RFID Desktop Reader Evaluation Kit – 103 UHF Reader-Writer + Sample Tags

A UHF RFID desktop reader kit for encoding and desk reads

Plenty of RFID work happens at a desk rather than a doorway. Someone has to write numbers into labels before they go on books, files, equipment or cartons, and a counter has to read a tag into the screen staff already use. This kit lets you try both jobs on one Windows PC: the 103 plugs in with no driver to install and no adapter to find, and Identium DesktopReader drives it with no licence fee.

What to try in Identium DesktopReader

• Encode a run of labels. Set a starting serial in decimal or hex and each tag you place takes the next number, or write a list straight from an Excel sheet. Verify after write flags a failed write, the app pauses on an already-written tag, and the change log goes back to Excel as your record.
• Turn barcodes into RFID. Scan the barcode an item already carries with your existing barcode scanner, and the next tag on the pad is written with that code, so a barcoded range can move to RFID without renumbering.
• Read into your own screen. Switch on keyboard mode, click into a field in Excel, your ERP or a web form, and every tag read is typed there, even after DesktopReader is closed.
• Send reads to a server. Point the HTTP output at a test address and look at the JSON your developers would receive.
• Keep the zone tight. Turn the power down until only the tag on the pad answers, and watch the live table of EPC, TID, read count and RSSI to confirm it.

Once numbers are written, lock a sample tag with a password, or kill one, to see how finished tags behave.

Desk work the 103 suits, and what it will not do

It fits work done at one fixed point: an encoding desk, a billing counter, a library issue desk, an asset registration table. The reach is short and adjustable up to 30 cm, so the power setting above is how you keep the next item on a crowded desk out of the read, and the reader serves the single PC it is plugged into. DesktopReader is a Windows application, so plan the trial on a Windows machine.

It will not count a shelf or a room. For walking a store with a reader in hand, the CX1000 handheld kit reads at up to 6 m. To see keyboard output in more depth, read the guide to RFID scanning into Excel, and for the reader's own specifications, see the 103 desktop reader page.