RFID Reader Special

Special RFID reader connections

There are a variety of RFID readers out there, USB and non-USB variants. This might create problems in recognizing the reader you are using. We haven't found the silver bullet yet. If you can contribute to this quest, please comment in the issue thread or create pull requests. There are a few links to threads where you can post suggestions and questions below.

Alternative scripts:

If you encounter problems with this script Reader.py consider and test one of the alternatives in the same scripts folder.

Replace the Reader.py file with one of the following files:

• Reader.py.experimental
  • This alternative Reader.py script was meant to cover not only USB readers but more. It can be used to replace Reader.py if you have readers such as MFRC522 or RDM6300
• Reader.py.kkmoonRFIDreader
  • KKMOON RFID Reader which appears twice in the devices list as HID 413d:2107 and this required to check "if" the device is a keyboard.

For configuration of the KKMOON RFID reader itself, see this article for details.

The readers which were discussed in the forums are:

• RFID-RC522
• RC522
• RDM6300
• RDM6300 serial RFID module non USB
• Many of the discussions are based on @keinkurt 's work
• PCSCD With some simple edits PCSCD-compatible Readers can be adressed too. If you have one of them: Test it out and give feedback.
• KKMOON

WARNING: some RFID readers (like the REINER SCT cyberJack RFID) do not work. The USB device must be detected as a HID (i.e. Keyboard). Which is not the case with Reiner SCT readers. Read this thread for more information.

Because the "one py script fits all" resulted in many USB devices NOT to work anymore, I got careful.

If you are using a non-USB card, you need to use the experimental version of scripts/Reader.py which is called scripts/Reader.py.experimental.

cp /home/pi/RPi-Jukebox-RFID/scripts/Reader.py.experimental /home/pi/RPi-Jukebox-RFID/scripts/Reader.py

NOTE: if you git pull this file will be overwritten. You need to execute the above lines after git pull.

After you copied the Reader.py.experimental over Reader.py you have to manually register your Non-USB device:

python /home/pi/RPi-Jukebox-RFID/scripts/RegisterDevice.py

Because you are using a non USB reader and know how to use a soldering iron, I will keep this doc raw for the time being. Feel free to edit the wiki and add more information.

CPU utilization. Fixes #275. (2018-11-25)

Based on @keinkurt 's integration work and @varac 's comment on the issue the pi-rc522 library was integrated. Docs on prerequisites and hardware setup for this are found here: https://github.com/ondryaso/pi-rc522 and here hardware pinout The problem with MFRC522 is that it will constantly poll for new cards in an infinite loop and therefore leaving little CPU time to the actual playback. On a Pi zero and using the already resource-intensive mopidy-spotify extension this was a showstopper for me. Using pi-rc522 the CPU load of daemon-rfid-reader.py was decreased to < 5%. Pi-rc522 uses an extra IRQ pin to make the process block until a new card is actually found.