Electronic badges

Mon Jul 9 12:57:15 UTC 2007

On 9-Jul-07, at 8:42 AM, Colin McGregor wrote:

> --- Dave Cramer <davec-zxk95TxsVYDyHADnj0MGvQC/G2K4zDHf at public.gmane.org> wrote:
>> The company I work for is visible assets. We make a
>> unique RFID tag
>> which is active and can store information on the
>> card.It is unique in
>> that it operates at 132KHz.
>>
>> I may be able to get a few hundred tags, and a
>> reader or two for the
>> show. I will provide how instructions on how the
>> card/reader works if
>> anyone is interested.
>>
>> Complete disclosure here... my aim would be to
>> expose this technology
>> to some innovative people for a new application.
>> FWIW we already have
>> most of what you need working.
>>
>> Dave
>
> Okay, I may be missing something here (or I may not be
> imaginative enough...), but I'm not sure where/how
> this technology, that while interesting helps GTALug.
>
I'm probably to blame here for not following the thread closely enough.

There is a display on some of the tags, however it is pretty limited.

The tags can be used to read the name of a person on a computer when  
they come up to the booth. You can store approx 256 nibbles inside  
the tag.

If this is of not what you had in mind, then please ignore. However  
I'd still make the offer to anyone who does have an application more  
suited to this.

The tags can be read underwater, inside steel cans (not aluminum  
however). As they are at 132Khz the bandwidth of the channel is  
pretty slow.

DAve
> The name badge idea was as a cute talking point and
> being able to go from a paper badge on people's
> shirts/blouses that says something like:
>
>    Hello, I'm <<name>> of GTALug
>
> to a scrolling sign that says something like:
>
>    Hello, I'm <<name>> of GTALug, we meet the 2nd
>    and 4th Wednesday of every month, we are the
>    Toronto area voice of Linux fans ...
>
>    Today's lucky number is: 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B
>    D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
>
>    Hello, I'm <<name>> of GTALug, we meet the 2nd
>    and 4th Wednesday of every month, we are the
>    Toronto area voice of Linux fans ...
>
>    If Microsoft is the answer it must have been a
>    very dumb question
>
> etc., etc. GTALug promo mixed with some geek humor.
>
> In other words how could we use this offer to help
> GTALug is my basic question, and at the moment I don't
> see it...
>
> Ideas folks?
>
> Colin McGregor
>
>> On 8-Jul-07, at 11:08 PM, Colin McGregor wrote:
>>
>>> --- phiscock-g851W1bGYuGnS0EtXVNi6w at public.gmane.org wrote:
>>>>> As noted in my posting about the Ontario
>> LinuxFest
>>>> I
>>>>> am opening up the electronic name badge can of
>>>> worms
>>>>> again. So, with that in mind let note the
>>>> strengths
>>>> (snip)
>>>>
>>>> To anyone considering a single-chip
>> microprocessor
>>>> project using the PIC,
>>>> I would strongly recommend looking at the Atmel
>> AVR
>>>> series of
>>>> microprocessors. The Microchip PIC is arguably
>> more
>>>> popular, but - based
>>>> on my experience implementing code on it and the
>> AVR
>>>> - it has some serious
>>>> architectural deficiencies.
>>>> - limited number of instructions leads to opaque
>>>> assembly language code
>>>> - bank-switched registers and paged memory make
>> for
>>>> convoluted code and
>>>> complex debugging environment
>>>>
>>>> Anyone who challenges this is invited to write a
>>>> routine that simply pumps
>>>> out a section of memory to a host computer. On
>> the
>>>> AVR, it's about three
>>>> lines of code. On the PIC, it's an ugly,
>>>> non-intuitive hack.
>>>
>>> On the BASIC Stamp the oddities of the PIC chip is
>>> hidden behind a BASIC interpreter. So, I have not
>>> written any PIC code...
>>>
>>> Oddly enough the LCD name badge problem is a
>> variation
>>> on what you describe. The LCD module has some
>> limited
>>> smarts, so we don't have to worry about dealing
>> with
>>> individual pixels (well, subject to conditions we
>> can
>>> if we want to...). We want to walk through a block
>> of
>>> memory, feeding information out to the controller
>> in
>>> the module, toggling two control lines, and we
>> want to
>>> do a lot of waiting (even the BASIC Stamp could
>> update
>>> the display so fast as to make the display a blur,
>> so
>>> waits are a must).
>>>
>>>> A compliler can hide many of the architectural
>> warts
>>>> of the PIC, but there
>>>> are good reasons for projects of this type to
>> work
>>>> in assembly language.
>>>> The code size is smaller and C tends to hide
>> certain
>>>> types of bugs.
>>>>
>>>> Comparable IC's and development systems are
>>>> available for both devices.
>>>> Prices are similar.
>>>
>>> I have an old PIC programmer, not sure how many
>>> current devices it supports. But regardless I
>> suspect
>>> that if this is all a one person show it may not
>> get
>>> done. So this is why I got a kick out of:
>>>
>>>
>>
> www.instructables.com/id/E5H5UDWB5UEUKIKV8V/?ALLSTEPS
>>>
>>>
>>> A very bare bones AVR development system for about
>> $10
>>> (U.S.). Even that modest sum can be slashed if one
>> say
>>> has a parallel printer cable they are willing to
>> cut
>>> up. In other words a development system cheap
>> enough
>>> that building 2-3 (or more) will not be an issue
>> :-) .
>>>
>>>
>>> Beyond that just add Linux, a PC with a parallel
>> port,
>>> and some free development tools.
>>>
>>> Colin McGregor
>>>
>>>> Peter
>>>>
>>>> -- 
>>>> Peter Hiscocks
>>>> Syscomp Electronic Design Limited, Toronto
>>>> http://www.syscompdesign.com
>>>> USB Oscilloscope and Waveform Generator
>>>> 647-839-0325
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>
> --
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