WebUSB and RFID readers

Question

I was wondering if anyone had any experience getting RFID readers to work through WebUSB. The reader I'm using is the https://www.parallax.com/product/28340 .

From what I've read, I'd have to write a driver to read from the device. I was just wondering if anyone has done any work regarding this and what they ended up doing.

The goal here is to read RFID tags without using another application to feed it to the web application.

Thanks!

Infanta

Answer 1

The USB variant of that RFID reader uses an FTDI FT232R chip to provide a serial-to-USB interface. If the host operating system has a driver for this chip or the FTDI Virtual COM port drivers are installed then the browser will be unable to connect to the device when your application requests it through the WebUSB API because the USB interface presented by the device will already be claimed by the driver.

If you are able to guarantee that the Virtual COM port driver is not loaded then you will be able to write a driver using the WebUSB API to control the device.

Awed

Is there any information for writing a driver to work with webusb? – Infanta

There are some demos in the WebUSB Arduino repository which will likely be similar to the one you are interested in building as they also take control of a serial-style USB interface. – Awed

Hi @ReillyGrant, do you know other resources that are more specific on configuration? I can't find anything on how to set the correct config for serial like baudrate and all... – Cunaxa

I'm not familiar with the configuration necessary for your particular device however the documentation for your RFID reader and the FTDI chip should cover both the baud rate required and the control transfer for setting it. – Awed