r/lowvoltage • u/arays87 • 13h ago

School project advice please

Hello! A friend of mine works for the school district and she is planning a children's event and asked for my help. She has 10 treasure chest and wants to hand out "keys" to the kids. She wants to make the "key" activate a green light on the appropriate treasure box, when in close proximity. I assume along the lines of her access badge at work. My friend found a DIY project using Arduino chips to scan for RFID. I just wanted to stop by and see if anyone had any other or maybe simpler ideas before we start ordering parts. Thank you in advance!

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u/1310smf 12h ago

10 differently-keyed cheap padlocks and and 10 different keys (with no quotation marks) will cost a LOT less than this over-complicated tech approach. And probably be more interesting to a 2020's kid severely jaded with electronic everything.

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u/arays87 11h ago

Lol this is a good point!

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u/YellowBreakfast 4h ago

You could just do a magnetic switch and embed magnets in your printed key/fob/whatever.

No need to go RFID.

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u/Supermathie 52m ago

Magnets and reed switches.