I wouldn't say that 3M is only choice, but people mostly take 3M for libraries because they offer readers, and selfcheck systems (which is Window XP machine, with Java and Tomcat, two RFID readers and touchscreen... all that to produce single line SIP2 protocol :-\) It's a bit like old saying that nobody ever got fired for buying IBM equipment. 3M is something like that in library world. RFID readers don't really have any standard communication with computers (aside from newer USB ones which support CCID, but it just defines bulk usb commands as opposed to serial-over-usb). So, even if you go with OmniKey (which has binary driver available for Linux) situation is (IMHO!) not much better. It's a mess :-) On Tue, Jan 26, 2010 at 13:20, Nicole Engard <nengard@gmail.com> wrote:
I have to admit I haven't worked with RFID personally at all. But is 3M the only company out there? Is there another one that is more open source friendly? By the sound of it, you've already made the final choice, but I'm just curious for my education and the education as others.
Nicole
2010/1/26 Dobrica Pavlinušić <dpavlin@gmail.com>:
2010/1/26 Mark Osborne <mosborne@ashs.school.nz>:
Kia ora whanau,
We've got a new 3M RFID security system and self check unit being installed (which is wonderful, and a really exciting development for our library).
I had same problem some time ago, so I decided to write driver for 3M RFID reader:
http://blog.rot13.org/2008/10/3m_rfid_reader_810_can_freely_speak_now.html
Later on, I even played around with Comet
http://blog.rot13.org/2009/04/comet_experiment_rfid_reader_with_koha_data_in...
but now-days, I'm working on third version which should use JSONP to fetch data from local reader and display data within Koha. Local web server which respond to JSONP and driver RFID reader is ready, but I haven't yet written Koha part.
You can play with stand-alone RFID driver/JOSNP server using http://svn.rot13.org/index.cgi/RFID/ (3m-810.pl).
I also collected various useful information about 3M's RFID implementation for libraries at
http://saturn.ffzg.hr/rot13/index.cgi?hitchhikers_guide_to_rfid
Hopefully, you will file something helpful in one of those links :-)
The problem is that the 3M technician installing the system says that the RFID reader needs Windows XP middleware (called 'Pad Staff Workstation Model 895') to go between the RFID reader and the catalogue. We are an open source school and run Linux on the desktop so we don't want to have to use XP just to run our security system. This is strange given the RFID reader has a USB interface- I would have thought it would put the text string directly into the browser like our barcode reader used to do.
RFID reader is USB-serial device, and not USB-hid (like keyboard) so it needs program to drive it. This somehow makes sense, because RFID tag has more information than barcode on it.
The technician also said that we can't catalogue items directly into Koha, we need to use the 3M RFID Conversion Software. This sounds nuts to me.
We have currently production deployment which uses 3M software together with Windows macro which transfers barcode (from Koha's window title, sic!) to 3M software and/or barcode from 3M software to focused form in Koha. This works, but is not something we would like to have forever, which is a reason why I started writing my own support for it.
Does anyone have experience with 3M RFID systems and Koha? Is there a way to run Linux, Koha and 3M security whilst keeping one's sanity?
We asked once 3M representative about support for developing 3rd party software for their's RFID reader and got response: "strictly not!". Fortunately, he got downsized in next 3M reorganization, so I'm not too worried about it :-)
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