RFID technology & market

[elcano]

I noticed at the iAutomate site that the RFID readers and active tags that they sell are made by Wavetrend.

I found this other article (from 2003) that focuses in Wavetrend business, but makes a general explanation of the technology and most important, the market.

Highlights:

• Wavetrend seems to be one of the leaders in active RFID technology.
• Savi Technology is the other big player. Specially for logistics (inventories,etc.). They also partnet with Matrics.
• Wavetrend markets their products by partnering with other companies. That explains why iAutomate is selling Wavetrend's relabeled readers.
• There is one company marketing a product for prisons, that let the system monitor where is each inmate, officer and staff. Can you imagine doing something similar in your home?
• Most active RFID works in 433Mhz and causes interference to Ham radio. I dont like this.

Knowing the market is important. You dont want to invest in the technology of a company that might not exists in one year.

About active RFID, the Wavetrend site says that their reader with more range have a minimum range of 3 meters and maximum range of 100 meters. That's not bad!

I also found that Wavetrend readers connect each other via a daisy-chain using RS-485. Optionally, the first reader can be connected to the PC via RS-232. I wonder if Elk would partner with Wavetrend to market a device that would connect directly to the Elk-M1 RS-485 bus. That will save us buying another serial expander when connecting the RFID antennas.

 

[Rupp]

If they could just get the prices down it would seem that the volume would pick up in the HA market. It takes at least 2 readers to cover and monitor a large home and this puts it out of reach for the average HA Joe.

 

[electron]

From the research I have done, it looks like iAutomate might have paid a lot of money for the SDK. The hardware itself doesn't seem to be too expensive. iAutomate is working on a serial hardware version of their HST plugin, so the Elk and other devices/programs should be abe to support RFID as well in the near future.

 

[Squintz]

I'd imagine that the elk may be able to monitor the status of the iAutomate hardware interface that electron is speaking of. I have 3 readers and several tags and I can say that they work great with HomeSeer. I am waiting for the hardware interface so that I can use it with CQC and other products.

I also have been directly involved with Peter who is the owner of iAutomate and I can tell you that he is a good person and has no intentions of closing his business.

I too would like to see prices come down but only time and people biting the big one are going to do that. So right now it's a luxury just like all the rest of our HA toys.

 

[elcano]

When talking about the M1, I dont understand the need for serial adapter. The readers currently talk natively via RS-485. Using serial adapter means:

RFID Readers->(RS-485) -> Serial adapter->(RS-232) -> ELK-M1XSP -> (RS-485) -> M1

Isn't it cheaper and simpler to connect the reader to the M1 directly?
RFID Readers-> (RS-485) -> M1

 

[Guy Lavoie]

RS-485 is simply a physical layer. The whole question here is about the protocol, baud rate, etc. The Elk expansion bus is busy with the main controller polling and sending commands to expansion units, and cannot be expected to speak an entirely different "language" unless certain software characteristics of the RFID readers would be coordinated with the Elk bus protocol.

 

[Squintz]

Yes that is correct!

The whole purpose of the hardware controller is so iAutomate does not have to make the RFID protocol wide open for others to come and steal it. And they could not afford to write a plugin or applicaiton for every HA software on the market. So they will offer a hardware interface and allow hardware and software(assuming here) to talk to that interface. This means you could probably easily write your own custom software if you wanted to.

 

[elcano]

RS-485 is simply a physical layer.

The same applies for RS-232. Doesn't it?

 

[elcano]

Yes that is correct!

The whole purpose of the hardware controller is so iAutomate does not have to make the RFID protocol wide open for others to come and steal it. And they could not afford to write a plugin or applicaiton for every HA software on the market. So they will offer a hardware interface and allow hardware and software(assuming here) to talk to that interface. This means you could probably easily write your own custom software if you wanted to.

I dont think people will be stealing anything. They are just two overlapping but different market segments. Does Wavetrend has absolute exclusivity agreement with iAutomate? It would not be wise from them doing that. However, they could have granted them the exclusivity for PC based Home Automation applications. Or just RS-232 based Home Automation. There are several other markets there that are much bigger and have more money than home automation (manufacturing, supply chain, retail, etc.).

I dont think that it would be impossible (from the business point of view) for Elk to buy the SDK and build support for the Wavetrend devices. Then rebrand and sell them as Elk brand. The technical limitations of the M1 are other topic.

I think that this would be beneficial to iAutomate. Think. If people start with a hardware based implementation and then want do things that are not possible for an M1, then they would have no option than buying the interface from iAutomate. Also, the M1-RFID compatibility would stimulate the business for M1 controllers and RFID readers (that iAutomate could sell for M1 use). The volume could go up and the price down. This is a win-win situation. This is the mentallity of the big and winners. Closing the market, proprietary systems, and non-collaboration is passé. With the exception of those companies that grew in the past decades (Apple, Microsoft, etc), closed models do not survive (even they are evolving).

 

[pkoslow]

I've been really vocal (almost too vocal) with iAutomate and Elk to get their systems working together. I'm hoping it will happen, I think I could sell lots of M1/iAutomate RFID setups.

Everyone that's been to see a demo at my house is really impressed/intrigued with the RFID technology. Right now the only way I can deliver it, is with a Windows based platform running HomeSeer which is not what I want my main offering to be at this time.

Cheers,
Paul

 

[elcano]

Paul,

I admit that I have been impressed with the setup that you described in other threads. I had discarded the idea after seen the iAutomate prices, but considering the long range that the active cards have, 1 reader per house would give some minimal but usable functionaility.

Let's see what happens with Elk. Those are the people that we have to 'squeak' to (this is what electron says ). Even if iAutomate or Wavetrend are not interested in the business, there are several other options in the market.