bluetooth vs RFID

cabracer

I am building a project that requires pinging a small device to 100yards range
basically i want t know if the target is within the 100yard radius and to be notified if it has left the radius
the catch is that the target is very small, about the size of a stack of three quarters
the base must be hand held (about the size of a pda or smaller)
i initially considered using RFID but had problems finding a small enough active tag
then i stumbled upon the eb500 bluetooth transciever
this product claims to have 100yds range
now all i need is to find a reciever that is small enough
or any possible other solutions that anyone may have would be greatly appreciated
thanx
cabracer

Martin Hebel

If you use XBee RF transcievers you could send a packet (data) to be echoed back. On the recieving end you can read the actual signal strength (RSSI) using either hardware or software codes and this might be valuable as well as whether it is close enough to communicate or not. Range is about 100m for the 1mW Xbee (not Pro).

The actual XBee is fairly small, though I'm not sure it'll fit your need for size.

Here's some info:
www.selmaware.com/appbee

-Martin

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StampPlot - GUI and Plotting, and XBee Wireless Adapters
Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Electronic Systems Technologies

Mitch

I have been working with 3 eb500 AppMods on BOE boards. I am building a main controller unit to run remote Halloween displays. I thought about RF Txers but settled on Bluetooth. I guess partlly because I wanted to say that I have worked with Bluetooth <g>.

For a test, I installed 2 eb500s and designated one as the "Master" that sent codes to the "Remote" to turn on and off an LED. I used a 2 state LED (Red="not connected", Green="connected") Once connected (green LED) the Master started sending codes that the Remote interpreted as "turn on", "turn off" (blink) the LED.

As a distance test, I left the Master in our basement and walked upstairs, out of the houde and down the street. I got 3 doors down before the LED stopped blinking and turned red.

For my purposes, this was more than sufficient.

I also like the security and the fact that you target your destination to connect to. Each eb500 has a unique address (kinda like a MAC address on network interfaces).

My biggest challenge is going to be how to lay that eb500 down (parallel to the Super Carrier board. That would help to minimize the size of the enclosure. I was thinking of looking for a right angle 20 pin header.

Mitch