A great device, at a good price. I managed to get it on a breadboard, although the 2mm pin spacing presented a bit of a challenge.
The ID-12 easily detected all 4 of the RFID cards I tried, my indicator LED flashing as each card was read.
Next, I interfaced the ID-12 to my PC through a serial connection, and used Windows Hyperterminal to display the incoming ASCII data.
The ID-12 performed perfectly, and I highly recommend it.

These are the real deal, complete, self contained modules, a cinch to use at an unbeatable price. Also, based on my tests, these are fully compatible with EM4100 tags, not just EM4001 which was an older, now obsolete standard.

An amazingly simple and fun device. They go well with XBee radios to create wireless RFID readers.
Quick note: Even though it is not immediately clear in the datasheet, you DO need a pull-up resistor on the data pins even in ASCII mode.

Anybody want to comment on what kind of range they are getting. I’m using a small 21mm circular tag and only getting a range of about 12mm when i was hoping for what the specs say 12cm.

What about those 10.56MHz cards they have at TI, any modules out there for those?

Does anyone know what temperature range the ID-12 can handle?
regard
Daniel

My comments:
– connect D0 to pin 5-yellow of a TTL-232R USB cable and use ‘screen /dev/ttyUSB0’ (or similar) to see output (you can also use the 5V provided by pin 3-red)
– no pull-up needed on D0
– pins required some bending and shoving to get it to fit in a breadboard – use the breakout board and headers

Is it possible to hook up a self build antenna to this RFID module?

Hi, I see that you do not have this component, you’ll get it again? when?
Do you have a delivery to Croatia?

So I noticed that in the datasheet they make mention of the RW(read/write) series that is supposed to work with the Temec Q5 tag (Q5555 mentioned elsewhere). According to the document, there should exist an ID-2RW, ID-12RW, and an ID-20RW reader. It seems the information surrounding where to purchase these readers and tags is a little elusive. Personally, I think it would be awesome to work with a rewritable tag, but where do you find these products? I’ve tried finding rewritable tags in general, but have had no luck. To the guys at SparkFun, any chance you will carry the RFID read/write series with a rewritable tag in the future?

The datasheet for this is incorrect, it states the TTL signal in inverted, it is not!

In case you’re a dolt like me that doesn’t know how to read a datasheet, here’s a quick synopsis on what you need to do to get this module working in ASCII mode with an Arduino:
Connect:
Pins 1 and 7 to Arduino GND (ground)
Pins 2 and 11 to Arduino 5V
Pin 9 to Arduino Pin 0 (RX)
Then you can just read serial data as usual (9600 baud). As mentioned earlier, the breakout board plus soldering some Xbee headers and 0.1 headers make this very easy.
The newest datasheet on id-innovations site (http://www.id-innovations.com/EM%20moudule%20SERIES%202007-10-9_wfinal%20v22.pdf) also mentions the following regarding Pin 9:
“There is no need for a 1k protection resistor, but a 1k resistor will make the circuit safer for testing and reduce EM noise.”

what is minimum reset pulse , if you want to change from eg ASCII to Wiegand , if the power is already applied ?

Tell me please! It is big question!
Can 125KHz RFID reader read card with frequency 13,56 MHz ?
I wanted to buy ID-20 BUT I found out that my cards cab be read by 13,56MHz!
please send me request! I am waiting for you

The datasheet says for card format, “EM 4001 or compatible” Is EM 4002 compatible?

Arduino fans…
If you are new to serial comms with a second device, i.e. something in addition to the PC where you’re writing your program (sketch), you may find the general notes at…
http://sheepdogguides.com/arduino/art4SeSimpFrmIDE.htm

…useful. It talks of connecting a second PC to your Arduino, but you can just substitute the RFID reader in place of the “second PC”. And the “RS-232” issues are not the issue they are, if you are using a 5v Arduino, 5v reader.

I made a false start in RFID with the Phidget reader. Good device, but depends on USB and a propietary library in the reading PC.

Older and wiser, a little research has sent me to Sparkfun, where I anticipate Good Things! And the price was better than a nice alternative over at Parallax.

