[General] RFID help

Mon Dec 31 19:12:41 CST 2012

I ended up using the terminal window to find the card's 'name', then hard coded it into serial.Serial.

Faye Lynn

On Dec 31, 2012, at 12:47 PM, James Fluhler <j.fluhler at gmail.com> wrote:

>> ser = serial.Serial('/dev/ttyS1', 2400, timeout=1)
> 
> Dev/ttyS1  is a Linux or Unix/Mac serial port on windows I'm fairly certain you can just put in. 
> 
> ser = serial.Serial('COM1', 2400, timeout=1)
> 
> Only thing I am uncertain of is If this is the correct python way to handle a serial port on windows. 
> 
> But regardless if you are on windows it will always be COM#  (COM1, COM2, etc...).  You can look in the device manager if you are unsure which com port you are on. Once you know it will typically stay the same unless you plug in another com device before the RFID reader. 
> 
> James F.
> 
> On Dec 28, 2012, at 12:59 PM, Arthur <Arthur at cd-net.net> wrote:
> 
>> 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, 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
>> >> _______________________________________________
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>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Sincerely,
>> > Arthur Moore
>> > (256) 277-1001
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
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>> >
>> >
>> >
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>> 
>> 
>> 
>> -- 
>> Sincerely,
>> Arthur Moore
>> (256) 277-1001
>> _______________________________________________
>> General mailing list
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>> http://lists.makerslocal.org/mailman/listinfo/general
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