need help on RFID

jing

hello all. so, i've been working on my rfid reader module since two weeks ago and nothing seems to work.

i'm currently working on creating a portable student attendance logging device. basically my project's flow is like this. RFID reader reads tags then save the data in an external EEPROM. later, the data in the EEPROM will be transfered to the PC via USB. i'm using PIC18F4550 as my microcontroller. reader's /enable pin is connected to the TX/RC6 pin of the PIC while sout is connected to the RX/C7 of the PIC.

i've a couple of questions here:

1. the /enable pin has to be pulled low to activate the reader right? i'm using CCS C compiler to program my microcontroller. i've already set pinC6 to low. but when i measure the voltage, it's 5V and the LED is yellow. do i need to add in any pull-up/pull down resistor?

2. does anybody has any example codes written in CCS regarding this RFID reader module?

ur help is much appreciated. thanks!

Mike Green

Somehow you're not pulling the /enable pin low. A pull-up or pull-down resistor will not help this. You'll have to figure out why your program and your microcontroller is not doing the job. We can't help you with the CCS compiler or the PIC microcontroller. Once the /enable pin is pulled low, the Parallax RFID reader will send groups of 12 characters out the output line at 2400 Baud whenever the reader "sees" an RFID tag as described in the documentation. You could try wiring the /enable pin to ground through a resistor (like 1K) to enable it so you can work on the rest of your program while you figure out what's wrong with the program.