6	(2)	ENC28J60 Ethernet LAN Network Module For 51 AVR STM32 LPC	$7.31
7	(1)	TRENDnet 5-Port Unmanaged 10/100 Mbps GREENnet Ethernet Desktop Plastic Housing Switch, TE100-S5	$9.99
8	(1)	Logisys 480W 240-Pin Dual Fan 20+4 ATX Power Supply PS480D2	$13.99

Design & Implementation

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Hardware Design

As shown above, the NFC locker system is composed of three uC: Two masters and one shared slave. The two masters drive their independent actuator subsystem, independent NFC module subsystem, and shares the slave.

The masters pull data from its NFC subsystem, and sends the data to the slave. The slave will either accept or reject the password. If the password is verified, the slave will then send information to the master, where the actuator subsystem will either lock or unlock the locker.

Power System Design

System Powering Table

	Submodule	Voltage Needed	Voltage Supplier
1	SJOne Board	+5V	ATX Power Supply
2	NFC Module	+3.3V	SJOne Board
3	Actuator Submodule	+12V	ATX Power Supply

The system ranges in using three different voltages: +12V, +5V, and +3.3V. Because these voltages are standard in computer systems, the team used an ATX power supply. The ATX power supply provides a +12V, +5V, and a +3.3V output.

All ATX power supplies has a "safe power-up" feature in which the power supply will not turn on. In order to turn on the ATX power supply, the P.ON wire must be shorted to ground.

Hardware Interface

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Actuator Subsystem Interface

An actuator can only extend or retract depending on the direction of the signal. With software, The team used a motor controller to change the direction of the PWM signal. Note that one PWM signal must be fully off, while the other must be fully on in order to change the signal's direction.

NFC Interface

The NFC module can accept High Speed UART (HSU), I2C, or SPI. The team decided to use SPI due being able to operate at high speeds. Additionally, a GPIO output is used for the NFC module's chip. Like all SPI interfaces, the nCS is used to indicate the start and end of a data frame. Additionally, another GPIO is used to initially reset the NFC module.

The team also used the NFC module's interrupt pin, because the software's framework is interrupt driven. The interrupt output tells the uC what state the system is in.

UART Micro-Controller Interface

The master uC initiates the communication with the slave. A master uC will send data from the NFC module to the slave uC. The slave will process the data and either send a verification frame or rejection frame to the master which will enable the master to lock or unlock the locker.

Software Design

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BLAHBLAHB:AH

NFC Software Design

Phone Application Software Design

The team decided to use the Android platform for our phone application since two of the members had a Samsung Galaxy S4 which made testing on the NFC module much easier. The application's main design principle is simplicity. It's important for the application to be quick and easy to use because a user would want to be able to lock or unlock his/her locker as quickly as possible. The flow of the application begins when you start up the application. The first thing that occurs is that the application will enter the idle state until the user enters a password. After entering a password, the password will then be saved into the application. The phone is actively checking for an NFC device and will keep looping until a device is found. When the user is ready to place the phone near the NFC module, the application will then detect the NFC module and send the password to the module. After sending the password, the phone application then goes back to idle and waits for the next password to be entered. It is up to the module to figure out if the password is correct and what action to take if so.

Actuator Sub module Software Design

For this actuator's submodule, PWM is needed to control the actuator's state (either extending or retracting). PWM is composed of a frequency and duty cycle. Because the actuator submodule has an "on" or "off" state, the duty cycles used are either 99% (max) or 0% (min). Additionally, frequency is not important for this module

As shown in the hardware implementation of the actuator sub module, in order to extend or retract the actuator, 2 PWM outputs are needed. Each PWM output is connected to the motor controller's inputs. The motor controller inputs dictates the direction of the signal. In order to extend, one PWM1 output must be active, while PWM2 output must be off. Likewise, in order to retract, PWM2 output must be active, while PWM1 output is off.

Actuator Module State Table

	Actuator State	Duty Cycle of PWM1	Duty Cycle of PWM2
1	Extend	99%	0%
2	Retract	0%	99%

Implementation

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UART Communication Software Implementation

This system consists a master and a slave. Though using one of the master's UART ports, the master sends its locker ID(1 byte) and the phone's password(4 bytes) as a password. The slave will receive the 5 bytes of data and search its pre-defined array for the that unique password. The slave will then send 1 byte to the master distinguishing if the password is valid or not.

Testing & Technical Challenges

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My Issue #1

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Conclusion

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Project Source Code

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References

Acknowledgement

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We would like to acknowledge Preetpal Kang and Dr. Haluk Özemek for giving us strength.

References Used

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1. LPC176x/5x User Manual
2. PN532 User Manual
3. ENC28J60 Data Sheet
4. Android Developers Near Field Communication API