RFind Systems G100A RFID TAG READER User Manual users manual
RFind Systems, Inc. RFID TAG READER users manual
users manual
Gateway User’s Guide
RFind Systems, Inc.
9-3151 Lakeshore Road, Suite 102
Kelowna, BC, V1W 3S9
Telephone: 250-862-3412
www.rfind.com
Gateway User’s Guide
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Revision: 1.0
Disclaimer and Limitation of Liability
RFind Systems, Inc. and its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers, directors, employees and
agents provide the information contained in this Manual on an “as-is” basis and do not
make any express or implied warranties or representations with respect to such
information including, without limitation, warranties as to non-infringement, reliability,
fitness for a particular purpose, usefulness, completeness, accuracy or currentness. RFind
Systems, Inc. shall not in any circumstances be liable to any person for any special,
incidental, indirect or consequential damages, including without limitation, damages
resulting from use of or reliance on information presented herein, or loss of profits or
revenues or costs of replacement goods, even if informed in advance of the possibility of
such damages.
Trademarks
“RFind Systems”, “Expeditor 2D”, “Answering the Question, Where?”, “TAQNav.” are
trademarks of RFind Systems, Inc. All other names, products, and services mentioned
are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective organizations.
Copyright Notice
Copyright © 2006 RFind Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this document may
be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, photographic, electronic,
mechanical or otherwise, or used in any information storage and retrieval system, without
the prior written permission of RFind Systems, Inc.
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Radio Frequency Compliance Statement
RFind Systems, Inc. is the responsible party for the compliance of the following device:
MODEL: G100A
FCC ID: UL3G100A
CANADA: 6721A-G100A
The user(s) of this product is cautioned to only use accessories and peripherals approved, in advance, by
RFind Systems, Inc. The use of accessories and peripherals, other than those approved by RFind Systems,
Inc., or unauthorized changes to approved products, may void the compliance of these products and may
result in the loss of the user(s) authority to operate the equipment.
This device complies with Part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is
subject to the following two conditions: (1) this device may not cause
harmful interference, and (2) this device must accept any interference
received, including interference that may cause undesired operation.
FCC Compliance
This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class A digital
device, pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection
against harmful interference when the equipment is operated in a commercial environment. This equipment
generates, uses, and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the
instruction manual, may cause harmful interference to radio communication. Operation of this equipment in
a residential area is likely to cause harmful interference in which case the user will be required to correct
the interference at his/her own expense.
Warning: Changes or modifications to this unit not expressly approved by the party
responsible for compliance could void the user’s authority to operate the equipment.
Industry Canada Compliance
This Class A digital apparatus meets all requirements of the Canadian Interference-Causing Equipment
Regulations.
Cet appareil numérique de la classe A respecte toutes les exigences du Règlement sur le
matériel brouilleur du Canada.
Installation Note
To comply with FCC radio frequency exposure compliance requirements, this device must be installed by a
RFind Systems certified technician. Please refer to RFind Systems installation instructions for a list of
approved peripheral devices.
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Introduction......................................................................................................................... 5
Overview............................................................................................................................. 5
Gateway Types.................................................................................................................... 5
Gateway Configuration....................................................................................................... 6
Accessing the Gateway Demo Application ...................................................................... 10
Support.............................................................................................................................. 11
Appendix A – Status LEDs............................................................................................... 12
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Introduction
This document describes how to install and configure the RFind Gateway. The RFind
Gateway is used to transmit and receive data from tags to a central database.
Overview
There are two models of RFind Gateway: wired and wireless. The wired model connects
to a network via an RJ-45 cable while the wireless model features an 802.11b ethernet
card allowing it to connect to an access point. The RFind Gateway also comes equipped
with a 9-pin RS232 serial port, an antenna connector, a power receptacle, and four status
LEDs.
The following is a brief description of what each item is used for:
Item Description
9-Pin RS232 Port Used for configuration and for troubleshooting. For example, if the
Gateway is not receiving data, error messages explaining the cause can be
seen from this port.
RJ-45 Port (Wired model
only)
Provides the ability to transmit and receive data to and from the Gateway.
The Gateway is equipped with a web server as well as an FTP server for
firmware upgrades. The most common use for this port will be sending
data received from tags to a central database server.
802.11b Wireless Card
(Wireless model only)
Provides ability to transmit and receive data to and from the Gateway.
