RFID choice question..

Other Hardware General Electronics
1

Hey gang..

I want to pick up an RFID BOB (reader/writer) to play with.. and possibly use in some odd projects (all for fun)

@ GrumpyMike - if you are around, would appreciate your input, I know you have some experience in this area. :slight_smile:

I had originally purchased this RFID Reader/writer a while back:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/RFID-module-Kit-13-56-Mhz-with-Tags-SPI-Write-and-Read-For-Arduino-/200892882864?pt=UK_Sound_Vision_Other&hash=item2ec6261fb0

arrived fine and 'works'.. as far as a basic sketch goes for 'reading' the card.
I could never figure out how to WRITE.. or read specific sectors/blocks.. (to use for a fake laundry card or allowance card for my kids..anything interactive/dynamic)..

I got as far as reading/displaying each card's number in serial monitor.. using that (hard coded) in a sketch in some conditional checks..but thats where it ended.

(documentation is rubbish, IMHO.. at least at my level.. but searching the internet, everyone else had the same problems not sure how to set change password or write to card)

Getting the itch again to 'play' with RFID technology... I want to get another similar board/device..

1.) reader & writer
2.) an easier learning curve or simple API
3.) around the $25.00 or less mark

I believe 13.56Mhz is what Im looking for as well..

I found this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Serial-UART-13-56MHZ-RFID-Reader-Writer-Module-with-Cards-Arduino-Compatible-/370736018057?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item565196b289

seems to be a UART (serial) based device... so it should be easier to work with?

Going to watch this vid more in depth as I believe it is more or less the same approach (being a UART board as well) to get some info..

However.. I have now been seeing something called NFC RFID (Near Field Communication) modules (ebay, Adafruit..etc)
Like this one:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/PN532-NFC-RFID-module-kits-Arduino-compatible-ISO14443-Mifare-1k-4k-/190774279870?pt=UK_Sound_Vision_Other&hash=item2c6b087ebe

from reading on.. this looks to be an I2C device/protocol used..

(I have yet to play with I2C as I dont have any I2C devices.... so this leaves me with even less experience on the difference?)

Are these NFC both readable & writable? (If ebay descriptions are to be believed..I guess yes then)

Seems to support alot of cards:
RFID reader/writer supports:
Mifare 1k, 4k, Ultralight, and DesFire cards
ISO/IEC 14443-4 cards such as CD97BX, CD light, Desfire, P5CN072 (SMX)
Innovision Jewel cards such as IRT5001 card
FeliCa cards such as RCS_860 and RCS_854
On-board level shifter, Standard 5V TTL for I2C and UART, 3.3V TTL SPI

the last line is confusing a bit?

Anyways.. Im leaning toward the serial/uart version I linked to.. but would like any advice, suggestions, input ya got.

thanks!

2

bump... :slight_smile:

3

I'm using Stronglink SL018 RFID module which support reading and writing. To communicate with Arduino, Marc Boon had developed the SL018 library for Arduino which support reading UID of tags and reading/writing tags.

4

http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=296382.msg2067078#msg2067078

All supported.

5

Forgive what may be irrelevant? But maybe an alternate, not expensive, solution to your want....

While it isn't contact-less like RFID and NFC, only a trivial "contact" is required to use the devices-with-memory in the Dallas 1-Wire family. Some of the fancier ones even have cyrptography built in, I think.

1-Wire is the family the Dallas temperature chips, long popular for Arduino (DS1820, etc) come from.

For many years... still, as far a I know, the Istanbul public transport system used them in something like the RFID cards used in Boston, London, DC. (Long before any of them had similar systems, actually!)

http://www.maximintegrated.com/en/products/1-wire/1-wire_memory.cfm

One of them in an "iButton" package has most of the virtures of an RFID card. Some user authentication systems used for cash registers in retail environments use them.

If you search for iButton reader, you may be mislead... you don't need anyting fancy. All you need is an Arduino (to do the vancy stuff) and...

http://www.maximintegrated.com/en/products/ibutton/ibuttons/blue_dot.cfm#probe

... a simple mechanical "socket". The user just presses the 1-Wire-chip-with-memory-in-the-iButton-package against the "reader", to interact.

6

xl97:
However.. I have now been seeing something called NFC RFID (Near Field Communication) modules (ebay, Adafruit..etc)
Like this one:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/PN532-NFC-RFID-module-kits-Arduino-compatible-ISO14443-Mifare-1k-4k-/190774279870?pt=UK_Sound_Vision_Other&hash=item2c6b087ebe

from reading on.. this looks to be an I2C device/protocol used..

(I have yet to play with I2C as I dont have any I2C devices.... so this leaves me with even less experience on the difference?)

Are these NFC both readable & writable? (If ebay descriptions are to be believed..I guess yes then)

thanks!

Provided that the ic is the 532 it will read and write to NFC tags

However there are a lot based on the pn 522 which will not.
Although they can write to some such as mifare.
Price of the cards is a giveway though, some vendors are not very accurate with their terms.

7

Did you notice that this is a 2 year old thread?

8

Erm no someone bumped it