{"id":1926,"date":"2019-12-25T13:04:29","date_gmt":"2019-12-25T05:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techcoil.com\/blog\/?p=1926"},"modified":"2020-05-12T14:06:34","modified_gmt":"2020-05-12T06:06:34","slug":"how-to-read-rfid-tags-from-sparkfun-rfid-usb-reader-with-python-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.techcoil.com\/blog\/how-to-read-rfid-tags-from-sparkfun-rfid-usb-reader-with-python-3\/","title":{"rendered":"How to read RFID tags from SparkFun RFID USB Reader with Python 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you have an RFID starter kit from Sparkfun<\/a>, you will be able to read RFID tags through serial.<\/p>\n

Previously, we saw how to use an ESP32 board to read RFID tags from a SparkFun RFID USB Reader<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Given that, I was able to build a ESP32 prototype to scan tag ids from RFID cards.<\/p>\n

In order for that ESP32 prototype to recognise what each of my tag card represents, I need to label the ids. Whenever my ESP32 prototype gets a tag id, it will query a tag catalogue to see what that tag id represent.<\/p>\n

Since it is easier to label the tag cards from a computer, I built a Python 3 application to read the RFID tags from the SparkFun RFID reader.<\/p>\n

So how we can read RFID tags from SparkFun RFID USB Reader with Python 3? <\/p>\n

If you are looking for a way to read RFID tags from SparkFun RFID USB Reader with Python 3, then this post is for you.<\/p>\n

Connecting the SparkFun RFID USB reader to a computer<\/h2>\n

Before the application can read from the SparkFun RFID USB reader, we need to connect it to a computer with a mini USB cable<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"SparkFun<\/p>\n

Finding the path to the serial device on macOS<\/h3>\n

After I had connected the RFID reader to my MacBook, I started a terminal program and typed the following command:<\/p>\n

\r\nls \/dev\/tty.*\r\n<\/pre>\n
When the command returned an output, I found \/dev\/tty.usbserial-AB0JPNCG<\/strong> listed as one of the items.<\/p>\n
If you are using Linux, then you should be able to use the same command to find the path to the serial device.<\/p>\n
In case you are using Windows, use the device manager to find the COM port to communicate with your RFID reader. <\/p>\n
Installing the Python 3 library to help read data from serial<\/h2>\n
After getting the serial port to read from, I proceeded to install the PySerial library<\/a> into my Python 3 environment:<\/p>\n
\r\npip install pySerial\r\n<\/pre>\n
Writing a sample Python 3 program to read RFID tags from SparkFun RFID USB Reader<\/h2>\n
Given that, I created the following Python 3 script and saved it as read-rfid.py<\/code><\/strong>:<\/p>\n
\r\nimport argparse\r\nimport serial\r\n\r\nif __name__ == '__main__':\r\n\r\n    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()\r\n    parser.add_argument('--port', help='Serial port to read tags from', required=True)\r\n    args = parser.parse_args()\r\n\r\n    serial_port = args.port\r\n    with serial.Serial(serial_port, 9600) as rfid_reader:\r\n        while(True):\r\n            tag = rfid_reader.readline().decode('UTF-8').strip()\r\n            print(tag)\r\n\r\n<\/pre>\n
As shown above, I use the argparse library<\/a> to help me build a command line application.<\/p>\n
After importing the Python libraries, an Argument Parser<\/a> object is created to read command line arguments. In this situation, I had created a way for the serial port path to be included as a command line argument.<\/p>\n
After getting the serial port into the serial_port<\/code> variable, a Serial object<\/a> is created.<\/p>\n
Once we have created the Serial object as rfid_reader<\/code>, we get into an infinite loop to read from the serial port. <\/p>\n
Whenever the SparkFun RFID USB reader detects a tag id, rfid_reader.readline()<\/a> will unblock and return the tag id. Given that tag id, we decode it as an UTF-8 string, strip off trialing whitespaces and save the result into the tag<\/code> variable. <\/p>\n
After we have a value for the tag variable, we print the tag id to standard output.<\/p>\n
Running the application to read RFID tags from SparkFun RFID USB Reader<\/h2>\n
So how can I run this application?<\/p>\n
In order to start the application, I will run the following command in a terminal program: <\/p>\n
\r\npython read-rfid.py --port \/dev\/tty.usbserial-AB0JPNCG\r\n<\/pre>\n
As mentioned earlier, the application will get into an infinite loop. After that, any tag id read by the RFID reader will be printed to standard output.<\/p>\n\n