“Hello! After quite a while I decided to share my latest project with all of you. This one was just an idea that I got after purchasing a cheap solenoid lock online, and it turned out to be a great project.
So, basically the base idea was to make a secure (or at least secure-ish) spot for my stuff while I’m gone, or just a place to store stuff I don’t want to misplace. I was originally thinking of maybe embedding some sort of RFID setup but I thought to myself: “Hey, you know what would be sick and unnecessary? Making the frickin’ lock IOT!”. So that is pretty much what I ended up doing. A 12V solenoid lock, an ESP8266, a relay, a stepdown module and quite a few wires. That is really it for this project, because I just wanted a quick and simple solution. I also kinda wanted to add an LED strip inside of the drawer but i then dropped the idea, as it would require another relay and also wasn’t necessary at all considering I could already see inside the drawer without having a light source inside. But who knows, maybe I’ll upgrade my drawer someday in the future and if I will see the need for a light inside, I might just add it. If you are planning on setting this up in a dark room, maybe you’ll want to include a LED strip or maybe just a few diodes inside, so feel free to upgrade, however keep in mind that it will require a bit of extra soldering as well as a tiny bit more software changes, however those are super easy to do (will be explained later, don’t worry :D).
Right, now that you’re all familiar with what we’re going to be making, let’s get to it!
Supplies:
Very little is needed (as usual :D)
- ESP8266 - The brains
- Lock - Well, the lock
- Adapter - You need 12V for the lock, 1A is fine
- Relay - To control the lock
- Wires - Connect the stuff, bro
- Stepdown - To get that voltage down for the ESP
- Soldering iron - I didn’t link because I believe everyone reading this has at least one already
- A drill - To drill :O
- Hot glue gun - Pretty optional, just to secure the circuit inside, but you can just use tape or something if you wish
- A drawer or door or whatever you want to lock - That’s pretty self explanatory”