M1 powers on but does not read tag

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   Hi,

I've connected my M1 reader as the book describes. RS-232 connection to transmit/receive, +5V being supplied to the reader. Testing with internal antenna so ANT and INT have been jumped.

The reader powers on and the software (the Skyeware file hosted on this forum) reads the chip and displays information regarding its firmware, serial number, etc. However I'm having trouble reading the tag - as in I can't pick up anything. Using an ISO-14443B tag and it says "read tag failed." At one point we saw hex data (maybe a tag id?) transmit to the program but have been unable to reproduce it since.

Any idea what could possibly be going on? I just contacted Skyetek about updating the firmware but am still awaiting a response.

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Hoov Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 22 June 2006 Status: Offline Points: 17	Post Options Post Reply Quote Hoov Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: M1 powers on but does not read tag Posted: 01 October 2008 at 11:21am
	Hi, I've connected my M1 reader as the book describes. RS-232 connection to transmit/receive, +5V being supplied to the reader. Testing with internal antenna so ANT and INT have been jumped. The reader powers on and the software (the Skyeware file hosted on this forum) reads the chip and displays information regarding its firmware, serial number, etc. However I'm having trouble reading the tag - as in I can't pick up anything. Using an ISO-14443B tag and it says "read tag failed." At one point we saw hex data (maybe a tag id?) transmit to the program but have been unable to reproduce it since. Any idea what could possibly be going on? I just contacted Skyetek about updating the firmware but am still awaiting a response.

amal Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 22 November 2005 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 2060	Post Options Post Reply Quote amal Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 01 October 2008 at 1:31pm
	This seems to be a common issue. I've heard many people have this kind of problem where they can't get any tag reads from the module. I'm not sure why that might be, but so far I've not had any problem with the few that have come across my desk. Even though the software isn't the most intuitive thing around, it should be fairly straight forward. From what I recall though, you have to put the module into "continuous" mode or poll the reader to get the tag ID. Also, what specific software are you using from that demo download? I use the protocol builder to more accurately control the reader. I also seem to recall having problems using the "SkyeWareDemoVB.exe" software.
	Amal ;) www.amal.net

Hoov Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 22 June 2006 Status: Offline Points: 17	Post Options Post Reply Quote Hoov Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 02 October 2008 at 2:46pm
	Hi Amal, We were using just about every program that came with the Skyeware download. SkyeWareDemoVB.exe (as you mentioned), also tried using CommandBuilder.exe The return code I was getting with Command Builder was x86 (invalid starting block) and x87 (invalid number of blocks). I looked up the memory blocks for the tag (SRIX4K) and it says all blocks can be read. So I tried '0' and '00' for starting block and h80 for the 128 blocks in the tag for number of blocks, but still had problems. We also used ReaderUtility.exe - that gave us "read tag failed" message I mentioned above, and now that I look at that program again it was also the one that happened to pick up the tag ID a couple times (consecutively) then couldn't get it again.

Hoov Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 22 June 2006 Status: Offline Points: 17	Post Options Post Reply Quote Hoov Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 08 October 2008 at 9:44am
	When you test the reader, do you send a read command with RF_F enabled and continuous mode enabled?

Hoov Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 22 June 2006 Status: Offline Points: 17	Post Options Post Reply Quote Hoov Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 21 October 2008 at 9:02pm
	Success! It was the tags. I bought ISO 15693 tags and they worked fine.