Simple Door Lock Mechanism

Good day! So I booted up my old desktop the other day and saw some images I didn't know I had. Some of these were already uploaded on my facebook but I don't remember I uploaded them. LOL. Anyway here is a simple door [un]lock mechanism that I devised. As of then (actually until now), it was only an unlocking mechanism. But I have been thinking possible ways to also make it a locking mechanism which I will discuss in the Suggestions/Recommendations later.

This is only a prototype. I will make another one in the future

My old friend, revisited after a year. 

Locking my door with style has been going through my mind for a long time now. But summer last year, I finally decided to make one, using an ID card. If you think it's complicated because it uses an ID, it actually really isn't. You see, I like cheating in life, the good way. I call it "Hax" - creating an alternative or making it easier.

The circuit is only composed of a switch, a motor, and a power supply. That's it! It's the basic-est circuit ever! Haha. Use your imagination and be creative. Before doing this, I planned ahead to what materials  I should use, and along the way I improvised some other stuff. The general idea is you put the ID into the 'reader', upon inserting it, the card (ID Card) will trigger a switch at the bottom of the reader, hence, the circuit is closed and the motor rotates, pulling the bolt from the lock.

I had to make a path for the ID to travel down the reader, and it has to touch the switch. I used a scrap of plastic (Go green! Recyle!) and attached the switch to it.

Improvised Switch

I used an old wax container for the whole card reader assembly. I didn't have any good material that time, I was also aiming to keep the cost as low as possible. I sawed a slit on top of the container for the card to go in. I then aligned it so that the card goes in perfectly.

The Front Assembly

I drilled a hole through the door in my room to run the cables through. I screwed the front assembly to the door. Make sure to extend the wires of the switch, because it is the cable we will feed through the door and into the back assembly. The back assembly is composed of the power supply and the motor, and the front assembly consists of only the switch. I also tied the handle of the bolt to the door so that it will not lock it self when not in use. 

Prevent the bolt from locking by tying it to the door.

Here is now the whole back assembly. Instead of buying a battery compartment or whatsoever, I just salvaged one out of an old toy. You can call me a Recyclist. Ha ha. Oh and I added something rubbery on the shaft of the motor then tied a thread so it could pull the bolt. Make sure to check first if the motor's rotation is going in the right direction, if not, just reverse the polarity; exchange the positive and negative coming from the power source.

The DC Motor salvaged from an old toy car. (Sometimes I just see some lying around.)

The whole back assembly.

Please excuse the wiring. Haha. I only installed this to try it out. Here's a sample video in Beta testing. 

I will add the video the moment I get my external hard drive back.

Suggestions/Recommendations:
 For future references, I'm putting suggestions slash recommendations. You can also comment your suggestions and I will add them here.

"This is only an unlocking mechanism. I did this because I have two doors. LOL. So I can lock this door (it has no lock) then lock the one with a key. o.O. "

• Since this is only an unlocking mechanism, you also need to lock it. 
• My thoughts were to use a DPDT (Double Pole Double Throw) Switch, but again, you have to be creative to make this switch amazing. 
• You can use a piece of plastic/stick/anything to attach the bolt and the motor together. That way, the motor can move the bolt right or left, therefor locking or unlocking it. 
• You can also improvise to make the motor reverse it's rotation, like making two switches; one to lock and another to unlock it. (Although I haven't tested this one yet)
• Do not limit your imagination!