Setting Up Your Turck (U Grok It) UHF RFID Reader
Overview
This article will briefly show how to setup the Turck (U Grok It) UHF RFID reader with a mobile device.
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Setting Up Your Turck (U Grok It) UHF RFID Reader
The first step for setting up your Turck smartphone reader is to fully charge it with the USB charger included in the box. To ensure that the reader is completely charged, allow it to charge for at least 2 hours before first use.
Once charged, the reader can be disconnected from the charger, and a mobile device can be connected by plugging the reader's audio cable into the mobile device's headphone port. Launch the Turck RFID app to begin reading tags using the Turck reader.
Clicking the battery icon in the top right corner of the app will display a pop-up with basic information about the reader, such as firmware, the serial number, and battery percentage.
Configuring the Turck (U Grok It) reader
From the Home Screen of the Turck RFID app, select the "Scan" button and press "start" to begin reading tags. Once a tag has been read, you can tap the EPC to navigate directly to the read/write screen for that tag.
Press the "Configure" button to configure the reader's parameters for performing a basic RFID read. These parameters are detailed below.
Mode: Choosing "once" will record each EPC individually. In geiger mode, the app will also display a real-time bar graph indicating how often an EPC is being read (see above). The reader will also make a small beep each time a tag is read.
Power: The higher the power, the more energy the reader will send to the antenna. This will increase the read range, pick up more tags, and also drain the battery more quickly.
User memory: If the tag has a user memory, it is an extra portion of memory that can store whatever information you set it to. See https://www.atlasrfidstore.com/rfid-insider/types-of-memory-in-gen-2-uhf-rfid-tags for more information about user memory.
TID memory: This memory is used only to store the unique tag ID number by the manufacturer when the IC is manufactured. This memory portion cannot be changed.
Location: With location on, the latitude and longitude at the time of reading will be recorded and displayed under the EPC. Note that this is based on the mobile device's location services, and requires that the user enable the app's permission for location services (it will request this when you turn it on).
Max scans/second: This parameter allows you to limit the number of tags the reader will read per second. Configurable between 1 and 100 tags per second.
Restart seconds: Clears the screen and restarts the inventory.
Max tags: This parameter allows you to limit the total number of tags the reader will read. To pick up more tags, stop the read and start a new one.
EPC/UID display: This allows you to change the display format of the EPC or UID. The available options are hexadecimal or text (ASCII).
User memory display: This allows you to change the display format of the user memory. The available options are hexadecimal or text (ASCII).
Scan configuration password: This allows you to set a password that must be entered to change the scan configuration.
Reading and Writing Tags with the Turck (U Grok It) reader
To interact with these fields, first scan the tag to which you want to write. Because this is demo software, it writes only to one tag at a time. Each time you change fields, you will need to read the tag again to interact with it. When the field is set as desired, tap write (in the bottom right corner, not shown in picture below) before changing fields to write to the tag. After writing to the tag, the app should display a "write successful" message.
KILL PW: To create a kill password, read the tag and tap KILL PW. Tap the numbers in the byte line, and set each to the desired character.
ACCESS PW: To create an access password, read the tag and tap ACCESS PW. Tap the numbers in the byte line, and set each to the desired decimal or hexadecimal character.
PC: The PC (Protocol Control) typically should not be adjusted manually. See https://www.atlasrfidstore.com/rfid-insider/uhf-rfid-epc-memory-bank-what-is-the-crc16/ for more information about PCs.
EPC: To edit the EPC (electronic product code), read the tag, tap EPC, and set the formatting and characters as desired. See https://www.atlasrfidstore.com/rfid-insider/encoding-rfid-tags-3-things-to-know for more information about EPCs.
TID: This field is for the Tag ID. This is a number unique to each tag, set by the manufacturer, and cannot be changed.
USER: To edit the user memory, read the tag, tap USER, set the formatting and characters as desired. See https://www.atlasrfidstore.com/rfid-insider/types-of-memory-in-gen-2-uhf-rfid-tags for more information about the user memory.
Conclusion
If you have any questions regarding regarding the Turck (U Grok It) reader or anything RFID related, please don't hesitate to contact a sales engineer at atlasRFIDstore.com by emailing info@atlasRFIDstore.com or calling (888) 238-1155. If you would like to learn more about all things RFID, check out our website, our YouTube channel, comment below, or contact us.