[General] RFID help

[Arthur]

Yep, it looks like those use an FTDI chip to look like a good old serial
port.  Here's the driver page for them.
http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm Though, last I checked on most
newer Operating Systems (Linux at least) you don't need to install a
driver.  It just works.

I don't know what controller you're using, but if it's the Lego NXT, here's
a python module for that as well:  https://code.google.com/p/nxt-python/

Since it looks like the tags are preprogrammed with a unique ID, it looks
like you don't have to configure them as well.

Based on the datasheet<http://www.parallax.com/Portals/0/Downloads/docs/prod/audiovis/28140-28340-RFIDreader-v2.2.pdf>,
to activate the reciever you need to set the DTR pin to high on your
virtual serial port.  This pySerial command should do the trick "ser.setDTR(
True)"

Here's a simple pySerial program to test this:

import serial
>
> #This is COM? on Windows systems
>
> ser = serial.Serial('/dev/ttyS1', 2400, timeout=1)
>
> #Enable the serial module
>
> ser.setDTR(True)
>
> #Do this forever
>
> while(True):
>
> #The datasheet says the module returns a 12 byte string
>
>  #If timeout happens without reading anything, it should print a blank
>> line
>
>  print(str(ser.read(12)))
>
>
Hope this helps,
Arthur Moore

On Fri, Dec 28, 2012 at 10:20 AM, Faye Lynn Thompson <
watersprite at charter.net> wrote:
> Wow, y'all are already being so helpful.
>
> This started as an add on to my daughter's FIRST Lego League robotics team
> project.  The team is trying to use RFID to find misplaced items without
the
> need to replace batteries.  The one we have is too short range, but it is
a
> good way to learn we hope.
> We have this one...
>
https://www.parallax.com/StoreSearchResults/tabid/768/List/0/SortField/4/ProductID/517/Default.aspx?txtSearch=rfid+usb
>
> It is built/designed by Grand Idea Studio....
> http://www.grandideastudio.com/portfolio/rfid-reader/
>
> I think the usb port is an add on to the board from FTDI chip
> http://www.ftdichip.com/index.html
> but I'm not sure which driver to use.
>
> We are using my early 2009 macbook pro and osx 10.8.2 because it's
portable.
> We have windows 7 available on other machines and dual boot on the
laptop.
> Just to make it trickier we'd like to be able to compile the code on a
> friends linux machine too.
>
> I suspect part of our problem is just not being able to make time to get
it
> our brains wrapped around it.  Now we'd like to have something that looks
> nice for the teams display at state competition on Jan 12th in
Huntsville.
>
> Thank You so much already
> Faye Lynn
>
> p.s.  You are all invited to the state competition.  Dates are still a
> little fuzzy but it will be in Huntsville.  Jan 12th or 19th at Huntsville
> High or Grissom
> http://alabamafll.org
>
>
> On Dec 27, 2012, at 11:36 PM, Arthur <Arthur at cd-net.net> wrote:
>
> That sounds like a fun project.  Could you give me some details about it.
> Does the reader use a virtual serial port?  If so, I would suggest
pySerial.
> The other question is what do you want to do with it?  There are so many
> great ideas for RFID.  Which one are you looking at?
>
> Arthur Moore
>
> On Friday, December 28, 2012, Faye Lynn Thompson wrote:
>>
>> My daughter and I are trying  to get a usb RFID reader to work and look
>> good doing it.  We can get it to read and display the tags in a monitor /
>> shell window.  (ugly but it works)  We'd like to do something in python.
 So
>> far we have lots of bits and pieces of code, but are having trouble
getting
>> it all together.
>>
>> Any advice, urls, etc you can throw our way would be great.
>>
>> Thanks
>> Faye Lynn
>> _______________________________________________
>> General mailing list
>> General at lists.makerslocal.org
>> http://lists.makerslocal.org/mailman/listinfo/general
>
>
>
> --
> Sincerely,
> Arthur Moore
> (256) 277-1001
>
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>
>
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-- 
Sincerely,
Arthur Moore
(256) 277-1001
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