[General] RFID help

[James Fluhler]

Also as a side note those ftdi chips are really great and robust; they are absolutely a very simple USB to serial chip and used in many consumer devices. 

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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> >> General at lists.makerslocal.org
> >> http://lists.makerslocal.org/mailman/listinfo/general
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Sincerely,
> > Arthur Moore
> > (256) 277-1001
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > General at lists.makerslocal.org
> > http://lists.makerslocal.org/mailman/listinfo/general
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > General mailing list
> > General at lists.makerslocal.org
> > http://lists.makerslocal.org/mailman/listinfo/general
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Sincerely,
> Arthur Moore
> (256) 277-1001
> _______________________________________________
> General mailing list
> General at lists.makerslocal.org
> http://lists.makerslocal.org/mailman/listinfo/general
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