I recently purchased M6E Nano (SEN-14066) and having the following challenges, looking for recommendation to have this resolved please.
Using URA with breakout board & UHF RFID Tag, I was able to simultaneously read only 5 out of 15 tags,. These tags are placed next to each other and away from reader less than 10cm. Tried varying the power from 5 to 27, no change. - Do I need any additional antenna.
Also the temperature of M6ENano gets too hot, at times above 75C using CH340G connected to my laptop. - what is the recommendation to address this.
Using as an Arduino-Uno Shield (placed over), was able to compile & load "Example1_Constant_Read), but the serial monitor displays “Timestamp → Scanning”, but no display of the tags - what am i missing
Need some documentation how-to connect this module to Raspberry Pi 3B+
I have an M6E Nano and have done a number of projects with it.
To your question
1. Using URA with breakout board & UHF RFID Tag, I was able to simultaneously read only 5 out of 15 tags,. These tags are placed next to each other and away from reader less than 10cm. Tried varying the power from 5 to 27, no change. - Do I need any additional antenna.
I have not been impressed by the on-board antenna and an external one would help for sure. That said, also look in the URA under performance tuning. there is a section GEN2 performance tuning with options. Try some of those. The GEN2 protocol has the ability to instruct some tags to be slower in response, allowing others to be detected.
2. Also the temperature of M6ENano gets too hot, at times above 75C using CH340G connected to my laptop. - what is the recommendation to address this.
The higher the power, the warmer it gets. The option is either to keep the power low or apply a cooling block (even with a fan if you want) as is done on processors on a PC motherboard.
3. Using as an Arduino-Uno Shield (placed over), was able to compile & load "Example1_Constant_Read), but the serial monitor displays “Timestamp → Scanning”, but no display of the tags - what am i missing
It does not detect any tags… It does detect the Nano (else you would get another error). You can try hold the tags closure to the antenna or try to increase the reading power (although UNO connection normally is not applying enough power and you might /will get bad response)
4. Need some documentation how-to connect this module to Raspberry Pi 3B+
For this you need to Jadak/Thingmagic MercuryAPI. It is available for free, but a bit difficult to get going as it lacks good documentation, but it has more supporting features and options and works very well. I have documented a number of my learning on https://github.com/paulvha/ThingMagic. The gettingstarted section might be helpful for you. I have worked on Raspberry Pi and Ubuntu with this library.
Thanks for taking time to review my questions and the responses. Currently I have made few progress with email support from your staff and online. The following are the updates & challenges.
I was able to read the tags using mercuryapi connected to an ARM device. The API is well written with good working examples. Currently I am using Serial Basic Breakout - CH340G (DEV-14050) for connecting the SRTR to the SBC. Though the module was able to read from a distance of 5cm from the tag using on-board antenna, they fail after few minutes with the following msg.
Researching online, I found that the SRTR module needs 5V power and this could be one of the reason. Before I go on that chase - I wanted to confirm what is the best practice to have this resolved. In case I need extra items to be purchased, please let me know.
The Nano is very much depending on enough power. If not it might reset/hang resulting in errors. The 5V is taken from the SBC. The DEV-14050 is set by default to provide 3V3. You will need to cut the jumper JP1 from the 3V3 and solder the link to the 5V. That said… it might still often fail random. Depending on the USB connection (USB-2 or USB-3) it might not provide enough power. Actually it might / will most of the time on 5dB, for higher or full power (27dB), it is best to connect external 5V power supply to separate Nano 3.7 - 5V points.
Thanks for the quick response and clarification. The Dev-14050 certainly gets hot and looses the connectivity to the SBC, also need to confirm the output voltage of USB3.0. Once the setup is back to normal room temperature, it works sending the tag info. I have not tested the max distance of the read using the PCB antenna yet.
As a next step I will attempt the external power source to Nano and let you know.
Also, is it possible to control the dbm using mercuryapi - i did not see any method, let me know your thoughts.