Hi I’ve been trying to read UCODE G2iM tags, connecting through and Arduino Uno board connected with usb as shown in the hookup guide, however I’ve not been able to get any response.
It read only one time, audio cue and data showed up, using the Read_EPC Arduino library example . I don’t know if it’s a false positive or what.
I think I’m missing something, any input would be appreciated
Thanks for reaching out to us on this.
Please confirm this step wasn’t skipped?:
Serial Selection Switch
A switch is provided to allow the user to select between Hardware Serial (HW-UART) and Software serial (SW-UART) pins on the Arduino-compatible footprint. Set this switch to SW-UART for all the example Arduino sketches provided below. If you are using an external USB to Serial connection this switch has no effect.
The best idea is generally to start all the way over in the hookup guide https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/si … e-overview and re-do each step to ensure that one wasn’t skimmed over the 1st time.
Hope this helps, and happy sparking!
Thanks for the quick reply.
I have in fact set the switch to SW-UART, the serial monitor is working and the sketch is correctly uploaded and working, the device keeps scanning without finding anything. Only once I had a positive read and then it immediately stopped detecting the tags.
I tried with using multiple tags and using only one but that did not change the outcome, it still doesn’t detect them, tried changing the region to “NORTHAMERICA”, “EUROPE” (which is my area) and “CHINA” and that didn’t do anything either, I soldered the contacts again as a last effort and to my knowledge they’re all correctly working.
Thank you again for taking the time to answer.
changing region will hardly help… actually, I would advise not to do that as the region setting will only use the frequencies that can be used unlicensed in the particular area.
How do you connect. Is placed as a shield on top-off a board or do you connect with loose wires?
If you power from the serial interface connection, make sure that is 5V and do not increase the read power above 500dBm. Put the tag nearly under / on top off the on-board antenna
regards,
Paul
Thank you for the insights, here’s the situation in regard:
The reader is placed on top of the arduino board as a shield and the insulator is correctly placed.
I’m using the serial interface connection however i have not increased the read power, I left it at the example default value which is 500.
I tired moving the tags from in any positions i could think of however it didn’t seem to affect the reading. The serial monitor keeps posting “scanning”(using the continuos read example) without finding any tag.
if you have 4 wires, can you try to remove the shield from the Arduino, put it separately on the table, and connect GND, 5V, TX and RX to the board
Double-check that the shield is NOT making contact with the USB housing.
Double-check you are using the onboard antenna is having a solder blob ?
also try another example to see whether it makes a difference.
I have worked with others before and they could read the UCODE G2iM chip…
So, I’ve been doing some more testing and I got to read the tags. The setup seems fine, howerver I can only read the tags placing them really close, in touch almost, to the highlighted area:
https://i.imgur.com/TSlLsnG.pngIs this the expected behavior?
My tags also are really small:
https://i.imgur.com/p8ZVWLm.png
could that be the reason?
wow… that is indeed a very small receive antenna to generate enough power for the chip to work. Try to increase above 500dBM and add an external power supply directly to the Nano M6E shield.
For a tiny tag like that, you might need a ring antenna. Sparkfun has one that might work.
paulvha:
wow… that is indeed a very small receive antenna to generate enough power for the chip to work. Try to increase above 500dBM and add an external power supply directly to the Nano M6E shield.
I’ll try to do that too, however reading the description of the product suggested from YellowDog
YellowDog:
For a tiny tag like that, you might need a ring antenna. Sparkfun has one that might work.
is specified that the antenna changes the reading distance “increasing the effective range of the Rain tags from (effectively) zero to about one inch”
Might solve mi problem too.
If I may I have a last question, releted to the antenna.
Can you point me to an antenna with a short but even reading range? In my application I need to read tags placed on top of it, to make a graphic example, like cards on a table.
Thanks again for the help to you all.
Don’t know the antenna, not experience with that, but try increasing read power (maybe for test up to 1000dBm)… see what happens
I’ll try with that, I need to get the power supply. I’ll post with the new results as soon as i can.
I’m trying to do the exact same thing… I was only able to read the rain tag when I increased the read power to 2000 (20 dBm).
Recently a great video was added to a different post. Have a a look at that viewtopic.php?f=118&t=55651
paulvha:
if you have 4 wires, can you try to remove the shield from the Arduino, put it separately on the table, and connect GND, 5V, TX and RX to the boardDouble-check that the shield is NOT making contact with the USB housing.
Double-check you are using the onboard antenna is having a solder blob ?
also try another example to see whether it makes a difference.
I have worked with others before and they could read the UCODE G2iM chip…
Hi Paul, when you say TX and RX, do you mean pins 2 and 3? The arduino sketch says that these are the pins for TX and RX. I tried doing this and it still is scanning without any tag detection. I wonder if it is the tag I am using - AD-665u8?
If you set the switch to UART-HW, it connects TX and RX to pin 2 and 3. When I mentioned TX and RX, that is on the FTDI connector. It does not care about the switch setting.
As you do not seem to get a “check wiring error” when starting the sketch, but “searching for a tag”, I expect the wires are well connected.
Keep the power to max 5dm, put the tag right On-TOP-OFF the onboard antenna and the tag a bit during reading.
According to the tag datasheet it supports ISO/IEC 18000-63 Type C, where the M6E nano talks about ISO/IEC 18000-6 Type C. seems “the 18000-6C became 18000-63 in 2012 due to ISO naming rules that do not allow letters in standards names.”
