Reading Serial Data from RFID Reader through USB Host Shield to Arduino

[hackergirl69420]

Hi all,
I apologize, as I'm fairly new to this sort of stuff and trying my best to learn my way through this.
I am trying to use an RFID reader to send data to an arduino (trying to build a homemade cat feeder with two hungry cats who eat each others food) to control an entry passageway.

I bought this RFID reader: https://www.priority1design.com.au/shopfront/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=9
After my learning curve, I realized I should have bought one with TTL connection and not USB, but since it took awhile to get here, instead I bought a USB host shield to connect to my Arduino Uno R3. I'm using USB_Host_Shield_2.0 library to read data from the USB. (the GitHub - felis/USB_Host_Shield_2.0: Revision 2.0 of USB Host Library for Arduino.)

I see in the documentation for the RFID reader I bought, there's some serial commands I can do to read from the animal tag (page 13 https://www.priority1design.com.au/rfidrw-e-usb.pdf) but I'm struggling to understand how to call these from my arduino code to print the RFID tag it reads in the serial monitor.

It seems I might need some sort of driver from what I understand, but I'm not sure what that means or how to connect that sort of info. Any links or advice would be appreciated, thank you!

Here's my USB Info:

22:01:58.017 -> Start
22:01:58.769 -> 
22:01:58.769 -> 
22:01:58.769 -> 01
22:01:58.769 -> --
22:01:58.769 -> 
22:01:58.769 -> Device descriptor: 
22:01:58.769 -> Descriptor Length:	12
22:01:58.769 -> Descriptor type:	01
22:01:58.769 -> USB version:		0200
22:01:58.769 -> Device class:		00
22:01:58.769 -> Device Subclass:	00
22:01:58.769 -> Device Protocol:	00
22:01:58.769 -> Max.packet size:	08
22:01:58.769 -> Vendor  ID:		0403
22:01:58.769 -> Product ID:		6001
22:01:58.769 -> Revision ID:		0600
22:01:58.769 -> Mfg.string index:	01
22:01:58.769 -> Prod.string index:	02
22:01:58.769 -> Serial number index:	03
22:01:58.814 -> Number of conf.:	01
22:01:58.814 -> 
22:01:58.814 -> Configuration descriptor:
22:01:58.814 -> Total length:		0020
22:01:58.814 -> Num.intf:		01
22:01:58.814 -> Conf.value:		01
22:01:58.814 -> Conf.string:		00
22:01:58.814 -> Attr.:			A0
22:01:58.814 -> Max.pwr:		2D
22:01:58.814 -> 
22:01:58.814 -> Interface descriptor:
22:01:58.814 -> Intf.number:		00
22:01:58.814 -> Alt.:			00
22:01:58.814 -> Endpoints:		02
22:01:58.814 -> Intf. Class:		FF
22:01:58.814 -> Intf. Subclass:		FF
22:01:58.814 -> Intf. Protocol:		FF
22:01:58.814 -> Intf.string:		02
22:01:58.814 -> 
22:01:58.814 -> Endpoint descriptor:
22:01:58.814 -> Endpoint address:	81
22:01:58.814 -> Attr.:			02
22:01:58.814 -> Max.pkt size:		0040
22:01:58.814 -> Polling interval:	00
22:01:58.814 -> 
22:01:58.814 -> Endpoint descriptor:
22:01:58.814 -> Endpoint address:	02
22:01:58.814 -> Attr.:			02
22:01:58.814 -> Max.pkt size:		0040
22:01:58.814 -> Polling interval:	00
22:01:58.814 -> 
22:01:58.814 -> 
22:01:58.814 -> Addr:1(0.0.1)

[pylon]

After my learning curve, I realized I should have bought one with TTL connection and not USB, but since it took awhile to get here, instead I bought a USB host shield to connect to my Arduino Uno R3. I'm using USB_Host_Shield_2.0 library to read data from the USB. (the GitHub - felis/USB_Host_Shield_2.0: Revision 2.0 of USB Host Library for Arduino.)

You should have first asked here. The board you bought contains an ATMega168 (the processor the first Arduino had) and an FTDI232 which converts the TTL UART to USB. Although it's not clearly visible on the datasheet picture I guess the FTDI serial interface (pins 1 and 5) is directly connected to the hardware serial interface of the ATmega (pins 30 and 31). Can you check that by a multimeter? As these signals most probably is routed to the bottom layer and back you have a good chance to get that signal to connect it to the controlling Arduino.

It seems I might need some sort of driver from what I understand, but I'm not sure what that means or how to connect that sort of info. Any links or advice would be appreciated, thank you!

If you insist in using the USB Host Shield you need the FTDI driver. But using that driver is much more complex than just using the internal serial interface.

[hackergirl69420]

Thank you so much! I don't think I would have figured that out by myself.

Like I said, I'm fairly new to this, so if I understand you properly, I need to solder pins 30 and 31 to connect to my Arduino RX and TX? And it would act as if it was TTL? I think you're right, as I can see the bottom layer has connectors to the processor and FTDI (attached image)

Also, I'm fairly new to soldering (in case you can't tell from the attached image), but would I need to use a specific kind of a connector to solder these together?