At least one post above suggests connecting the RFID reader to the Arduino’s D0 line. This will “work”, but sets you up for hassles, as that line is ALSO trying to communicate with your development PC. It really isn’t at all hard… and has some other benefits… to create a second serial port, using NewSoftSerial. This whole theme is explained at….
http://sheepdogguides.com/dt4t.htm

Do you Sparkfun guys know when the ID-12 be back in stock?? Thanks.

A guide, with code, to connecting this to an Arduino is available at….
http://sheepdogguides.com/arduino/art3rfid1.htm

This is a nice little device. The one thing that I found unclear from the data sheet is a “minimalist” set of connections to get the device to work. So I’ll note that here: * Power: Pin 11 to 5VDC, Pin 1 to GND. * Enable: Pin 2 MUST be tied high. Can’t just let it float. ASCII * Output: Pin 7 must be grounded. * Data: Take your TTL output on Pin 9. I fed mine into a Roving Networks module to connect the RFID unit to my home network.
The other thing that faked me out at first was not having any “known” 125kHz RFID cards. I had a “badge” that I THOUGHT might work but I see now that there are TWO RFID standards (at least) and I think my badges are probably the 13mHz MIFARE kind. Do yourself a favor and if you buy one of these, spend another two bucks and get one of the SparkFun RFID cards so you’ll have a known test article.
I’m toying with the idea of using this for access to the pool my wife manages in the summer. see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUsNaK867cE for a video of my circuit board construction for this unit. Also shows direct ink jet printing process I use in some detail. If anyone has questions about modding an Epson Arttisan 50 printer to do this, just drop me a line. Unfortunately, I didn’t think to video the process (g). It isn’t hard and it works VERY well. If there’s enough interest, I may try to create some how-to video for that in retrospective.
(note, in my use case I had 6V power so I used a 5.1 V 1W zener in series with a 220 ohm 1 W resistor to take the 6 down to 5. This is what you see in the video on the module. I have this little WiFi breadboard that I use to test various devices such as the RFID, GPS modules etc. which supplies two grounds, RX,TX,3.3V regulated and VBATT. This way I can test a lot of different modules that output RS232 easily with my home network.)

I used this in a project, and included notes on hooking up the ID-12 with the rest of the project notes. No disagreement with what others have said; I used NewSoftSerial to read serial from a pin on the Arduino other than 0 (so I could still print debug information to my computer); and I tested it both with SparkFun’s cards and with 3cm diameter EM4102 tags from Trossen.

Hopefully this is not too dumb of a question, but when are these coming back into stock?

Hey SparkFun,
There’s another version of these chips that can read HID tags as well as the EM4001/4100 tags. (I have one in front of me; The sticker on the bottom reads “ID-12 HE”. I contacted ID Innovations and was able to get a couple of sample chips, although the shipping from China was $50 for two. :-P)
I’d love to see you guys carry the HE chips, if for no other reason but to make it a lot cheaper for when we start building out more of the RFID cabinet locks we’re working on. :–)
Almost forgot to mention: These chips are supposed to pass on the raw output in case you need to check for a different standard as well. (Like HID’s Corporate 1000 perhaps.) Really pretty nice units; I’ll post my findings with them once the 2mm breakout board arrives.

I’m using the ID-12 for a project that will use 16 of them connected to a PC via Sparkfun level converters. I need to know not only when a tag “arrives” but when it is taken away from the reader. I’ve figured a way to reset it by sending a character from the host, but is there a way to have the reader continuously send tag data while a tag is within reading range? Having used a Parallax board in the past, that was what I was expecting.

Hello all,
this is my video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cp1Y1U_XGk
enjoy, i need yo make some more improvements on the code in order to use the GLCD.
I also need to add a keypad after passing the RFID to use the keypad with 4 to 6 digits code.
regards,

will this reader read the EM4100 Tags ?

Does It exist a library for C18 for pic?

I read the Datasheet but I did not find my answer. Do you get some kind of “event” or “acknowledgment” after the card is out of range too?
The reason I’m asking that is because I have an application in which the tag will be in range for long periods of time but I want to know when the tag is out of range so I can take some actions.
Any info is appreciated.

Hi everyone
recognizer on the card around?
1 2 3 4 numbered cards, and I can I get this card?
I put all the layout and send it to me?
For example,
Software
ID12 RFID Reader
CARD
How much will it cost money?
Thank you all
PS: I’m sorry my English is not good for your mistakes