The intel curie/arduino101 should work well for this project:
You have the microcontroller with BLE, RTC and FlashMemory onboard, all in 1. What more could you ask for! ;D
1 recomendation:
- On a first pass make sure that any breakout boards/chips you wish to incorporate into your project communicate through I2C or SPI only and the libraries they are suppplied with do not depend on the uno avr or other uc architecture for that matter. No guarantee here, but this has worked for very well so far.
1 question:
- How does your uno prototype "know" who to open locks for now? Are you already using BLE?
1 idea:
- The onboard accelerometer might be able to be used as a safety lock in case someone tries to physically damage the device
1 thought:
- For safety/security audits, I would definitely take advantage of the real time clock to time and date stamp activities.
Some other ideas and thoughts:
The book:
Make: Bluetooth: Bluetooth LE Projects with Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and Smartphones 1st Edition
by Alasdair Allan (Author), Don Coleman (Author), Sandeep Mistry
Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Maker Media, Inc; 1 edition (December 28, 2015)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1457187094
ISBN-13: 978-1457187094
Has a ble lock project in it. While not a curie/arduino101 specific project, I have learned a lot from this book and highly recommend it.
Your curie will be the peripheral, your phone the central. You phone will have to run a native app( requring java or swift programming perhaps) or a hybrid web app which consists of javascript/html/css with special libraries that will allow you to access the BLE hardware of your phone. You could use EvoThings, PhoneGap or the intel XDK for this. It might seem daunting at first, but once you get rocking with one of these you will love it. I like EvoThings a lot and have posted about it in this forum. I have tried PhoneGap, it is excellent as well and I am just now starting an edx course that teaches javascript/html/css using the intel XDK.
I don't think the phone will have to auto connect per se. Download the nrf master control app for your own phone/tablet/mobile device and see how many BLE devices you pick up. Other forum users have posted here on how to use the nrfMaster Control app with the curie/101.
The curie will just advertise itself and your app can look for the lock and connect with it automagically or through user input. It should not intefere with the cars own BT/BLE, this is one of the advtantages of ble service adverstising.
My opinion is that you will have to have some kind of backend program running on a server that can communicate with the phone app that will allow you to control car access/phone permissions.
Not sure exactly how far BLE trasmits, although 30 feet sounds very reasonable.
Good luck on this exciting and interesting project! If I were you, I would sketch out the overall architecture and them prototype a system on your benchtop with the curie/arduino101 and let us all know about it!