We bought SparkFun Simultaneous RFID Reader - M6E Nano from one of your distributor in Thailand last week (http://www.arduitronics.com/). We also bought RFID tag, antenna, RP SMA to U.FL cable directly from your website (Order #7930774 ). We follow the steps in this link ( https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/si … troduction ). We were able to connect it to the Arduino UNO board and get a response from the board but after testing with it for a very short time, we found it unresponsive and we believe that it’s now damaged. We are not sure what the cause is, and we want to understand this issue.
There are two things that we can think of that may have caused this issue. First is that we use a 12v power adapter but in the guide, you suggest powering the SRTR over the 5V pin from an Arduino. Second, we may have placed the RFID UHF tag directly on top of the reader with the metal side touching the RFID reader. Is either of these the reason why the RFID reader and our Arduino uno is unresponsive/broken? Or is it a defect from the reader? If not, do you have any explanation as to why to RFID reader is broken so quickly?
Also, we want to ask is there any kind of warranty for this product? And can we return it, although we bought it from a distributor in Thailand.
We were planning to use your product for our project so we hope to hear from you as soon as possible.
It can NOT handle 12V. If you connected that on the separate 3.7 - 5V connector, there is a diode in between. The voltage on the M6E Nano is ~11.3V, while it can only handle 3v3 - 5.5V.
The short circuit on the USB connector happened a number of times to me but did not cause a failure. MAYBE… if you are very lucky… let it cool down. And try again… you should check that the led is ON. Then it will provide the 3v3 from the Nano, but that is still no guarantee it will work.
We just bought a whole new set of the M6E Nano RFID reader along with sparkfun redboard, UHF RFID Antenna (RP-TNC) and Wall Adapter Power Supply - 5VDC, 2A (All from Sparkfun). We follow the steps from the guide, hook everything up and use Sparkfun Example 1 - Constant Read but I was only able to get a very limited range of only 5-10 cm. I want to ask if I want to increase the range of do I need to change it in the library coding. I never change any settings as I am not familiar with RFID. Is it the nano.setReadPower(500); //5.00 dBm where I have to change? If yes, I want the range to increase to 1 meter away from the antenna, how much should I put?
void setup()
{
Serial.begin(115200);
while (!Serial); //Wait for the serial port to come online
if (setupNano(38400) == false) //Configure nano to run at 38400bps
{
Serial.println(F("Module failed to respond. Please check wiring."));
while (1); //Freeze!
}
nano.setRegion(REGION_NORTHAMERICA); //Set to North America
nano.setReadPower(500); //5.00 dBm. Higher values may caues USB port to brown out
//Max Read TX Power is 27.00 dBm and may cause temperature-limit throttling
Serial.println(F("Press a key to begin scanning for tags."));
Does adding a strong external power supply means the Wall Adapter Power Supply - 5VDC, 2A is not enough? If yes could you recommend what kind of power supply should we get? I want to avoid previous issue where I overpower the board.
“overpower” will not happen if you keep it to max 5VDC. The issue for a strong supply is that the M6E is working in bursts / peek current requests. Often a wall adapter has a small capacitor included. You can try the wall adaptor and maybe add a larger capacitor later on if it does not work.
