<> = RFID Reader = The goal: to develop a small, self-contained Arduino-based RFID card reader that logs scans with a date-stamp. == Equipment == * Arduino Uno R3 * Adafruit datalogger * Adafruit 13.56MHz RFID reader/writer * LDC panel == Progress == === 13.56MHz reader === * Assembled it * Assembled LCD panel * Installed drivers * Tested on supplied cards and Cambridge ID: works * Can read UID on card. Appears in Hex format. * Cannot use QMUL card. Appears to work on a different frequency. === QMUL Card === * Talked to David Dunstan who suggested I get in touch with Martin Evans (m.d.t.evans@qmul.ac.uk) from IT. * Martin used a pcProx unit from rfideas.com. The model number on the back is RDR-6081AKU. * From [[http://rfideas.com/products/pcprox_readers/pcprox_enroll/part_numbers.php|here the RDR-6081AKU]] appears to be a 125 KHz card reader. So the QMUL ID cards must be 125 KHz cards. === 125 KHz readers === * [[http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/electronic-brick-125khz-rfid-card-reader-p-702.html?cPath=48_52|Reader from Seeedstudio]] (USD13.50) (DISCONTINUED) * [[http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/rfid-tag-combo-125khz-5-pcs-p-700.html|125 KHz ID tags]] (USD2) * [[http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/grove-125khz-rfid-reader-p-1008.html?cPath=19_24|Grove - 125KHz RFID Reader]] (USD12.90) * [[http://www.seeedstudio.com/wiki/Grove_-_125KHz_RFID_Reader|Grove Wiki]] There is a [[http://www.seeedstudio.com/wiki/index.php?title=Electronic_brick_-_125Khz_RFID_Card_Reader|Wiki page for this reader here]] and an [[http://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-and-RFID-from-seeedstudio/#intro|Instructables page here]]. Another possibility is the reader from Parallax: * [[http://www.parallax.com/Store/Accessories/CommunicationRF/tabid/161/CategoryID/36/List/0/SortField/0/catpageindex/2/Level/a/ProductID/688/Default.aspx|RFID Read/Write Module, Serial]] * [[http://www.parallax.com/Store/Accessories/CommunicationRF/tabid/161/CategoryID/36/List/0/SortField/0/Level/a/ProductID/115/Default.aspx|Compatible RFID cards]] === Potential Problem === The card UID is not the student ID. It is not clear to me if we will be able to read the student ID. In this case, there may be a problem as while we will have the card UID and date/time stamps, we will be unable to correlate this information with an actual student. A possible work-around is a one-time registration step when we make our own database of card UID <-> Student ID/Name matches. This could be done by hand or with the help of a bar-code scanner as the student ID is stored as a bar code on the card. Why not use a bar code scanner for everything? It's bulky.