I have a kegberry system up and running on my bench (thanks @johnnyruz)! In light of not really wanting to have RFID cards for every user, as my kids are the reason I am implementing this whole system, I am curious about implementing fingerprint authentication. Has anyone attempted this? The hook-up to arduino seems trivial, but the coding is where I would fall short.
Hi @rinkerw, I have not attempted this yet, but it’s too good of an idea NOT to! I ordered a cheap sensor from Amazon that should be here in a few days (hopefully it works!) that I’ll start to experiment with.
Ideally I would be able to make very minor adjustments to the Arduino code to have the fingerprint work just like RFID:
- Scan a finger
- Send result to Kegbot Server via the Kegboard Serial Protocol
- If the token is recognized, authenticate the pour
- If the token is not recognized, create an entry in the Admin console that would allow an Admin to link the fingerprint to a user for future pours.
I’ll let you know how things go when I receive the sensor and start hacking!
wow @johnnyruz! That sounds awesome! Can you send a link, or specs, for the fingerprint sensor you bought? I was originally thinking about the GT511C3, such that a cosmetically-nice case could be incorporated on the kegerator, rather than the bulky adafruit one.
I just went with the Adafruit sensor (although a cheaper version from Amazon, but basically the same thing). That GT511C3 looks like a much cleaner package though and if I get this working I may try with that.
It looks like this may be a little more difficult to get a “clean” implementation than I would like since from my research it looks like the fingerprints are actually stored on the sensor itself and must be enrolled. Then when a print is recognized it just returns the index of that user in the on-board database.as well as a confidence factor.
I’m hoping to find a solution where enrolling fingerprints can be done through the Web Interface of Kegbot Server, rather than having some other required process for putting the sensor through the Enrollment procedure.
Any updates as of yet? I know you are not busy getting ready for Christmas, lol. This would be a Christmas gift for me! 
As a matter of fact, yes I am having luck with this!
I have the sensor working and it’s successfully identifying users just like RFID tags! The big trick now is the enrollment process.
The module stores fingerprints in it’s on-board memory so there is a special Arduino Sketch that you load to the board that allows you to “Enroll” fingerprints. Once they are enrolled, the code that I’ve integrated with the Kegboard firmware successfully reads the fingerprint and returns a hashed index of that print data which can then be associated to a use in the Kegbot web interface.
I’m trying to get some type of flow setup to where you can enroll fingerprints through the web interface so it’s all seamless. I’m still trying to get all that worked out.
That’s great news!!! Nice job!!! I am officially fully bench tested and ready to install everything, pending this implementation. Thanks for all the hard work @johnnyruz!!!
Any updates @johnnyruz?
Hey @rinkerw,
My sincere apologies that I haven’t had much time to work on this! Crazy work schedule and family changes that seem to be calming down this week. I’m going to go ahead and just post the Arduino Code that uses the fingerprint authentication to Github this week. The authentication piece works perfectly but I haven’t had time to integrate the enrollment side into the Kegbot web interface. As of now you’ll have to connect the sensor to an Arduino running the “Enrollment” sketch and load your fingerprints, then connect to your Kegboard and it will use them to authenticate.
Not the ideal scenario but I’m hopeful if the craziness with my real job settles down I’ll be able to get back to fun projects!
No worries…I understand! Thanks again!
Any updates on this application I like the idea of using finger prints