Milestones

  1. Research all aspect of RFID design pertaining to the project
  2. Create a preliminary design
    1. preliminary design complete
  3. Acquire all parts necessary for project
    1. parts acquired, including: Atmel CPU, EM4095 RFID Front-End, 18F452 (prototype #1)
  4. Build a working RFID access control system with the Parallax hardware
    1. complete
    2. Used test-bed to capture EM4100 RFID card data
    3. Data analyzed (100% certain of Manchester encoding)
  5. Build a custom one-off RFID reader that can read the Parallax RFID cards
    1. complete
    2. Design reads EM4100 family card data
    3. Reads Manchester encoded data using a known header (start of data)
  6. Design the firmware for the custom reader, to run on a PIC microcontroller
    1. near completion
    2. Design captures RFID data
  7. Design PC software to interface with our custom reader and store raw data
    1. near completion
    2. software will not only read our captured data, but read RFID tag files encoded for a particular RFID tag.
  8. Build a custom one-off RFID writer to send back the raw data to the Parallax system, to simulate the RFID card that the data was captured from
    1. completed
    2. Arduino (Atmega168) code is full-functiona: reads and writes Parallax RFID cards.
  9. Test system with RFID cards and readers in Seamens Center (assuming the building uses 125 KHz system)
    1. Initial data confirms 125kHz system
    2. Encoding unknown
    3. Initial data implies (2 to 4) 125kHz cycles per bit period.
    4. Research implies 84 data bits for the HID RFID cards (Prox II)
    5. Current Arduino software reads the HID cards. Data rate is rather high, which is causing a buffer-overflow in the current Arduino (Atmega168) code. Currently re-arranging code to reduce issues with the high data-rate.
  10. Modify hardware, PIC firmware, and PC software to optimize system stability and performance
  11. Package system into a finished product
    1. Prototype #1 is complete
    2. Prototype #2 will incorporate bread-board design of Prototype #1, but with an actual PC Board. The PC Board will not be built until kinks are worked out with the Arduino (Atmega168). The PC Board is complete and will be built and tested over the weekend of May 2, 2008.
    3. Prototype #3 will incorporate modifications of Prototype #2. No modifications are needed. The PC board is solid.
    4. Prototype #3 is now considered the final draft of the RFID project. Schematic is being finalized and should be sent to the Engineering Shop by the end of April 2008. NOTE! Schematic is complete, with the PC board sent to the Engineering Shop the last week of April.
  12. If time permits, add functionality to interface with 13.56 MHz systems as well
    1. Concept abandoned due to time-constraints.
    2. Will focus on fully realized design
  13. Showcase system to customer
    1. Currently looking for a final demonstration the second week of May.
    2. Short demonstration has already been completed before Dave Quackenbush (the Teaching Assistant for Senior Design). Dave had little to add, other than looking forward to our final presentation.