Mifare RC522 RFID reader/writer library and tutorials?

Projects General Guidance
1

I am new to android and am planning out my first real project: A box that unlocks when you put a specific RFID tag near.

I made the mistake of ordering an RFID reader/writer without looking up documentation on it before hand. The one i ordered is the Mifare RC522 on ebay here. It is on its way but i currently am looking up libraries and tutorials for it and finding that there is not very good documentation on it. But luckily i am not the only one to try and use this RFID reader/writer.

I have found plenty of posts on this forums on the RC522 but all the threads seem to end without any resolution how to get the thing up and running. This is the most useful one i have found.

I have found a page that links to a library for it which even includes examples (albeit not very extensive, it doesnt even have a "write to card" example). I have found an updated version of these libraries, see the edits.

I was wondering if this is the commonly used library for it and if anyone has any experience with it or programming the RC522 (with any library in general).

EDIT: After looking some more i have also found a library titled MFRC522.h and MRFC522.cpp that seems to be created by the same person that made the RFID.h and RFID.cpp from the library i linked above (the one from electrodragon). I dont know which to use, but im seeing videos of each... which one is newer/updated more recently? which one is better?
Double Edit: After some more research i have found that the MFRC522.cpp and .h are updated versions that have more features and less bugs. The owner changed the name to specify that it was more specific to the RC522.

2

I had a similar problem. The best library is going to be the one on the github page (here's a link) GitHub - miguelbalboa/rfid: Arduino RFID Library for MFRC522

In terms of what you're doing, I found that the easiest way to deal with the reading of data on the card is to allow access based on the UID found on the card. Every card has a unique one and the examples in the library go through how to pull the information. Hope this helps some!

The circuit is also a bit complicated, so just message me if you need some help with it.

-Kronos

3

The libraries for the 522 are poor compared to those available for the 532.
I have not yet found one that works for me.

Ok for reading the uid, but not yet found a way of writing with a 522

4

There is example here writing Mifare's PICCs