The SparkFun Simultaneous RFID Reader is an Arduino-compatible board to get you started with the M6E Nano UHF RFID Reader. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is becoming popular everywhere for tracking practically everything. Whether you want to get started by adding an RFID reader on your toolbox with tags on all your tools or allowing access to the tree house for your secret society meetings, this board may be for you!

With the Arduino shield footprint, you can connect this directly to an Arduino-compatible board, or a different microcontroller. You can also connect directly to your computer using the FTDI header on the board and read data using the Universal Reader Assistant.

Once you’ve started, this board will read EPCglobal Gen 2 tags at up to 150 tags per second. Writing of tags is also possible at 80msec standard write. The board has adjustable power output from 0dBm to 27dBm, meaning that with the correct antenna you can read up to 16 feet (4.9m), or 1 to 2 feet with the onboard antenna.

Note: Your reader ships with a piece of gray, nonconductive Thermal Gap Filler to help with both heat dissipation and to cover the exposed ground plane (to prevent circuits from shorting against it).

Warning: Ensure that personnel do not stand in the radiation beam of the antenna unless they are more than 21cm away from the face of the antenna (to adhere to FCC limits for long-term exposure). See Datasheet for more information.

Sparkfun part number: SEN-14066

Features

• EPCglobal Gen 2 (ISO 18000-6C) with nominal backscatter rate of 250kbps
• Separate read and write levels, command adjustable from 0dBm to 27dBm in 0.01 dB steps
• 0.84W in ready mode
• 0.00025W in shutdown mode
• Up to 150 tags/sec to read 96-bit EPC
• 80msec typical for standard write of 96-bit EPC

Documents

• Schematic
• Eagle File
• RFID basics
• Hookup Guide
• Product Brief
• Datasheet
• Design Guide
• Thermal Gap Filler
• Firmware Update (v1.9.0)
• Firmware release notes
• Product Page
• OEM Documentation page
• Universal Reader Assistant (Windows only)
• GitHub (Design Files)
• GitHub (Arduino Library)