Know your RFID products

SparkFun’s Tim from Tech Support shows us how to differentiate between the various RFID products and gives a quick tutorial on using the tags with Arduinos.

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6 thoughts on “Know your RFID products

  1. MadRat says:

    Looks like it’s much harder to read a credit card number through someone’s wallet than we thought.

    1. dl7und says:

      There are many things this clip does not tell you about RFID. First: All tags used here are for 125kHz, while commercial applications these days mostly go for 13.56MHz, including credit cards. Longer reading ranges are easier achieved on 13.56MHz. (With a good antenna and a stronger reader also the tags in the clip would have been read at longer distances.)

      Remember when he put two cards close to the reader and nothing happened? That is because the cards and their protocol do not support “anti-collision”. Modern cards wait a randomly generated time before they answer, otherwise the industry would have no way of reading a whole palette of goods “at once”.

      What is shown in the clip is for toying at home, not commercial-grade products.

  2. John Baichtal says:

    Thanks for the info, dl7und!

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My interests include writing, electronics, RPGs, scifi, hackers & hackerspaces, 3D printing, building sets & toys. @johnbaichtal nerdage.net

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