[General] Fwd: RFID help

Wed Jan 2 07:48:05 CST 2013

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Faye Lynn Thompson <watersprite at charter.net>
> Subject: Re: [General] RFID help
> Date: December 31, 2012 7:05:28 PM CST
> To: General discussion about makerslocal <general at lists.makerslocal.org>
> 
> Thank You!!
> We've got it working with your help.  Now we're making it "pretty"
> On Dec 31, 2012, at 12:50 PM, James Fluhler <j.fluhler at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> 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
>>> >> _______________________________________________
>>> >> 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
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > _______________________________________________
>>> > 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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>> General at lists.makerslocal.org
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> 

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