Tag Exciter Installation Manual 07‐00051‐110 Tag Exciter Installation Manual Patient Protection Infant Security Asset Management ©2010 GuardRFID Proprietary and Confidential
Tag Exciter Installation Manual 07‐00051‐110 Copyrights and Trademarks ©2009 Guard RFID™ Solutions Inc. All Rights Reserved This manual is subject to copyright protection and all rights are reserved. Under copyright laws, the manual many not be copied or translated, in whole or in part, in any manner or format, without the written permission of Guard RFID™ Solutions Inc. All software in which Guard RFID™ Solutions Inc.
Tag Exciter Installation Manual ©2010 GuardRFID 07‐00051‐110 Proprietary and Confidential
Tag Exciter Installation Manual 07‐00051‐110 Contents Installing the Tag Exciter ........................................................................................................................... 1 Determine Best Location ...................................................................................................................... 1 Using Tag Exciters to Determine Direction of Travel and Room Discrimination .................................. 5 Connecting the Tag Exciter ..................
Tag Exciter Installation Manual ©2010 GuardRFID 07‐00051‐110 Proprietary and Confidential
Tag Exciter Installation Manual 07‐00051‐110 Installing the Tag Exciter Tag Exciters have three main functions. They are used to trigger an alarm at an egress point, pin point a tag’s location, and/or provide a reference point for when the tag changes floors via a stairwell or elevator. The Tag Exciter transmits a 125 KHz low frequency signal (field) that is detected by the RFID tag. Detection range of the Tag Exciter is adjustable from two to 18 feet.
Tag Exciter Installation Manual 07‐00051‐110 Environmental and Location Considerations Do not mount Tag Exciter directly on metal – such as elevator cars. Use ½ inch nylon or plastic spacers between the Tag Exciter and the metal surface. Mounting the Tag exciter directly on metal will detune the transmitting antennas. Do not mount Tag Exciter in a location where there is metal between the Tag Exciter and the intended tag detection area such as on top of an elevator car or behind a metal door.
Tag Exciter Installation Manual Poor Location – Exciter field crosses traffic path and enters into adjacent room Up Best Location – Exciter field does not enter into adjacent rooms 07‐00051‐110 Normal Traffic Pattern YES NO Protected Door ©2010 GuardRFID Unprotected Door Proprietary and Confidential
Tag Exciter Installation Manual 07‐00051‐110 Install Tag Exciter in the location that creates the smallest, most compact field. Ceiling Tag Exciter Not recommended ‐ poor floor discrimination. Tag Exciter may bleed through upper floor. Plenum Space Dropped Ceiling Ideal location – directly adjacent to the latch side of the door PRO ‐‐ creates the smallest, most compact field. CON ‐ more prone to damage or tampering ‐ may not meet the facility aesthetic requirements.
Tag Exciter Installation Manual 07‐00051‐110 Using Tag Exciters to Determine Direction of Travel and Room Discrimination Two or more Tag Exciters may be used to determine direction of travel through a portal, thereby identifying precisely the location and the moment in time a tag transfers from one zone to another. To determine direction of travel using tag exciters, you must understand how the Argus system treats zones.
Tag Exciter Installation Manual 07‐00051‐110 Example B Determining direction of travel and zone transference to a wide area. Note the traffic patterns in this example. Two tag exciters tuned for a larger field are installed on one side of the doorway to capture tags as they disperse to different areas of the building. Tag Exciters are located to ensure the tag enters into one field and clearly transitions to the field(s) in the adjacent zone.
Tag Exciter Installation Manual 07‐00051‐110 Example C Room Discrimination As a tag enters a zone/room the tag will remain located in that zone/room until it enters another zone/room or crosses the Tag Exciter into zone 14. Note: if a tag leaves a zone/room and does not enter another room or cross the Tag Exciter to zone 14, the system can relocate the tag in the corridor using RSSI data obtained from tag reader receivers.
