RFID hardware for this plugin no longer available

[Richel]

Judging from the posts on this topic, this will not affect many, but the source of the hardware for this plugin (www.ananiahelectronics.com) appears to have gone out of business and the devices are nowhere to be found on the web. If someone has an Active RFID Receiver RF8315R , Serial Interface to sell, I am looking to buy. Thanks.

UPDATE: I had contacted the company by email and got a quick response:
"We are preparing to migrate from Hong Kong to California USA this summer, therefore we need to temporary stop the hardware production at this moment. Hope we can restart the business in USA before Oct this year. Will inform you once the production USA restarts."

[Richel]

Also, for a less expensive option to replace Global Cache IP2SL or WF2SL to connect the RFID receiver to HomeSeer, I recommend https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Also, USR has on their website excellent software for virtual serial ports. I think USR's software is superior to Eterlogic's VSPE.

[Wade]

Also, for a less expensive option to replace Global Cache IP2SL or WF2SL to connect the RFID receiver to HomeSeer, I recommend https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Also, USR has on their website excellent software for virtual serial ports. I think USR's software is superior to Eterlogic's VSPE.

Thanks for the tip on their free virtual com port utility. Works great with my IP2SL-P. Wish I'd known about their serial-IP device before I spent 4x the money on the Global Cache.

[Michael McSharry]

The ESP8266 ($5) with Tasmota firmware performs this function and many others. The mcsMQTT manual describes a use case of a LoRa modem that does RS232 and ESP8266-Wemos D1 Mini to convert RS-232 to WiFi. This provides the advantages of long range communication with LoRa and local network with WiFi in a plug'n'play manner. I use it to monitor a mailbox that is 600 ft. from house. I have also used it for a Caller ID that produces RS232 AT codes to convert these to WiFi.

When Active RFID (Cheaper RFID) was popular the hardware was cheap. Now that is 10 to 15 years old the price has increased significantly. You will find some analysis and alternative in the "Cheapest RFID" section of the mcsMQTT manual. Bluetooth beacon rather than RFID beacon provides a superior performance with current technology.

[Richel]

The ESP8266 ($5) with Tasmota firmware performs this function and many others....
When Active RFID (Cheaper RFID) was popular the hardware was cheap. Now that is 10 to 15 years old the price has increased significantly. You will find some analysis and alternative in the "Cheapest RFID" section of the mcsMQTT manual. Bluetooth beacon rather than RFID beacon provides a superior performance with current technology.

Michael:
Thanks. It has been some time since I was working with your plugin. I couldn't quite get things working with MQTT, so I stopped. The manual that I had was dated 2018 and it has nothing about RFID in it. So, I just downloaded the 2021 manual and I see the sections, to which you refer. I will need to do the reading and studying to understand what I can do with this newer technology. I do agree "cheaper" is now a misnomer. Elliott

[VirtualPanther]

When Active RFID (Cheaper RFID) was popular the hardware was cheap. Now that is 10 to 15 years old the price has increased significantly. You will find some analysis and alternative in the "Cheapest RFID" section of the mcsMQTT manual. Bluetooth beacon rather than RFID beacon provides a superior performance with current technology.

Michael,
Question for you. I have two iAutomate Active RFID readers that I used for my two cars' garage gate automation, as well as trash and recycling bin reminders. The readers and tags are Wavetrend brand. Similar to others, US vendors are either out of business or no longer able to procure these tags. So, looking at functionally near-obsolete technology. What would be your choice of MODERN replacement that integrates smoothly with HS4? By "smoothly" I mean plugin available and supported, no manual scripting / etc. Much appreciate your thoughts.

Alex

[Michael McSharry]

For presence detection I recommend Bluetooth Low Energy tracking beacons. Awesome new mcsMQTT Feature for Geofencing when running Windows 10 - HomeSeer Message Board

This is not trying to track the BLE in a phone or similar which intentionally try to mask themselves for security, but uses beacons that advertise their presence. Standard beacons do about 30 ft and you can get them to do much greater distance with particular products identified in the link above.

[Richel]

For presence detection I recommend Bluetooth Low Energy tracking beacons. Awesome new mcsMQTT Feature for Geofencing when running Windows 10 - HomeSeer Message Board

This is not trying to track the BLE in a phone or similar which intentionally try to mask themselves for security, but uses beacons that advertise their presence. Standard beacons do about 30 ft and you can get them to do much greater distance with particular products identified in the link above.

Michael:
Quick question: Is this feature in your HS4 plugin the same as what is available in your HS3 plugin? I have yet to take the plunge into HS4. Thanks. Elliott

[Michael McSharry]

The HS3 plugin does BLE using ESP32 or RPi and does trilateration and Kalman filtering to identify position of a beacon. in essence it's objective is to detect where is beacon is located.

The HS4 plugin does BLE using the interface in the host computer to identify if a beacon is in range or out of range.

The HS4 setup is very simple. The HS3 setup is more involved with flashing of firmware. Once setup HS3 provides a rich plugin UI with visualizations. HS4 UI is simply a device for each beacon from which event triggers can be used.

[Richel]

The HS3 plugin does BLE using ESP32 or RPi and does trilateration and Kalman filtering to identify position of a beacon. in essence it's objective is to detect where is beacon is located.

The HS4 plugin does BLE using the interface in the host computer to identify if a beacon is in range or out of range.

The HS4 setup is very simple. The HS3 setup is more involved with flashing of firmware. Once setup HS3 provides a rich plugin UI with visualizations. HS4 UI is simply a device for each beacon from which event triggers can be used.

Thanks. You've given me another reason to upgrade.

[Richel]

The HS3 plugin does BLE using ESP32 or RPi and does trilateration and Kalman filtering to identify position of a beacon. in essence it's objective is to detect where is beacon is located.

The HS4 plugin does BLE using the interface in the host computer to identify if a beacon is in range or out of range.

The HS4 setup is very simple. The HS3 setup is more involved with flashing of firmware. Once setup HS3 provides a rich plugin UI with visualizations. HS4 UI is simply a device for each beacon from which event triggers can be used.

Michael:
I upgraded to HS4 and purchased the TrendNet Bluetooth USB receiver and the Feasybeacon. However, I am not finding it so straightforward to get this running with HS4 and your mcsMQTT plugin. The transmitter and receiver seem to be working. I have set the plugin to discover the beacon, but I do not see anywhere that it has done so. Does the plugin create a device somewhere, because I cannot find it? Help would be appreciated. Thanks, Elliott

[Michael McSharry]

You should open up a thread on the HS4 mcsMQTT forum for support of that plugin. For general guidance look at Section 12.6.1 of mcsMQTT.pdf. For specific guidance then debug output, screenshots or specific information will be needed.