Arduino and RFID [solved]

Projects Programming
1

Hi, I'm using an Arduino Mega and an ID-12LA RFID reader from sparkfun with the overall goal of opening a solenoid when the "right" RFID is scanned. I have the solenoid wired properly and can get it to fire on its own with the Blink example program, but I'm having issues with the RFID reader. It had been working earlier, but now when I use the code here, Arduino Playground - ID12, nothing happens. The TX and RX LEDs on the arduino stay off, and nothing comes up in the serial monitor. However, if I just load the arduino with something like

if (Serial.available()){
Serial.print(Serial.read());
}

I'm able to get the reader to send data to arduino and then to the serial monitor, albeit useless gibberish (like a string of Fs).

I'm confident that everything is wired properly, but I'm not sure where it's all going wrong.

Any help or troubleshooting would be appreciated, I'm fairly new to arduino.

2

Post the circuit diagram

3

Perhaps the reader had been misreprogrammed == changed Baudrate or changed protocol ?

4

The format of the rfid reader somehow got messed up, so it wasn't outputting correctly.

Fixed by rewiring to connect:
Pins 1 and 7 to Arduino GND (ground)
Pin 9 to Arduino Pin 0 (RX)

and reuploading the code onto the Arduino.