Parallax RFID reader with Arduino for Oyster Card

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) Software Interfacing
1

Hello,
I'm trying to read Oyster card (RFID card used as a card pass for subways in London: Oyster card - Wikipedia) with Parallax RFID reader (http://www.parallax.com/Store/Accessories/CommunicationRF/tabid/161/ProductID/114/List/0/Default.aspx?SortField=ProductName,ProductName) but it doesn't recognise it. It works well for the RFID cards/tags from Parallax though. I'm wondering if it's possible to read Oyster card with the Parallax RFID reader or I need to upload some other code from the one I used.

I tried the codes from the tutorials below.
*Playground's tutorial:
http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Learning/PRFID
*Gumbo Lab's tutorial:
http://www.gumbolabs.org/2009/10/17/parallax-rfid-reader-arduino/
*Bryan Chung's tutorial:
http://www.bryanchung.net/?p=322

In these posts, Oyster card can be read with RFID reader but they seems not using Parallax one.
*Tinker.it's RFID tutorial:
http://tinker.it/en/Tutorials/RFID
*Proalias.com's Flash Arduino workshop:
http://www.proalias.com/2008/05/06/flash-arduino-workshop-2/

Is there any special treatment to read Oyster with Parallax RFID reader or is it essentially not possible to do that?

I really appreciate if someone will help the situation.

2

The Oyster cards use the Mifare RFID protocol, and the Parallax Readers don't, so they can't read the Oyster cards. The reader in the Tinker example is a SonMicro reader, which can read Mifare tags. There's also one from id-innovations.com that can do it, the ID-20MF, if I remember correctly.

3

Yes that is right the Mifare RFID operates at 13MHz where as the Parallax RFID reader uses EM cards that operate at 125kHz, they are totally incompatible systems.

4

Thanks for replying!
Oh, it's a shame because I bought the reader for Oyster project. I had no idea there was RFID protocol before I bought it. I should be more conscious for it. But anyway it's good to know and learn. I'll try other ones you suggested for me for Oyster project and then Parallax one is also still useful for other project. I feel it's quite easy to use so far.
Thanks again!