Trimble expands functionality of ThingMagic embedded RFID readers
27 May, 2011
category: RFID
Trimble announced the availability of a number of new capabilities for its ThingMagic Mercury6e (M6e), Mercury5e (M5e), and Mercury5e-Compact (M5e-C) embedded ultra-high frequency RFID reader modules.
Available through a firmware upgrade, the added functionality gives an enhanced set of tools for improved performance, custom command support for advanced tag features, and anti-counterfeiting and data retrieval features. The company also introduced enhancements to its ThingMagic MercuryAPI, used for all ThingMagic fixed/finished and embedded RFID reader products.
Improved Performance
Key enhancements include continuous read capabilities for moving-tag applications for tag reading in dense environments, enhanced channel hopping, and BlockWrite to reduce the time to write many bytes of data to a tag with a single operation.
Support for Advanced Tag Features
Custom commands provide additional anti-eavesdropping security and support for a tamper alarm, switch control, and battery status reporting. Additionally, a ‘Write Tag EPC command’ can now be applied selectively or non-selectively to all tags in the field with a single command, to encode large tag populations. Support for optional Gen2 functions including eXtended PC field and BlockPermaLock capabilities is also available.
Anti-counterfeiting and Data Retrieval Features
The amount of data returned from every tag in the field has been extended in order to defeat counterfeiting of electronic product code (EPC) values and to allow tags to be uniquely identified without having to create unique EPC values for each tag.
New API
A new version of the ThingMagic MercuryAPI adds Java support for M6e application development and C-API support for the M5e. With this upgrade, the MercuryAPI now provides universal Java, .NET and “C” support across the entire ThingMagic embedded RFID product line.
In addition to the aforementioned enhancements, the upgrade also addresses new regulations for RFID reader operation in Korea by adding full Korean regulation conformance to the M5e. Already available on the M6e, this upgrade expands regional support available on a single M5e product SKU.