Hello again!
I’ve come across a new fault with the Simultaneous RFID Reader. I’m getting to “Scanning…” on the old Arduino IDE serial monitor, but it just keeps printing that - “Scanning…” - and not picking up any tags, even when they’re wafted right next to the antenna.
Our current theory is that the reader is switching itself back to using its internal antenna, instead of the external antenna attached. (Before you ask: that tiny bit of soldering to bridge the two contacts on the circuit board has been carried out, and the same equipment detected tags using an external antenna just yesterday.) Unfortunately, the tractor - to which the Arduinos, etc are attached - is now being used for something else, so we can’t test this hypothesis immediately. We should have another opportunity over the next few days. In the mean time, I’d be grateful if you could look into this for us.
My questions:
Is the “switching back to the internal antenna” hypothesis likely to be correct?
If the above hypothesis is correct, how can we prevent the reader from switching back to its internal antenna in the future?
If the above hypothesis is not incorrect, what else might be causing this problem?
Thanks,
Tom
Hi Tom.
The M6E doesn’t have the ability to switch between the internal and external antenna on it’s own. There isn’t an antenna built into the device, only the antenna we provide on the board.
By switching the solder jumpers from “internal” to external, you’ve effectively hard wired the M6E to the U.FL connector and physically bypassed the internal antenna. Unless the M6E grows arms and figures out how to use a soldering iron, it can’t change the jumpers without help from a human.
Keep in mind there are two jumpers that need changed to switch between internal and external antennas. If you don’t change both, the M6E could be damaged. If you didn’t disconnect the internal antenna, the transmitter on the M6E may have died and that could cause you to not be able to detect tags.
