bank cards include encryption/hardening against cloning for obvious reasons. I’m not sure if the same would apply to a “pay as you go” card but I would expect so.

yeah the chip on the card itself is not the component that will make the connection with the payment terminal. luckily for you, you don’t have to have the antenna be that same shape, it can fit into different shapes and still be effective, like the tip of a magic wand. or even a ring. try it with low value cards first and don’t break the antenna. good luck!

Yeah you can use acetone to get the chip and antenna out of the card and then resin or cast it into a wand.

But really wouldn’t it be cleaner just to make a plaster cast of an apple watch, and then cast a vinyl or rubber star with the ability to insert said watch later, to make contactless payments with?

edit: apparently this is so common there are etsy shops for them https://www.etsy.com/market/credit_card_wand

Looks like an Anti Vandal switch.

https://www.mnpctech.com/products/anti-vandal-push-button-switches

Fortunately there are plenty of Zigbee dongles that are compatible with HA, and just as fortunately they will all support Aqara sensors using MQTT with very little effort.

BenQ LK952

why? long life, no bulbs, sharp image, lots of standard ports, no smart crap, 5k lumens, adjustable lens.