background image

The RealTerm 

Display

tab

With 

Display As

set to 

Hex[space]

, the card data appears as 16 hex bytes 

instead of 12 ASCII digits like it did in the Arduino Serial Monitor.

Wait, 16 bytes? Where did the extra four come from?

Here’s the “Data format” section from the ID-12 module datasheet. The 12 
ASCII characters displayed in the Arduino serial monitor are just the filling 
in a 16-byte sandwich, with four more non-printing characters (STX or start-
of-text, CR/carriage return, LF/linefeed, and ETX/end-of-text) as the bread.

Try switching the 

Display As

setting to 

ASCII

and scan again:

Now the “bread” is visible! That’s cool, right?

Example Project

As fun as it is to watch your cards pop up in the serial terminal, you’d 
probably like to 

do

something with all this power.

The example sketch below scans RFID cards and compares them against 
trusted cards, then moves a servo to unlock the secured* item of your 
choice.

Not suitable for critical applications, e.g. guarding the Hope Diamond.

In addition to your RFID Reader Kit, you will want:

• A microcontroller like the SparkFun RedBoard or the Arduino Uno
• Jumper Wires - M-to-M
• Breadboard
• A Servo - Larger sizes are suggested for larger locks
• Break-away Male Headers to solder to the board’s through-holes. (If 

you need a soldering refresher, take a look at our through-hole 
soldering tutorial)

Page 5 of 10

Summary of Contents for RFID Starter Kit

Page 1: ...reader to a computer Recommended Reading The ID 12LA module has a serial output If you ve never worked with a serial device or a terminal program before you might want to take a look at these tutorial...

Page 2: ...sy of EPC RFID Passive tags like the ones included with this kit gather electromagnetic energy from the card reader and use that to transmit their unique serial number More sophisticated tags may have...

Page 3: ...ing features 1 A buzzer that sounds when a card is read If you are using the RFID kit in a stealth application you can disconnect the buzzer by removing the blob of solder on the Buzz jumper 2 A card...

Page 4: ...Serial Monitor The default terminal settings 9600 baud no line ending are fine The monitor should be blank Wave a card over the reader You should hear a beep and see something like this Now we ll do...

Page 5: ...an again Now the bread is visible That s cool right Example Project As fun as it is to watch your cards pop up in the serial terminal you d probably like to do something with all this power The exampl...

Page 6: ...pins on the RFID USB Reader to the Arduino s 5V GND and D2 pins and connect the servo to 5V GND and D9 Upload the below code open your Serial Monitor by going to Tools Serial Monitor and start scanni...

Page 7: ...y adapted from http bildr org 2011 02 rfid arduino include SoftwareSerial h include Servo h Choose two pins for SoftwareSerial SoftwareSerial rSerial 2 3 RX TX Make a servo object Servo lockServo Pick...

Page 8: ...ing the Arduino can read faster than the ID module c an deliver if rSerial available tagLen tag true if tag true while rSerial available Take each byte out of the serial buffer one at a tim e readByte...

Page 9: ...next tag read for int c 0 c idLen c newTag c 0 This function steps through both newTag and one of the know n tags If there is a mismatch anywhere in the tag it will r eturn 0 but if every character in...

Page 10: ...the module removed so you can read the silk Resources and Going Further You can use the SparkFun RFID Reader Kit and an Arduino to control access to just about anything Instead of moving a servo how a...

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