CHAPTER FOUR – DATA CAPTURE
57
Note!
If you have difficulties with UHF RFID reader on the PL3000, please
contact Nordic ID’s technical support. Before emailing or calling, open the
TagRW utility and pick up a bit of information such as RFID module name,
its firmware version, and what RF power level the reader is using. (When
you open the TagRW, the information is available in its main window; you
may scroll up to the beginning of the window.) In addition to the above-
mentioned details, we are interested in the type of the RFID tags with
which you have reading or writing difficulties as well as the tag
manufacturer in order to troubleshoot your RFID reader problem. Please,
tell also the application in which the difficulties arise along with how the
difficulties arise.
The RFID and the ‘symbology’ identification
technologies differ from each other on a fundamental
level: the RFID tag has an active role in transferring
information to the reader while the bar code symbol
takes part in reading operation passively. This is one
reason why the integration of the UHF RFID reader into your application is much
more complex than the integration of the ‘symbology’ reader. In the simplest form,
you need not do any coding work to integrate, for example, the bar code scanner
into your application but with the UHF RFID reader you do not manage to do that
without software work.
For example, just to satisfy a read command of the EPC Class 1 Gen2
protocol the tag requires the following information:
A handle to be identified as the particular tag that shall reply to the
read request
A piece of information on the memory bank so that the tag can read
the proper memory area
An address in the memory area so that the tag knows where to start
from
A number of memory words so that the tag can send a proper amount
of data to the reader.
It is easy to see that assigning the kind of the read operation mentioned above
to some key is worthless without knowing the special requirements of an
application.
If your application uses EPC UHF Class 1 Gen2 tags, you may need the
description of Nordic ID’ s MHL for the UHF RFID reader. The MHL is Nordic ID’s
formulation of an application programming interface (API) for the system
components that Nordic ID’s Windows CE devices incorporate. In addition to the
MHL API manual, you may need an MHL programming support package and code
samples to see how to use the MHL API, in particular for the MHL of the UHF RFID
reader. You may also need a Windows CE SDK, although using the MHL interface
does not require it. Please, contact Nordic ID’s technical support if you do not find
that information on Nordic ID’s website.
Integrating UHF
RFID Reader
into Application
