RFID Tag over Bluetooth?

RE: RFID Tag over Bluetooth?

William — Mon, 27 Jan 2014 08:57:48 GMT

Thanks again Oleh!

Shall get the kit from Nordic...

I guess it should be relatively easy to build an antenna to harvest energy from a rf transmission but my limited experience does not yet allow me to understand how I can get a mobile device (smart phone) to transmit same in order to generate enough energy in the chip's antenna coil ... I'll keep learning :)

Have good week! Will. (South Africa)

RE: RFID Tag over Bluetooth?

Oleh — Mon, 27 Jan 2014 08:29:18 GMT

Hi Will

yes you are right: the Nrf51822 requires power (starting from as little as 1.8V). And you can use it for your application to send the IDs, I had similar one and my idea was to harvest the energy, but the battery of 3V with diameter of from 14 to 20mm is good for me.

the nrf51 is the real beauty, there are dev tools which will help you to evaluate and test your idea, I highly recommend to get one.

Cheers Oleh

RE: RFID Tag over Bluetooth?

William — Sun, 26 Jan 2014 15:01:24 GMT

Thanks Oleh ... am I right in saying that nrf51822 requires battery power? I'm new at this and still getting my head around the basics.

What I'm after is a chip that can transmit its ID to a receiving mobile device once that mobile device scans for bluetooth periferals in near (10 to 20 cm) proximity.

Any ideas?

Thanks again.

RE: RFID Tag over Bluetooth?

Oleh — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 00:33:56 GMT

Hi Will

no I havent, at least not with the passive rfid.

I've switched to nrf51822 instead.

Cheers Oleh

RE: RFID Tag over Bluetooth?

William — Thu, 16 Jan 2014 12:40:20 GMT

Hi Oleh

I've recently also become interested in the possibility of passive RFID being read by mobile device via Bluetooth ...

May I kindly ask if you have succeeded in securing a solution?

Kind regards Will.

RE: RFID Tag over Bluetooth?

Oleh — Thu, 24 Oct 2013 12:55:38 GMT

Great info thank you for your help!

Cheers! Oleh

RE: RFID Tag over Bluetooth?

Ole Morten — Thu, 24 Oct 2013 12:08:15 GMT

For general-purpose application, you'd have to either use the nRF51822 or the nRF8001. The nRF51822 is available as QFN48, 6x6 mm, and WLCSP. The nRF8001 is available as QFN32, 5x5 mm, but requires an additional application processor.

My guess on what would be the smallest-to-largest solutions would be:

WLCSP of nRF51822, the ST BAL-NRF02D3 balun and a chip-antenna.
QFN of nRF51822, the ST BAL-NRF01D3 and a chip-antenna.
QFN of nRF51822, ST BAL-NRF01D3 and a PCB-antenna.
QFN of nRF51822, discrete match and PCB antenna.
Any solution including an nRF8001. My recommendation for the nRF51822 therefore still stands. Remember that it's also available in a 128 kB variant, of which the BLE softdevice takes 80 kB.

RE: RFID Tag over Bluetooth?

Oleh — Thu, 24 Oct 2013 12:02:11 GMT

I see, thank you!

What is the smaller chip/config for BLE?

Some 5 x 5mm QFN are there. The nRF51822 in WLCSP is only 3.5x3.8mm -- which is great. But it is overkill for my needs: too powerful.

I would really need not more then 64KB and 8bits MCU would be enough.

RE: RFID Tag over Bluetooth?

Ole Morten — Thu, 24 Oct 2013 11:55:28 GMT

You can make a device that can be read with a BLE capable smartphone, and if you have some kind of energy harvesting, it would probably be possible to make it battery-less. However, it will not be possible to make it pick up the energy from the device reading, like proper passive RFID.

RE: RFID Tag over Bluetooth?

Oleh — Thu, 24 Oct 2013 11:43:20 GMT

Hello Ole

thank you for your reply!

I was just wondering if I can have a solution like a RFID-passive-tag and as a reader just smartphone having bluetooth v4 (ble)?

So to say, not involving any additional reader.

RE: RFID Tag over Bluetooth?

Ole Morten — Thu, 24 Oct 2013 10:00:25 GMT

It isn't clear to me exactly what you need, but any kind of BLE Peripheral device can be made with the nRF51822. However, the radio is a pure 2.4 GHz device, so it can not be used directly with any kind of passive RFID solutions, which usually employs completely different frequency bands.