AutoBadger

Picture this: your workplace has given you a Work Laptop™, with all the bells and whistles. But since your company is a Very Secure Company™, they require you to swipe your badge on a USB sensor to log in, like these:

Familiar scenario? Tired of having to reach out for your badge and swiping it manually?

Behold: the solution!

Grab an Arduino, a servo, a (possibly big and red) button and get yourself an AutoBadger! Open source, zero maintenance, gluten free, and ambient friendly!

Demo

Check out the demo video on youtube!

Shopping list

Not sponsored or anything, I just use AliExpress since it's cheap af

A paperclip or a similar mounting solution for the badge
Arduino Uno (or similar/knockoff, I don't judge)
Servo
Button
Dupont wires
(Optional) relay and strobe light

Code

Just open the AutoBadger.ino file with the Arduino IDE, adjust ports or timeouts if needed and upload it to the board!

Note: depending on your strobe model you might have to enable MANUAL_BLINK to manually make the light flash. It's a bit more noisy (relay clicking) so I would suggest to get a strobe that flashes by itself.

Schematic and assembly

The schematic for the whole setup is attached at the bottom of this section (the Fritzing file is also available).

Assembly instructions:

1. Get a box to put all the electronics inside
2. Cut a hole in the side of the box to accomodate the servo, manually checking which height is enough to trigger the sensor (usually a couple cm)
3. Install servo in said hole
4. (Optional) drill holes on top of the box to install the strobe and pull the cable inside
5. Wire up everything as the schematic indicates and power up the board
6. Fix badge on the servo which will now be in the upwards (resting) position
7. Done!