Sparkfun Simultaneous RFID Reader with MSP430

Hi,

I’m planning to get a Sparkfun Simultaneous RFID Reader as i see alot of positive feedback on how easy to connect to MCU, but is it compatible with MSP430?

Is Sparkfun Simultaneous RFID Reader able to connect to multiple antenna for multiplexing?

If it is possible for multiple antenna connection, can the reader knows the data coming from which antenna?

I’m quite confused as i see some post mentioned it can’t connect multiple antenna, while some post say it can.

I actually have 2 purpose for this RFID reader.

  1. Track objects passing through a door entrance, the environment is not really RFID-friendly, that’s why i’m looking for RFID reader with multiple antenna surrounding the entrance to have a better tracking accuracy.

  2. Track location of objects in a cabinet. I’m thinking of 1 single RFID reader with multiple antenna where each slot/level in the cabinet will have their own antenna. And the reader going to tell me which object is in which slot/level.

Can any of Sparkfun RFID module serve above purpose?

Thanks for your help.

Lek

Hi lclek, and thanks for posting your questions!

I’m planning to get a Sparkfun Simultaneous RFID Reader as i see alot of positive feedback on how easy to connect to MCU, but is it compatible with MSP430?

Technically, it's compatible with [u]any[/u] microcontroller that can communicate over UART, but we only support this product on the Arduino Uno. If you were willing to write new code and libraries for the board, it should work just fine with a MSP430 or any other controller.

Is Sparkfun Simultaneous RFID Reader able to connect to multiple antenna for multiplexing?

The M6E module has a single antenna connection, and could possibly be connected to an antenna multiplexer, but the way we have the board setup, you'd need to make considerable modifications to the board and libraries to make that work. We do not have directions on how to make those modifications.

If it is possible for multiple antenna connection, can the reader knows the data coming from which antenna?

You'd need to switch the RF off, change antennas, then turn the RF back on and listen. The module itself won't know which antenna it's reading from so you'd need to keep track in your code which antenna was active when the modules sensed a tag to determine which antenna (and location) did the sensing.

I actually have 2 purpose for this RFID reader.

  1. Track objects passing through a door entrance, i’m looking for RFID reader with multiple antenna surrounding the entrance to have a better tracking accuracy.

  2. Track location of objects in a cabinet. I’m thinking of 1 single RFID reader with multiple antenna where each slot/level in the cabinet will have their own antenna. And the reader going to tell me which object is in which slot/level.

Can any of Sparkfun RFID module serve above purpose?

None of our products have multiple antenna capability so you'd probably be better off going with a different RFID reader that can out of the box. For part 2 of your question, for the most part, you will probably read a tag on the same shelf as the antenna, but depending on lots of factors, it's possible an antenna on shelf 1 might read a tag on another shelf. The orientation of the antennas, the orientation of the tags and the RF environment everything is in can influence reading range in unpredictable ways so you can't always be sure the closest antenna is what read the tag.