Rfid Wand for Livestock Management

Projects General Guidance
1

I am developing a handheld RFID wand for goat livestock management, designed to read low-frequency (134.2 kHz, ISO 11784/11785 FDX-B) ear tags from a practical distance. The system should capture the goat’s unique ID and combine it with sensor data (e.g., temperature, humidity, food-intake metrics) to form a structured data string that is processed by an ESP32, where the data will then be transmitted to a cloud database via GSM communication.

The wand will include an OLED/LCD display to show key system statuses such as battery level, current tag UID, GSM signal strength, and cloud upload progress. Power will be provided by a 10,000 mAh rechargeable battery, managed by a battery management system that supports charging cutoff when full and regulated power distribution to all internal components. Given that GSM modules can draw up to 2 A peak current, a suitable buck converter will be required for stable operation.

Does anyone have/can point me in the right direction so I am more aware of specific, compatible hardware recommendations for:

  1. A 134.2 kHz RFID reader/scanner suitable for external coil integration.

  2. A battery management/charging module appropriate for a 10,000 mAh Li-ion battery.

  3. A GSM communication module compatible with the ESP32

  4. A buck converter capable of supporting the GSM module’s peak current demands.

TL;DR: I’m building a handheld ESP32-based RFID wand for reading 134.2 kHz livestock ear tags, integrating sensor data, displaying system status, and transmitting goat information to the cloud via GSM, powered by a managed 10,000 mAh battery system.

2

rather than GSM could you use LoRa?

there are modules with an ESP32 and a LoRa module on the same PCB, e.g. heltec wifi-lora-32-v3

3

Common GSM modules can be powered directly with 3.7V lithium battery, no buck needed.

4

As per my understanding, if I were to use this module I would still require a LoRa receiver which acts as the forwarder of my data to the cloud database, yes? I am only relying on direct communication of the wand to the cloud, and not point to point communication, as having a LoRaWAN gateway aswell would make the entire project exceed my budget.

5

Did you have a look at the LILYGO T boards, they have lipo connector and most versions have battery protection.

6

These look good, they even allow for GSM communication aswell. I will probably be using this in my final design to save space, but in the meantime for the prototype, as time consuming as it is, I will just be sticking to the plain old esp32 and gsm module and probably a 10,000mAh rechargeable battery. Do you have any specific module names for the rfid reader and gsm module I should probably be using? Also, when considering modules to use for a project, how do you go about finalising your decisions before purchase? I’m new to this and there seems to be alot of things I can use for my project so it is a bit overwhelming haha

7

Read this forum, look for available libraries and quality tutorials and you get an idea if product is good or especially problematic. I wouldn't choose one that doesn't have decent documentation (datasheet/schematic).

I'm not able to suggest any specific module for your prototype.

8

if you have a smartphone which could act as a hotspot the esp32 could connect to that removing the requirement for a GSM module
if you are in a place with no mobile connectivity the smartphone could store the RFID data until a connection was established

9

And beefy power bank could be used as supply.
There are also readymade bluetooth RFID readers... :wink:

10

How does that wand captures the food-intake metrics for this goat?