Hi,
By leveraging the ADC/DAC I/O and the XB-200 transverter, would it be possible to read/emulate RFID tags (125kHz, 13.56MHz or even UHF/microwave without the XB-200)?
Does it require extra hardware to be able to deal with specificity of inductive coupling and backscatter without doing harm to the SDR (specially regarding the RF frontend when dealing with 900MHz and 2.4GHZ RFID systems)?
RFID
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bpadalino
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Re: RFID
I don't have much experience with RFID but things like backscatter require the transmitter to transmit on the same frequency it is trying to receive on, so you will need some external hardware like a circulator to try to get rid of as much of the transmit energy as possible.
I am not sure how good of a system it would be, but it is doable as long as the transmitted power didn't have to be very high and the cards were relatively close. Maybe with some high gain antennas you could use directionality to help eliminate some noise and get better distance?
I know this wasn't an ultra definitive answer, but in the end I'd say it's probable it would work and be OK - maybe not great, tho. External hardware is definitely required no matter what.
Brian
I am not sure how good of a system it would be, but it is doable as long as the transmitted power didn't have to be very high and the cards were relatively close. Maybe with some high gain antennas you could use directionality to help eliminate some noise and get better distance?
I know this wasn't an ultra definitive answer, but in the end I'd say it's probable it would work and be OK - maybe not great, tho. External hardware is definitely required no matter what.
Brian
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jump
- Posts: 58
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Re: RFID
Thanks for your answer, Brian.
I just saw a video on Youtube of a presentation by Balint Seeber (the guy from Ettus) and he was indeed speaking about using a circulator and a Yagi antenna for 2.4 GHz RFID (in this case, the FasTrak ID system). But it seems that the lower you go on frequency the more inefficient a pure passive magnetic circulator is. At some point you have to go for an active one with opamps.
Still haven't got enough time to read all the materials Finn researchers published about an RFID toolkit and USRP1. Quite old stuff though as it used to work with Python 2.5 and GNU Radio 3.1 !
I still have lots of interesting things to read/watch on that topic
I just saw a video on Youtube of a presentation by Balint Seeber (the guy from Ettus) and he was indeed speaking about using a circulator and a Yagi antenna for 2.4 GHz RFID (in this case, the FasTrak ID system). But it seems that the lower you go on frequency the more inefficient a pure passive magnetic circulator is. At some point you have to go for an active one with opamps.
Still haven't got enough time to read all the materials Finn researchers published about an RFID toolkit and USRP1. Quite old stuff though as it used to work with Python 2.5 and GNU Radio 3.1 !
I still have lots of interesting things to read/watch on that topic
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jynik
- Posts: 455
- Joined: Thu Jun 06, 2013 8:15 pm
Re: RFID
While not entirely on the topic you asked about, I happened to skim The RF in RFID at a bookstore recently. From what I happened to read, it looked pretty good, so I just wanted to mention it.