After creating the BLE Shield for Arduino it is time to create some projects with it to show you what can be done using the shield. Maybe you remember that I created an RFID Tag Reader for the iPhone acting as Bluetooth keyboard in order to send the UID of an RFID Tag to the iPhone: http://www.mkroll.mobi/?page_id=202.
Now it is time to create a simple RFID Tag Reader using the BLE Shield. In order to stack such a device together, I grabbed the following out of my “Arduino Box”:
- 1 x Arduino Pro Mini 3.3V
- 1 x Adafruit PN532 NFC/RFID Controller Shield for Arduino
- 1 x Seeddstudio Solar Charger Shield v0.9b
- 1 x BLE Shield 0.9.2
In this setup I ‘m using hardware serial to send data to the BLE Shield, so the switch needs to be set to the Tx0/Rx1 position. I programmed the Arduino Pro mini with the following sketch, where the 16 byte buffer is filled with padding zeros and then with the UID of the tag.
#include
#include
#define IRQ (2)
#define RESET (3) // Not connected by default on the NFC Shield
Adafruit_NFCShield_I2C nfc(IRQ, RESET);
void setup(void) {
Serial.begin(19200);
nfc.begin();
uint32_t versiondata = nfc.getFirmwareVersion();
if (!versiondata) {
while (1); // halt
}
// configure board to read RFID tags
nfc.SAMConfig();
}
void loop(void) {
boolean success;
// Buffer to store the returned UID
uint8_t uid[] = { 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 };
// Buffer for writing the padding
uint8_t pad[] = { 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 };
// Length of the UID (4 or 7 bytes depending on ISO14443A card type)
uint8_t uidLength;
uint8_t bleBufferLength = 16;
uint8_t paddingSize = 0;
// Wait for an ISO14443A type cards (Mifare, etc.). When one is found
// 'uid' will be populated with the UID, and uidLength will indicate
// if the uid is 4 bytes (Mifare Classic) or 7 bytes (Mifare Ultralight)
success = nfc.readPassiveTargetID(PN532_MIFARE_ISO14443A, &uid[0], &uidLength);
if (success) {
paddingSize = bleBufferLength - uidLength * 2;
// add padding depending of the size of the TAG UID
for (uint8_t i=0; i < paddingSize; i++) {
Serial.print(pad[i], HEX);
}
// write the UID of the tag.
for (uint8_t i=0; i < uidLength; i++) {
Serial.print(uid[i], HEX);
}
// Wait 1 second before continuing
delay(1000);
}
}
You can use BLExplr to test the reader. Just connect to the BLE Shield, enable notify on the RX characteristic and place an RFID Tagreader near the antenna.
The following video shows this connection and tagging procedure.
Beautiful! I love your work. I will be one of the first to purchase your BLE Shield when it is available. I am currently testing various devices and I am in need of a BT4.0 solution for the iPhone 4S and the new iPad. This will make my task a bit more enjoyable. Please let me know if I may purchase one sooner. I will gladly make a donation via PayPal, and I will purchase your BLExplr app.
Nice work!
I want use BT4.0 on Arduino.
It’s great solution!
Dear,
can i order/buy the BLE shield for shipment to Belgium?
Thanks,
Jacob
Hi Jakob,
not yet. The beta is processing. After a few weeks and hopefully only positive feedback I’ll start a first v1.0 production run.
Cheers,
Michael.
Great. Any ambitions to RaspberryPi? We’d like to sponser a port to RasPi.
Hi,
I don’t have time to port it to Raspberry PI, but if there is a 3.3V TTL level Serial Port it can be durectly attached. I don’t have a Raspberry for testing. There could be another Board Design for the Raspberry.
Cheers,
Michael.
Hi Michael,
I would like to order…
Thank you!
Hey michael,
i would like to purchase 3 of the modules. Is that possible? i would need them from the 22.10.2012 on for a beta test of an exhibition.
Merci,
dOmNik
Hi Dominik,
sorry but the RFID Reader is currently not for sale. I’ll work on a BLE version sometime, but I don’t have a roadmap for that yet.
Cheers,
Michael.
Hi Michael,
This is a really nice project. BTW, are you going to share the BLE shield PCB design files?
Thanks,
Tony
Hi Tony,
yes they are available here: https://github.com/michaelkroll/BLE-Shield
Cheers,
Michael.