Mark Osborne <mosborne@ashs.school.nz>
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.
software.coop had something similar at one site, but the desktop machines are MacOS X not Linux, sadly. We've had some problems with MacOS X eccentricities (watch http://identi.ca/mjray for occasional outbursts of frustration about them!), but I think the RFID pads work most of the time and the solution that has evolved is pretty portable. It might even run on Windows with less than a dozen lines changed! [...]
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?
Our approach is a small modification to Koha (called RFIDenabled) where the Koha server contacts the librarian's browser's machine when it needs a barcode and accesses some middleware to control the pad. The middleware is pretty stable and written in perl, but it's not fast yet (1.6sec per read) because I had to slow it down a bit to reduce tag read failures (which appear random, but seem proportional to pad activity rate). I think it works with TRF7960 (definitely) and MicroRWD (probably but less tested) pads connected to serial ports or most USBs. If someone is willing to send me a USB pad and pay for the time, I think I can probably port it. After all, I'd not hacked RFID until foolishly saying I could see how to make pads work on MacOS ;-) On the Macs, the middleware is started by launchd, but I think it's started by udev on Linux. I'm happy to post the latest version up, but it is still very much a DIY kit rather than a finished product until I'm sure about the tag format. So far, the access gates are happy, but there is some lingering incompatibility with a self-issue machine that I want to iron out before really releasing this to Koha world. We're getting little cooperation from 3M-compatible RFID system suppliers, so I'm not 100% sure whether it's us or the self-issue machine that isn't following the ISO standard for RFID tags. We're new to RFID and I think the equipment suppliers are simply packaging bought-in circuitboards into slick cases and selling them, so I wouldn't like to bet on whose work is slightly wrong! Hope that informs, -- MJ Ray (slef) Webmaster and LMS developer at | software www.software.coop http://mjr.towers.org.uk | .... co IMO only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html | .... op