Electronic – DRM’d hand sanitizer dispenser

embeddedreverse-engineeringRF

We have a newborn and rely on hand sanitizer when changing diapers, and we ran out at an inopportune moment in history. By some stroke of luck, I managed to snag one of those "industrial" touchless foaming hand sanitizer dispensers and a couple of refill bags off an office supply site. The bags are Purell branded and the dispenser is branded by the office supply store and made by a company called Brighton. The form factor of both the bags and the dispenser is something called LTX (1200ml).

Unbeknownst to me at the time of purchase, the bags are somehow incompatible with the dispenser. Namely, there is what seems to be a little RFID wand embedded in each bag, and the dispenser refuses to use the bags unless they are of the same brand. The wands on my bags are marked "LBL 9214" (photo attached).

Does anyone know anything about this system? Can it be hacked? Online searches turn up absolutely nothing. I'd really like to be able to sanitize my hands, and buying the right/matching equipment is simply impossible right now.

rfid wand

Best Answer

Sounds like an interesting project. My approach would be to hack the dispenser rather than the refill. Look at what the dispenser does - actuates a motor or a solenoid presumably - and work on that instead. Reverse engineering the RFID is precisely what they're trying to guard against.