IoT Enabled Attendance Management System using RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), ES8266 Micro-Controller and MySQL

Hi, Am excited to share with you one of my most recent works relating to IoT (Internet of Things). A few weeks ago I developed an IoT (Internet of Things) enabled attendance management system. The developed device helps in marking and recording attendance easier and smarter than the conventional manual methods where users use books and pens to record attendance.

As it tends to solve problems relating to attendance management. It can be used in several institutes and organizations where there is a need for efficient and effective attendance management.

The hardware used for its development includes:

1. ESP8266
2. RFID Cards and Tags
3. RFID Reader
4. Control Switch
5. Vero board
6. Connecting wires
7. Packaging
8. Female Header
9. Lithium Battery Charging Module TP4056
10. 2x 3.7volts Lithium Rechargeable Batteries
11. 1602 LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) screen
12. I2C LCD Driver module
13. Buzzer
14. Indicating LED (Light Emitting Diode)
15. Resistor
16. DC-DC Step-up module

The software uses for the development of the device includes:

1. Embedded C/C++
2. Arduino IDE
3. MySQL
4. Fritzing

Above is the wiring diagram I designed for the project.

The image directly above shows the schematic diagram I designed for the project.

ESP8266 is an IoT (Internet of Things) enabled micro-controller due to its ability to connect to the internet. It is one of the major components used in the development of the project, the codes are written in C/C++ are been uploaded to it. And it is responsible for sending and receiving information to and from other components attached to it.

Taking about the RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) Cards and tags, each user would have a Card or tag. The cards or tags have a unique ID that can be read by the RFID card reader. When a user swipes his/her card or tag on the device the RFID reader receives the UID of the card then sends it to the ESP8266 micro-controller for authentication. So if the UID is present in the database the device would display the name of the owner of the card or tag, welcome the person via the LCD screen, make a beep sound, and also record the date and time along with the name of the user into the database. Also, if after authenticating the user UID and does not find the UID registered in the database, it would display User not registered or Card not registered on the LCD screen.

The device is built to use two (2) rechargeable batteries connected in parallel to increase its running hours. Then the batteries are been recharged via the TP4056 lithium battery charging module.

The codes and other resources relating to the project can be found here.

Thanks for reading 🤝, don’t forget to like ❤️, comment ✍️, and share.