School ID-Based Attendance System

🔍 Project Overview

• 🏗️ What it is: An IoT-based attendance tracker using an RFID Scanner with ESP32, Google Sheets Integration, and Discord Notifications.

• 🎯 Why it matters: Automates attendance logging using open-source tools.

• ⚙️ Skills used: CAD, ESP32, Arduino, Python, 3D-Printing, electronics

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💡 Motivation / Inspiration

I wanted to explore IoT applications in everyday settings and practice integrating hardware with cloud-based tools. Attendance tracking is a real-world problem that I face often with school organizations. In DLSU, organizations have this system called GALS (General Attendance Logging Sheet) which simply uses Google Forms. However, it is a very cumbersome, and often, mundane task to do, causing a problem for organization leadership as event attendees and organization members may be too lazy to open the GALS form. From this problem, I thought of streamlining the system by building a low-cost and open-source solution so that it only requires a student’s ID.

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🛠️ Design & Build Process

Concept & Planning

First, I needed to identify the main goal of my project. This can be summarized as:

Scan an RFID card → check validity → log time in/out automatically → send notification.

Then, I began listing the features that were necessary and those that would be nice to have in the project. The features I wanted to include were:

1. Tap to scan

2. Provides visual feedback

3. Offers auditory feedback

4. Sends discord notification

5. Integrates attendance to Google Sheets

6. Powered via wall socket

7. Features a clean design

Once I identified the features, I started listing the components required for the project. Only five main components were necessary:

1. ESP32 Dev Board

2. RC522 module

3. SSD1306 OLED Module

4. Active Buzzer Module

5. Breadboard

Challenges & Solutions

🔴 Problem: Before developing the product, I conducted preliminary testing and discovered that the RC522 module's scanning signal was inadequate for implementing the tap-to-scan feature. This feature requires the module to scan an RFID tag through a material thickness of at least 3mm for the device's wall casing. To this day, I still have not yet found out the issue despite some sources stating that it could scan up to a range of 2-5cm.

✅ Solution: To address this issue, I needed to position the RFID tag closer while preserving the scanner's aesthetic. This challenge was no longer about electronic adjustments but required a significant design modification. Instead of pursuing a tap-to-scan approach, I drew inspiration from credit card readers and incorporated that design into the device.

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⚙️ Demonstration

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🧠 Personal Takeaway

Through this project, I greatly enhanced my product design skills, particularly for consumer-oriented markets. Typically, I focus on engineering solutions to problems. However, this project was directly aimed at end-users, specifically students, requiring me to prioritize ergonomic and straightforward design for user-friendliness. It highlighted the numerous details involved in consumer product design, such as providing immediate feedback like a buzz when a scan is successful and visual confirmation that an ID is verified.