How to choose a handheld RFID reader？ --SLON RFID

1. RFID Application Overview radio frequency identification technology (Radio Frequency Identification, RFID),also known as radio frequency identification technology, is a non -contact type from the 1990s rise of automatic identification technologies. It is anon-contact manner using radio frequency two-way communication , to achieveautomatic target recognition and access to relevant data, with high accuracy,strong ability to adapt to the environment , interference is strong, quickoperation , and many other advantages.

    Radio FrequencyIdentification (RFID) technology as an emerging automatic identificationtechnology, at home and abroad in recent years has been developing rapidly.

    1.1 Comparison ofseveral automatic identification technology currently less common for severalcomparative analysis of automatic identification technology :

    RFID incorporates many different areas : RF technology and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC),semiconductor technology , data protection and encryption , communications ,manufacturing and other related fields of science and technology , and other automatic identification technology has many advantages compared to positive gradually occupy applications.

    1.2 Common handheld RFID ,handheld RFID application is still primarily developed for industrial applications , are common following aspects : Smart Patrol equipment , single cell can be present security patrol management . Mobile attendance, activitiessuch as attendance , training, etc. , etc. , in easy wiring of office space,there are certain advantages. Traffic management systems and other aspects ofpublic safety inspectors , etc. , has a very broad application .

    For bus , ferry ,subway , gas stations , car parks , highway toll stations , such as automatictoll collection system . Replace the current use of contactless IC card socialsecurity, medical fees , campus card and other fields, with the operation moreconvenient , longer service life of the card and the reader equipment , higherdata security features.

    RFID systems due toits applications in different system components will vary , but the basic byelectronic tags (Tag), a handheld reader (Reader) and data exchange andmanagement system (Processor) has three major components .

    At present, thereare many handheld RFID reader , between different products, with differentperformance characteristics apply to different situations. Select theappropriate handheld device , for the development and promotion of the projectis of great significance .

2 How to choose a handheld RFID reader ?

    2.1 IC card or IDcard ? Your project , in the end is the use of IC cards or ID cards ? This isthe first problem is to choose a handheld RFID reader process needs to beconsidered. ID card provides a unique card number , read-only , the price ischeap. If the same LAN simple application , consider ID card , some data mayexist in the database , according to the card , you can do most of the IC cardapplications. ;

    IC card alsoprovides a unique card number, readable and writable , you can store some data.If the environment is complex, itself required to store the data and databaseinteraction or less as far as possible , use the IC card. Although the ID cardand ID card readers over the IC card chip and the reader is cheap, butconstitute the entire system ( wiring costs , structure and composition ) pointof view, the price of the two systems is quite , but only to stabilize theoperation of the IC card system reliable , cost-effective IC card system andthus much higher than the ID card system .

    2.2 determine theworking band ? Select the operating frequency RFID technology is a key issue ,it is necessary to select the operating frequency to adapt to differentapplication requirements , you also need to consider the use of the radiospectrum and transmit power requirement countries . Current RFID operatingfrequencies across multiple frequency bands , according to the differentoperating frequencies , RFID tags can be divided into low-frequency (LF), highfrequency (HF), Ultra High Frequency (UHF) and other different types .Different bands have their own advantages and disadvantages, both theperformance and impact of the label size , but also affects the price tag andreader .

   RFID works differently indifferent frequency bands , LF and HF band RFID tags generally usingelectromagnetic coupling principle , while the UHF RFID generally usingelectromagnetic emission principle . After years of development , 13.56MHz RFIDtechnology has been relatively less mature .

    2.3 smart device or equipment fool ? Fool the reader fewer features , most of the characterinterface , but the price is cheap ; intelligent reader can read the taginformation in addition to , but also have to filter data and executionfunctions , most with a graphical interface. Before buying reader, the readerneeds to consider what needs to collect data between the smart reader and foolthe reader to make a choice . From pre-project view, no doubt , buy fool thereader will save a lot of cost , but with upgraded software applications , foolthe reader is able to meet the changing needs of the follow-up must be manyconsiderations .

    2.4 secondarydevelopment platform choice ? Handheld RFID handheld devices , depending on theapplication needs of the project, do some custom development in the applicationsoftware. From handheld devices to provide secondary development platform pointof view, usually divided into two ways: commercial development platform, suchas the operating system for handheld devices is the use of some WinCE, can waiteVB, eVC to develop or adopt ; relatively speaking, using commercialdevelopment platform will be easy to develop , but, generally need to spendmoney to buy development tools , hand-held devices can not be fully realizedall application functionality customization ;

   Dedicated Plat: equipmentsuppliers to provide a development environment , often self-developed andmaintained by equipment manufacturers, providing a dedicated API; dedicateddevelopment platform, developers need to be familiar with the specificenvironment requirements for developers will be higher , but it can becompletely program features customized to achieve even more reflect the "industry-specific equipment " features.

    2.5 Other areas: Inaddition , you also need to consider the following aspects:

    Price: not onlyconsider the price of the handheld hardware , you also need to consider thecost of development tools , application software development process hiddencosts , maintenance costs and product investment after use so called total costof ownership (TCO);

    Supplierqualification : a handheld device vendors strength of the company , service andother handheld devices can determine the stability of supply, productperformance is stable ;

    Product appearanceand interface usability : a difficult to understand and use interface that willprevent end-users of these devices , so friendly interface is particularlyimportant. Different handheld devices , the interface also provides a widerange, from simple text-based, graphical interface to complex ;

    Low powerconsumption : Handheld devices typically require prolonged use outside areusually battery-powered , so you must have a low power consumption ;