[General] RFID help - Thank You!

Sun Jan 6 09:46:30 CST 2013

That's a very great question!
We could use the publicity.
But I wonder if consultants is the right word? One of the greatest uses of
a makerspace is getting help with a project through the resources of
knowledge and skill of the members.  I know I've had several projects that
were easily finished with the help and ideas from the other members. For
that I'm thankful I found this place and want to pay it forward any chance
I can.
Anyone else want to say if it's ok to put us down as helped on a robotics
project? I will vote yes but don't take my say as final.
On Jan 6, 2013 8:29 AM, "Faye Lynn Thompson" <watersprite at charter.net>
wrote:

> May my daughters robotics team list makers local 256 on their display
> board at competition as "consultants"  ?
>
> Faye Lynn Thompson
>
> 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<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.set
> DTR(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
>
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>
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>
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