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I've done some research and found out about XBees. Can I use this with RFID readers? I am planning to use RC522 RFID reader as its the cheapest option for me at the moment.

I am open to any advice or suggestion for other methods to achieve my objective. Thanks!

Ian Cortez
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1 Answers1

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The RC522 chip supports RS232. You can connect it to to Bluetooth←→RS232 client side adapter, then use the internal Bluetooth of a Raspberry Pi3 (or a cheap USB←→Bluetooth host side adapter) to connect some of those to the Pi wirelessly.

See e.g. this project on how to setup that.

Janka
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  • Thanks for the answer. The problem is, some of the RFID readers will be placed quite far the it will be out of range when Bluetooth is used. That is why I'm wondering if I can use Xbees to create a network. I'm still not sure if I can connect the RC522 to Xbee and make it work. – Ian Cortez Feb 05 '18 at 14:27
  • The XBee stuff only comes with host software for MS-Windows x86 and MacOS x86. It's not going to run on the Raspberry Pi because the Pi has an ARM CPU. – Janka Feb 05 '18 at 18:24
  • I believe you are right in that the XBee setup software (called XCTU https://www.digi.com/products/xbee-rf-solutions/xctu-software/xctu ) does not run on Raspi, but it does run on Linux x86 as well as Windows and macOS. However, once configured on such a machine, there is no reason an XBee can't then be used forever more on a Raspi without further need of the setup software. – Mark Setchell Feb 05 '18 at 21:59
  • Does it enable you to create an XBee host application that can sort out the data from multiple XBees – for an ARM CPU? – Janka Feb 05 '18 at 22:32