Tag Exciter Installation Manual 07‐00051‐110 Connecting the Tag Exciter The purpose of this section is to outline the general operation and wiring of the Tag Exciter (TE). Tag Exciters have three main functions. They are used to trigger an alarm at an egress point, pin point a tag’s location, and/or provide a reference point for when the tag changes floors via a stairwell or elevator. The Tag Exciter transmits a 125 KHz low frequency signal (field) that is detected by the RFID tag.
Tag Exciter Installation Manual Indicators LED 5 Field LED Red Power Fault LED. Red LED, TE in undesirable condition when flashing Yellow LED Comm LED Green LED LF LED ID LED Lit when in LF adjust mode Lit when in ID adjust mode UHF Sensitivity Setting (Not used) Lit when adjusting MODE features Numerical indicator showing status or level Alarm LED RF LED MOD LED 7 Seg.
Tag Exciter Installation Manual 07‐00051‐110 Using the TE Disable (Door In) The TE LF field can be disabled by adding a switch to the Door In input of the Tag Exciter. This feature can be used when you require the field to be switched on and off quickly. The example below illustrates connection to a N/C door switch (door closed/contact closed).
Tag Exciter Installation Manual 07‐00051‐110 Tuning the Tag Exciter The purpose of this section is to show how to tune the Tag Exciter for optimal coverage in your application. The Tag Exciter field can be visualized as a large sphere with the tag exciter in the centre of the sphere. As the Tag Exciter level is increased, so is the size of the sphere. The sphere ranges from 2 to 18 feet in diameter according to the setting.
Tag Exciter Installation Manual 07‐00051‐110 User Interface Menu Navigation The user interface is accessed by pressing any key. Exit the user interface by pressing and holding the SEL and ENT keys, or if there is no key presses for 10 minutes the user interface is turned off automatically. The user interface navigation chart is shown below.
Tag Exciter Installation Manual Held Sel &Ent TE Reset 07‐00051‐110 UI Timeout General Keys: To activate the user interface – press any key. To turn the user interface off – press and hold SEL and ENT keys Enter/Exit Mode settings - Press & Hold SEL Key. User interface off Changing LF, ID, and RF Settings: INC key – Increments setting. ENT key – Saves setting. Any Key LF Setting Changing Mode Setting: INC – Toggles setting (Decimal Point of 7-Seg display on/off) ENT key – Saves setting.
Tag Exciter Installation Manual 07‐00051‐110 This table provides Tag Exciter current consumption and LF field size for each of 16 possible settings. These measurements are done under the following conditions: Power Supply 12.3 VDC Tag used: PT1 Tag LF antenna is oriented in LF Antenna: parallel with one of the coils of Tag Exciter LF Field Settings Setting Current consumption (A) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F 0.06 0.06 0.09 0.13 0.08 0.09 0.11 0.17 0.25 0.33 0.42 0.50 0.52 0.58 0.68 0.
Tag Exciter Installation Manual 07‐00051‐110 To test and coarse adjust the size of the LF field Press the TEST key Holding a tag in front of you, approach the doorway with a tag at waist level, the TE will beep when the tag enters the field Using the LF field adjustment instructions above, adjust the TE field size to the desired level, ensuring the tag is detected every time, and does not detect tags in unwanted areas.
Tag Exciter Installation Manual 07‐00051‐110 If two TEs are transmitting duplicate Ids the least significant 4 bits of the ID number can be changed. To change the transmitted ID Press any key to activate the user interface Press the SEL key twice, or until the ID LED is lit Press the INC key until the readout displays the desired least significant digit of the ID. (i.e. 003A40 would be changed to 003A41 if the ID was changed to 1.
Tag Exciter Installation Manual 07‐00051‐110 Default – Radio activated – (Note: the AtGuard system does not have a radio board on the TE and will ship defaulted as “radio deactivated”) Press select while in mode setting configuration until the readout reads “1” Press the INC key to toggle activate/deactivate the radio.
