Coding Chips

Tim Irvine

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Nov 17, 2016, 10:41:35 PM11/17/16

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I know we all have our own ways that are strikingly similar to each other. I wanted to share how I code chips just in case someone finds it helpful. I place water bottles in a circle around the TR200 I use and pass the chip over the top. I am able to keep other chips fairly close without reading in. Works best away from a wall. Just thought I would share. I don't plan to share a pic. But if someone really needs one, I will take one. Hope this helps someone.

SR Aaron

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Nov 17, 2016, 11:05:43 PM11/17/16

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Tim: I'm cracking up visualizing this, but it sounds good!

We recently moved to a house that has a kitchen bar with granite countertops, its made things a lot easier. Reader/antenna on the ground, chips on the countertop.

Classic Race Services

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Nov 18, 2016, 5:40:19 PM11/18/16

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Water bottles.... that's ingenious! I am guessing the water keeps the signal somewhat contained? How many chips would you say you can encode in an hour? I also use a TR200 to encode my chips. It is a slow process! Or, maybe I am just impatient....

Thanks

Carole

John Kirby

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Nov 18, 2016, 8:44:29 PM11/18/16

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I use the granite counter top as well

Tim Irvine

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Nov 21, 2016, 3:33:08 PM11/21/16

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I haven't noticed how many I was doing in an hour, but it goes pretty quick because the reader doesn't see the chip til I raise it about the water level.

Classic Race Services

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Nov 26, 2016, 7:10:26 PM11/26/16

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I tried the water bottle idea tonight. It worked well. I programmed about 300 chips attached to bibs in probably 30-45 minutes....

Carole

Tim Irvine

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Nov 27, 2016, 10:38:37 AM11/27/16

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Wonderful!!

Tim Irvine

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May 23, 2017, 10:54:34 PM5/23/17

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I wanted to follow up on a discovery I made about the water shield and coding chips. If you place the antenna up against the water container like pictured, it eliminates the random chip reads and you literally have to hold the one chip you are trying to code next to it. This will save me so much time, I hope it will you too.

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Ohio Race Day

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May 24, 2017, 7:32:06 AM5/24/17

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Or get one of these rfid printer thingamajobs

RFID printers on Ebay

Scott Johnson

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May 24, 2017, 11:52:46 AM5/24/17

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Smart! I use a plastic bin lined in aluminum foil. Seems to work pretty well.

BWRTiming

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May 24, 2017, 11:43:42 PM5/24/17

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I'm still too lazy (or cheap) to use the RFID printer concept. :-(

Like many of you though, I've experimented with tools and methods to program the tags. My most painstaking experience was when I wanted to time a race with a test of two chips on a bib, each with a different number. To do that, I created a nifty foil-covered cardboard folder with a tag-sized hole in it. It looked like a third-grade robot Halloween costume, but it allowed me to do two separate passes of programming after the tags were attached to the bib.

But my (former) normal setup was just the Thinkify USB reader with its default-in antenna. But even that small antenna beamed so far, I had quite a range of motion when grabbing a bib and passing it by the antenna to read, that it was just too awkward. I didn't do the wall of water bottles, just strategic distance.

I finally found what I thought I should have been using all along: an extremely short-range UHF antenna. It uses all of our standard UFH RFID technology that works with our antennas and ART but makes it behave just like a proximity reader/writer. I had seen pictures of this antenna when I was shopping for antennas, but it looked like an overpriced normal long-range antenna so I glossed right over it. It's actually about 3 inches square, and, as I said, it's basically a proximity reader (even though it's technically not the "proximity" standard). I no longer have a multiple feet spin when I program tags... my unprogrammed stack, my programmed stack, and this antenna, all fit on my desk right in front of me.

I snagged mine off ebay, but here's the gizmo I'm talking about: http://www.arcantenna.com/a1001-71203-3x3-inch-mini-nearfield-rfid-antenna-for-fcc-etsi-similar-to-impinj-matchbox-ipja0404000-mini-guardrail-ipja0303000.html

Oscar's Race Results

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Oct 26, 2018, 6:48:42 PM10/26/18

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If you want to put two tags on a bib, how do you proceed?

1. cut 1 tag out of the roll, program it, cut out another, program it and then stick them on?

2. Put both tags on the same bib and magically program them both at once?

3. Put both tags on the same bib and foil block 1 tag at a time?

Tried programming 2 at same time with a ThingMagic and that did not work.

Thanks,

Oscar

Oscar's Race Results

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Oct 27, 2018, 4:33:06 AM10/27/18

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Another embarrassing learning experience. Ordered a bunch of tags of AliExpress without looking closely as they were in same section as R6 Dogbones. Got them out and they were not Dogbones. If I had read closely or looked at the picture, I could have told. Tried programming them on ThingMagic. Gen2 locked was message and programming was not successful. Ali comes back and says they are NOT locked. Tried on ART and they would program. Came back to ThingMagic and used all 24 digits and they programmed, then 16 and OK, 8 & OK then 4 and they would NOT program. Evidently there is something fundamental about an R6 chip that wants blocks of 8 instead of blocks of 4. Should be named R8.