Power Receptacle Supplies power to the Gateway.
Antenna Communications interface for RFID tag communication.
Status LEDs See Appendix A for LED definitions.
Gateway Types
There are two different logical types of gateways:
• Locating
• Chokepoint
A locating gateway is used to process location data received from asset tags as well as to
configure tags (for example during the commissioning process). Locating gateways are
also used to request a tags status. In general your gateways should always be configured
as locating gateways.
A chokepoint gateway is used to implement a chokepoint in your system. In this case the
sole function of the gateway is to send out a special message to determine if any tags are
in the immediate area surrounding the gateway. You can control the scan rate of a
chokepoint gateway by setting the scan rate parameter. This determines how often the
gateway sends out a scan message. The smallest value for this parameter is 200ms.
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Gateway Configuration
The initial configuration of the gateway must be done using a 9-Pin RS232 straight
through cable with one female end and one male end. Do not supply power to the
gateway until the appropriate step below.
To configure the gateway, complete the following steps:
1. Connect RS232 cable from Gateway to PC COM port.
2. Open up Hyperterminal by going to Start -> Programs -> Accessories ->
Communications -> Hyperterminal
3. When prompted to enter a name for the connection, enter “RFind Gateway” and
click OK.
4. In the “Connect To” dialog, select the appropriate COM port from the “Connect
using:” drop down box and click “OK”.
5. Use the following COM port settings on the COM port properties dialog:
Bits per second: 9600
Data bits: 8
Parity: None
Stop Bits: 1
Flow Control: None
6. Click “OK” when finished.
7. Use the power adapter to supply power to the Gateway. After a short delay, you
should see text displayed in your Hyperterminal session indicating that the
Gateway is starting up. When prompted, press any key on your keyboard to
indicate that you would like to modify the settings.
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Illustration 1: Gateway boot prompt in hyperterminal session.
The default Gateway settings should be appropriate for most users. If would like to
customize the settings then complete steps 8 to 11. By default, the wired Gateway is
configured as follows:
IP Address: 192.168.1.50
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
IP Gateway: 192.168.1.1
Primary Time Server: 192.168.1.254
Secondary Time Server: None (0.0.0.0)
TRPS IP Address (Expeditor Server): 192.168.1.254
The default network settings for the wireless Gateway are as follows:
IP Address: 192.168.1.50
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
IP Gateway: 192.168.1.1
Wireless Protocol Mode Infrastructure
Wireless SSID rfind
Wireless Channel Search
WEP Disabled
WPA Disabled
Primary Time Server: 192.168.1.254
Secondary Time Server: None (0.0.0.0)
TRPS IP Address (Expeditor Server): 192.168.1.254
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NOTE: In order to protect your wireless network, RFind Systems Inc. recommends that you
use some form of encryption. As a minimum, 128 Bit WEP encryption should be used. To
modify the wireless encryption and other settings complete steps 8 to 11 below.
If any of the above settings must be modified for your site, then you must follow the
configuration instructions below. Note that the Gateway uses SNTP to get its time
from an external time source. Under Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, the
SNTP service is enabled by default. Configuring the SNTP server on these operating
systems is as easy as allowing inbound connections on UDP port 123. If you have
disabled SNTP for security reasons or do not want to use an SNTP server internal to
your network, you can configure the Gateway to use an external time server.
8. When prompted press “M” to modify the current settings.
9. When prompted for a password, enter the default password of “rfind” and press
enter.
10. The following table describes each of the settings in the order you will be
prompted for them. Press enter after entering a new value for each setting. If you
press enter without entering a new value, the current setting will be used.
Setting Description
Obtain IP settings from network.
Set to N for No. Setting this Y or Yes will allow the Gateway to get its
IP configuration automatically.
IP Address Ipv4 IP address for Gateway.
Subnet Mask Ipv4 Subnet mask.
IP Gateway Ipv4 IP address of IP gateway.
Primary SNTP Server Ipv4 IP address of primary SNTP server.
Secondary SNTP Server Ipv4 IP address of secondary SNTP server.
Root password Press Y and enter to choose to update root password and then enter a
new root password.
Admin password Not currently used.
Baud Rate Accept Default – Do not change.
Serial Number Accept Default – Do not change.
MAC Address Protected.
