@TS-Russell I just realized that the Qwiic RFID Reader is not the proper device that I need as it does not support continuous presence detection which is a must for my setup. I read in another thread (can’t find it any more) that you (?) suggested to use the SparkFun Simultaneous RFID Reader - M7E Hecto if continuous presence detection is required but that is not an option for our product (price too high).
I chose the RFID approach first because I plan to have several controllers and holsters and therefore would like to identify via the RFID tag if the controller is in its proper holster or in a wrong one.. the following approaches would of course remove that option..
I wonder if you have other suggestions or what you think about these ideas:
Solve the presence detection with something like:
- electrical contact (is there a Qwiic breakout board that basically only senses if an electrical contact is open or closed?)
- Photo Interrupter (would be easiest, but there is not Qwiic variant, or is there? or somehow attach a Qwiic connector to it?)
- SparkFun Mini Linear 3D Hall-Effect Sensor - TMAG5273 (Qwiic) - that might work easily, right?
- Infrared Proximity Contactless Button - together with the Qwiic button breakout board, could that work?
- SparkFun RedBot Sensor - Mechanical Bumper - have some sort of mechanical 0/1 feedback when the controller is put down into holster, but there is no Qwiic version..
- SparkFun Micro Magnetometer - MMC5983MA (Qwiic) - have a magnet inside the holster and detect magnetic change; but there might be misreadings if the User has something on him that also is a magnet (like smartwatches with wristbands(
- physical pressure measurement (I put the controller down into a sort of holster) - I did not find anything like that as Qwiic device but thought maybe use the scale Qwiic device for that?
- SparkFun Qwiic Mini dToF Imager (but I think that might be too error-prone)
- ambient light sensor (assuming it gets dark in the holster), but that might also be too error-prone
- SparkFun Qwiic PIR motion sensor - unsure if that would work at all to detect if something is moving and then put down to be stationary
- SparkFun Proximity Sensor Breakout - 20cm, VCNL4040 (Qwiic) also unsure if that is precise enough (what if something just passes in front of the sensor)