[General] RFID help - Thank You!

Mon Jan 7 08:01:50 CST 2013

Mentor it is.  
We'd love to have you visit the teams display Saturday.
All of us involved with this team plan to spend more time with you.
Thanks again.  
Faye Lynn

On Jan 6, 2013, at 9:51 AM, Matthew H <hendrix04 at gmail.com> wrote:

> IDK how lego league does it, but FRC (FIRST Robotics Competition) uses the word mentor a lot.
> 
> 
> On Sun, Jan 6, 2013 at 9:46 AM, Joshua Pritt <ramgarden at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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, 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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