Codatex RFID Sensor

Some time ago, when I started to use RFID tags with an automated LEGO train, I found out that there was a RFID sensor available for the MINDSTORMS NXT, the Codatex RFID Sensor for NXT:

Codatex doesn’t make them aymore so I ordered one from BrickLink but never got it working with ev3dev. I put it on the shelf hoping that after a while, with ev3dev constant evolution, things would get better.

Last month Michael Brandl told me that the Codatex sensors were in fact LEGO sensors and he asked if it was possible to use with EV3.

Well, it is possible, just not with original LEGO firmware. At least LeJOS and RobotC have support for the Codatex RFID Sensor. But not ev3dev 🙁

So this holidays I put the Codatex sensor on my case, decided to give it another try.

I read the documentation from Codatex and the source code from LeJOS and RobotC and after a while I was reading the sensor properties directly from shell.

After connecting the sensor to Input Port 1 I need to set the port mode to “other-i2C”:

echo other-i2c > /sys/class/lego-port/port0/mode

Currently there are two I2C modes in ev3dev: “nxt-i2c” for known NXT devices and “other-i2c” for other I2C devices, preventing the system to poll the I2C bus.

To read all the Codatex registers this line is enough:

/usr/sbin/i2cset -y 3 0x02 0x00 ; /usr/sbin/i2cset -y 3 0x02 0x41 0x83; sleep 0.1; /usr/sbin/i2cdump -y 3 0x02

(first wake up the sensor with a dummy write, then initialize the firmware, wait a bit and read everything)

Error: Write failed
No size specified (using byte-data access)
 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 a b c d e f 0123456789abcdef
00: 56 31 2e 30 00 00 00 00 43 4f 44 41 54 45 58 00 V1.0....CODATEX.
10: 52 46 49 44 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 RFID............
20: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
30: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
40: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
50: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
60: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
70: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
80: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
90: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
a0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
b0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
c0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
d0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
e0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
f0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................

The “Error: Write failed” is expected because the dummy write that wakes the Codatex sensor fails.

I got excited, it seemed easy.

So to read just once (singleshot mode) this should work:

/usr/sbin/i2cset -y 3 0x02 0x00 ; /usr/sbin/i2cset -y 3 0x02 0x41 0x01; sleep 0.25; /usr/sbin/i2cdump -r 0x42-0x46 -y 3 0x0

(wake up, send a singleshot read command, wait for aquiring, read the 5 Tag ID registers)

But it didn’t work:

Error: Write failed
No size specified (using byte-data access)
 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 a b c d e f 0123456789abcdef
40: 00 00 00 00 00 .....

The next days I read lots of code from the web, even from Daniele Benedettelli old NXC library. It seemed that my timings were wrong but I could not understand why.

After asking for help at ev3dev I found the reason: the Codatex sensor needs power at pin 1 for the RFID part. So the I2C works but without 9V at pin 1 all readings will fail.

LeJOS and RobotC activate power on pin1 but the two ev3dev I2C modes don’t do that. ITo be sure I tried LeJOS and finally I could read my tags:

package PackageCodatex;

import lejos.hardware.Brick;
import lejos.hardware.port.SensorPort;
import lejos.hardware.sensor.RFIDSensor;

public class Codatex
{
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
    	RFIDSensor rfid = new RFIDSensor(SensorPort.S1);
		System.out.println(rfid.getProductID());
		System.out.println(rfid.getVendorID());
		System.out.println(rfid.getVersion());
		try {Thread.sleep(2000);}
		catch (InterruptedException e) {}
		long transID = rfid.readTransponderAsLong(true);    
		System.out.println(transID);
		try {Thread.sleep(5000);}
		catch (InterruptedException e) {}
	}
}

David Lechner gave some hint on how to write a driver but honestly I don’t understand at least half of it. So I made a ghetto adapter with a MINDSTORMS EV3 cable and a 9V PP3 battery and it finally works – I can read the Codatex 4102 tags as well as my other 4001 tags:

I created a GitHub repository with the scrips to initialize the port and to use singleshot reads. Soon I will add a script for countinuous reads.

An important note for those who might try the ghetto cable: despite many pictures on the web saying that pin 2 is Ground, IT IS NOT. Use pin 1 for power and pin 3 for Ground. And preferably cut the power wire so that if you make some mistake your EV3 pin1 is safe.

Now I really do need to learn how to write a driver instead of hacking cables. Ouch!

Update: Since yesterday (25-July-2017) the ghetto cable is no longer needed. David Lechner added the pin1 activation feature to the “other-i2c” mode so since kernel 4.4.78-21-ev3dev-ev3 a standard cable is enough.

Thank you David!