Let me start by saying this is my first Arduino project, and I'm a little confused with some of the hardware requirements. I should be good on the coding, as I've been programing for a long time now.
I want for my first project to build a fingerprint scanner that will unlock an electric strike if the correct finger print is scanned.
As far as the fingerprint scanner goes, I was going to use this one, which has its Arduino source code on Github:
So far, I'm okay with the hardware. As I'm looking more into the electric strike hardware configuration, I'm getting confused.
From what I can tell, the way they work is that I supply a constant supply of electricity to the strike, and then from the Arduino I can send a signal to interrupt this power supply, so that the strike releases.
The strike I was planning on using was this one:
http://www.smarthome.com/5190S12/Electric-Door-Strike-for-Schlage-Locks-8-12VDC/p.aspx
With this power supply:
http://www.smarthome.com/8194B/Linear-Corporation-AAE00381-12-Volt-DC-2000mA-Power-Supply-/p.aspx
From what I can tell, the strike has two wires. One of those wires I would plug into the breadboard, and the other would go to the power supply. Is this correct? Would it come with instructions specifying which one is for which? Also, if my thoughts on how the strike was locked and released above are true, wouldn't I need to interrupt the power supply to unlock the strike, or is that current separate?
I was originally going to follow this guide on how to make the strike setup, but it doesn't provide clear instructions on how to wire it:
Further searching led me to this image, which seemed to show me the correct way to wire this:
http://itp.nyu.edu/physcomp/uploads/arduino_bb_pot_transistor_motor2.png
Except I don't need everything in that diagram. For instance (the parent url is http://itp.nyu.edu/physcomp/Tutorials/HighCurrentLoads), I wouldn't need the potentiometer, and I'd replace the motor with the strike. Then my question goes back to what I asked above, about the two different wires on the strike, as to which one would go to the breadboard, and which one would receive the power.
I understand these are very basic questions, especially for the experienced users, but if anyone can offer some insight on my questions above, that would be awesome. I'll be sure to post pictures once I get this completed (and oh, I'm getting this completed).