Hi,
I am currently working on a project to equip a drone with an RFID tag reader, for automated inventory stock taking in a warehouse.
I would like to use the SparkFun Simultaneous RFID Reader - M6E Nano (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/14066) with a lightweight antenna and raspberry pi, all mounted to an industrial drone.
Initially I was looking to use the UHF RFID Antenna (TNC) (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/14131) but this is probably too heavy.
Can you recommend a lightweight aerial which is compatible with the above RFID reader, or a similar RFID antenna/reader combo that would suit my use case?
Thanks,
Matt.
Hi Matt.
Unfortunately I don’t really have any recommendations for antenna since I’ve only ever used the UHF RFID Antenna (TNC) we carry, but there are other “approved” antennas and if you track down the data sheets for those, you might find something that is light enough for your application.
The list is in the hookup guide, but I’ve copied it below.
https://cdn.sparkfun.com/r/600-600/asse … tennas.jpg
Another thing you might try if you’re on a budget is to hack the antenna we carry by getting rid of the plastic casing. (The actual antenna is inside) I don’t have one disassembled here to look at but if I recall, all the plastic and some if not all of the metal on the back can be removed. You probably don’t want to remove too much metal as that may de-tune the antenna inside.
Short of the list, you might try any 902-928MHz antenna you happen to find that’s light enough. You may come across something that works great that’s not on the list above or the antenna we carry. It’s pretty much going to come down to experimentation.
One last think you might try is contacting a business that specializes in RFID. They may know of an antenna designed just for what you’re looking for. [Atlas RFID Solutions might be a good place to start if you’re looking for looking for a professional opinion.](https://www.atlasrfid.com/)
Thanks for the reply, looks like the FG9026 is a great idea as the product sheet lists it as 0.22kg and being a pole antenna it is a bit easier to mount on a drone.
Do you think we would be able to use the M6E Nano with a raspberry pi? I can see from the documentation that it is designed to work with Arduino, but I also found a GitHub repository for the ME6 Nano on Pi (for anyone else who’s reading this in the future - https://github.com/paulvha/ThingMagic). Is there a guide for connecting the two? Do I need to buy some additional hardware for the Pi?
While we don’t support the M6E on a Pi, there’s no reason why it wouldn’t work as long as you’re able to write your own software. I’m not aware of a guide for connecting two readers to a Pi or Arduino, but it should be possible. You may need to do some level shifting between the Pi and M6E if you’re not connecting over USB since the shield works at 5 volts and a Pi works at 3.3 volts. Additionally, you may not be able to get enough current from a Pi to run the M6E so if you run into issues, an external power supply might be needed.