CPU Delay Number in seconds indicating how to long to wait for user to press a
key to change settings. Recommended setting is 5 seconds.
Ethernet Duplex Setting Accept Default – Do not change.
Gateway ID Protected.
Gateway Type Available settings are 0 or 2.
0 – Locating gateway
2 – Chokepoint gateway
Most often this will be set to 0.
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Setting Description
Transmit Power Transmit power in dBm. Supported range is -30 dBm to +10 dBm.
Setting to a value outside this range will cause Gateway to use default
value of +10 dBm.
Scan Interval Rate at which a gateway will scan for tags. Recommended setting is
500 milliseconds. Setting is ignored if gateway is a locating gateway.
Ping Interval Rate at which gateway will send an XML ping message to server.
Used to tell server that gateway is still on-line. Recommended setting
is 1800 seconds.
Time Synchronization Interval Interval in seconds at which Gateway will synchronize its time with
external time source.
Retry Interval Interval in seconds at which the gateway will attempt to resend
messages to the server in case of network failure. If gateway detects
network failure it will start buffering messages in a queue. Up to 5000
messages can be queued. Recommended setting is 20 seconds.
Blink On Scan Duration Set to 100. (Setting is ignored.)
TRPS IP Address Ipv4 IP address of machine on which Expeditor web service is
installed.
TRPS Port Number Set to 80. If you are running the TRPS Web Service on a port other
than the default of port 80 then set the port number to the port number
for the web service.
Additional settings for the wireless Gateway:
Setting Description
Wireless Network Type Type of wireless network to connect to. Recommended setting is
Infrastructure (option 0) which is the default setting.
Wireless SSID Sevice Set Identifier for access point. Default is “rfind”.
Wireless Channel Access point channel number. Valid channels are 1 to 11.
Enable WEP Set to Y to enable WEP. If you want to use WPA then set this to N.
If you want to use WEP, the wireless authentication type set for the
network must be “Shared Key”.
Enable WPA Set to Y to enable WPA. If you want to use WEP set this to N.
11. After modifying the above settings as desired, a short delay will be observed
followed by a message indicating that the settings were saved. The device will
then reboot and go through the boot sequence as before. Simply watch the output
in your Hypterminal session and you should see a message indicating that the
Gateway has booted up correctly.
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Accessing the Gateway Demo Application
As mentioned previously, the gateway features a web server. Provided on the gateway is
a demo application which can be used to test the transmission range of the gateway and
check that a given tag is functioning correctly.
To access the demo application open a web browser such as internet explorer and browse
to http://<Gateway IP Address>/Demo/index.html. For example:
http://192.168.1.50/Demo/index.html
After the page loads, you will be presented with a page that has two text boxes and three
buttons, “Idle”, “Start” and “Blink”. Below is a description for each of the fields and
buttons:
Field or Button Name Description
Blink Messages Sent Read only field used to indicate how many blink messages
have been sent to the given tag. This field is only updated
after you press the stop button.
Transmit Power Transmit Power in dBm currently in use by the Gateway.
Tag ID Tag ID of tag currently being manipulated.
Idle Sends an idle message to the tag. If you are planning on a
shipping a tag, you should first put it in idle.
Illustration
2: Gateway hyperterminal session showing output after gateway has completed boot sequence.
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Field or Button Name Description
Start Sends a start message to the tag. When a tag arrives at your
site it will be in idle. It must be “started” in order for it to be
capable of blinking its LED or doing any other activities such
as locating itself.
Blink Sends repeated blink messages to the tag. After clicking this
button, the button text will change to stop. Pressing this
button again will stop the Gateway from sending blink
messages.
To make a tag blink, simply enter its tag ID and press “Start”. This takes the tag out of
idle. Now enter the desired transmit power and select “Blink”. The tag will now start to
periodically blink its LED. Click “Stop” to stop blinking the tag.
Support
For support on any RFind Systems hardware, please contact us at:
RFind Systems, Inc.
www.rfind.com
email: support@rfind.com
Telephone: (250) 862-3412
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Appendix A – Status LEDs
LED Meaning
Bottom Left (Red) On solid when the Gateway is powered.
Top Left (Green) On when an error is present.
Top Right (Green) On solid when the Gateway has an ethernet link.
Bottom Right (Amber)
On when the Gateway is transferring data to/from the server.