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Jan 31, 2015/ 0 Comments / in Learning, Peripheral, RFID / by
UHF RFID Long Range Reader

This product can be bought at our shop as:

The UHF RFID long range reader by CAENRFID is now available for Cosino Mega 2560! The reader is an UHF multi-regional compact reader for high performances UHF RFID applications. With programmable output power in 8 steps from 10dBm to 27dBm, the reader can detect tags up to 3m of distance (depending on antenna and tag dimensions). Due to its form factor, the module is specifically designed to be easily embedded either in battery powered devices, such as industrial handhelds, or fixed reading point devices, such as printers, point of sales, self-service kiosks or industrial automation readers.

Prerequisite

You need a Cosino core module plugged in into a Cosino’s extension with a preformatted microSD in order to have a running system. You must connect this peripheral with your extension’s Connector-A. Also, if you need system’s console, you must connect a type B-micro USB cable to the serial console connector. Please, refer to your extension documentation in order to know where the serial console connector and Connector-A are located.

Connections

In order to connect the RFID module you should consider the table below.

Mega 2560 extension

RFID MODULE pin
 Connector-A J19 pin
 1 – red 3 – VCC 5V
 2 – white 11 – PA25
 9 – blue 24 – TX1
 10 – yellow 19 – RX1
 11 – black 33 – GND

Checking the hardware

warning Note that Cosino’s TX and RX signals are inverted respect to RFID reader’s ones!

warning Be sure the antenna is connected to the reader before starting any RFID activity! Otherwise you may broke your device.

warning Also, due to the high current draw the system must be powered by an external power supply.

Checking the software

If you are using the microSD on Cosino’s e-shop you already have all needed software and you can skip this section, otherwise you must install 3 external packages from our GitHub site:

and then copy inventory_demo file into your Cosino:

warning Note that you may recompile from scratch the needed software libraries above by following this tutorial.

Accessing the reader in C

Here a simple example about how to get an RFID inventory list by using the C language. just copy inventory_demo file into your Cosino:

Now go to the /opt directory, put some RFID tags around your antenna, and execute:

You can obtain the sources on our GitHub site, just cloning the peripherals repository as follow:

and then, inside your Cosino, compile the code with:

Note: you can freely use the above commands only if you are using the microSD on Cosino’s e-shop, otherwise you need to install the compiling tools (gcc, make, git, libpcsclite-dev, etc.) into your microSD.

Accessing the reader from your smartphone/tablet Android

Easy Controller for android Caenrfid deployed a nice app for the Android market whose allow the user to do basic commands on the RFID readers through bluetooth or TCP connection. Well you can use your Cosino to get access to  the reader from your smartphone/tablet Android! Just download the CAENRFID’s Easy Controller for Android from the market or from CAENRFID’s website and on Cosino execute the command:

Now connect your Cosino to your LAN (see the Mega 2560 documentation for further info) and run the app. From the smartphone/tablet panel hit Add Reader button and choose the TCP connection type and insert the Cosino’s IP address. If everything works well the app should display some reader information where you should see the A528 name. Ok, now you can enjoy your new UHF RFID reader!

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