I’m currently working on a project in which I need to register RFID tags at different locations. It appears to be possible to connect multiple antennas to the RFID reader with a multiplexer, but I am having difficulty figuring out how to differentiate the tags coming in from different antennas to tell the location. One thought was to use the time based on which antenna is “on” from the multiplexer, but I feel like this leaves a lot of room for error. I’m using arduino, and raspberry pi is functioning as the computer, so neither has a real time clock which further complicates the matter. Does the antenna itself have an ID that I could pass with the tag info? Is there another way to differentiate which tag comes from which antenna?
The reader used is: SEN-14066, and the antenna is: WRL-14131
I’m not aware of a way to connect an antenna multiplexer up to our Simultaneous RFID Reader, but assuming you have a way to do that, you’d probably shut down the M6E modules RF output, switch antennas and then restart the RF output. Whatever output was active when you sensed a tag would indicate what antenna sensed the tag.
The goal with the multiplexer is to minimize cost since if the project is fully implemented, I would need at least 16 antennas. I thought I would be able to connect a multiplexer, but hadn’t looked into it much further. Is there a way to connect multiple antennas and differentiate them then? I’d thought initially I could probably connect four antennas per reader.