Reference Materials¶
This section contains reference materials specific to the Indy Modules and RAIN RFID in general. Some of these materials are created and maintained by Impinj, and some are from third party sources.
Third Party Reference Materials¶
The following reference materials are created and maintained by third parties, and Impinj has no hand in their creation or maintenance.
EPC UHF Gen2 Air Interface Protocol¶
This document from EPCglobal explains the adopted global standards for UHF RFID signaling, and contains a wealth of useful background information for UHF RFID developers.
Then Gen2 Air Interface Protocol document describes:
- Physical and logical requirements for UHF RFID signaling
- Reader and Tag behaviors
- Definitions of common RFID terms and units
Download it here: http://www.gs1.org/epcrfid/epc-rfid-uhf-air-interface-protocol/2-0-1
Impinj Reference Materials¶
The following reference materials are created and maintained by Impinj. If you have any questions about or suggestions for improvement of these materials, please feel free to email us at support@impinj.com.
A number of these documents are included in the ITK release, under the directory ./Documentation/
Indy Module Reference Materials¶
The following section details reference documents for the Indy UHF RFID reader modules.
Indy Module Product Brief¶
Impinj has created an introductory product brief to describe the Indy Modules, and the similarities and differences between them. This product brief is a good place to start learning about Impinj’s product offerings and their capabilities.
The Indy Module product brief contains:
- An overview of the embedded reader modules
- A comparison of features and specifications of the modules
- Potential use cases for each of the modules
Download the Indy Module product brief here: https://support.impinj.com/hc/en-us/articles/205425047
Indy Module Datasheets¶
The Indy Modules each have a device datasheet that gives a technical introduction to their hardware and also detailed electrical specifications. These datasheets are a good place to learn about the module hardware.
The Datasheets include:
- Technical introduction
- Feature overview
- Electrical specifications
- Pin listing and pinout
- Mechanical dimensions
Download the latest RS2000 Datasheet here: https://support.impinj.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000527904
Download the latest RS1000 Datasheet here: https://support.impinj.com/hc/en-us/articles/2027559188
Download the latest RS500 Datasheet here: https://support.impinj.com/hc/en-us/articles/202755918
Note
The ITK release includes some of the Indy Module datasheets, under the directory ./Documentation/
Indy Module Hardware User’s Guides¶
The Indy Modules each have a Hardware User’s Guide that gives a detailed description of module behavior and development kit operation.
The Hardware User’s Guides include:
- module pin behaviors
- module low power operating modes
- Embedded RAIN RIFD reader electronics guidelines
- Thermal performance information
- Development kit operation details
- UHF RFID regulatory information
Download the latest RS2000 Hardware User’s Guide here: https://support.impinj.com/hc/en-us/articles/206618318
Download the latest RS1000 Hardware User’s Guide here: https://support.impinj.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001976170
Download the latest RS500 Hardware User’s Guide here: https://support.impinj.com/hc/en-us/articles/202755908
Note
The ITK release includes some of the Indy Module Hardware User’s Guides, under the directory ./Documentation/
Indy Module Kit Documentation¶
Impinj sells development kits for each of the Indy Modules. These kits come with a number of resources to help users test and characterize the modules, and develop their own Indy Module based embedded RAIN RFID readers.
Indy Module development kit documentation includes:
- Kit Quick Start Guides
- Indy Demo Tool software
- Kit PCB schematics, layout, and bill of materials (BOM)
Download the latest RS2000 kit documentation here: https://support.impinj.com/hc/en-us/articles/206700898
Download the latest RS1000 kit documentation here: https://support.impinj.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001976190
Download the latest RS500 kit documentation here: https://support.impinj.com/hc/en-us/articles/202755888
Indy Module Example Programs¶
The ITK release contains both fully fledged example programs and code snippets in the code examples to help demonstrate the features of the ITK-C. In addition to these example programs, Impinj has created a number of example programs demonstrating additional host library ports, and modifications of the example programs to meet different use cases.
Impinj’s example of a Raspberry Pi host port is available here: https://support.impinj.com/hc/en-us/articles/205200678
Impinj has ported the IRI host library to the TI MSP430 and produced the following examples:
- MSP430 as USB-UART bridge: https://support.impinj.com/hc/en-us/articles/203253393
- MSP430 as IRI host with USB-UART printf: https://support.impinj.com/hc/en-us/articles/203483798
- MSP430 as IRI-LT host with USB-UART printf: https://support.impinj.com/hc/en-us/articles/203309203
- MSP430 as IRI-LT host with non-blocking code: https://support.impinj.com/hc/en-us/articles/203467633
- MSP430 as IRI-LT host with HID keyboard emulation: https://support.impinj.com/hc/en-us/articles/203402733
Indy Chip Reference Materials¶
The following section details reference documents for the Indy UHF RFID Reader Chip products. The Indy chips R500, R1000, and R2000 do not use the same IRI interface as the Indy Modules. However, their technology is at the core of the Indy Modules, so their reference materials can be useful in certain circumstances.
Indy Chip Datasheets¶
The Indy R500 and R2000 reader chips have datasheets similar to those of the Indy Modules, but more detailed, as the chips require more configuration and supporting external hardware to function.
The Indy chip datasheets contain:
- Technical introduction
- Feature overview
- Chip register definitions
- Detailed RF functional description
- Electrical specifications
- Pin listing and pinout
- Mechanical dimensions
Download the latest R2000 chip datasheet here: https://support.impinj.com/hc/en-us/articles/202755828
Download the latest R500 chip datasheet here: https://support.impinj.com/hc/en-us/articles/202755858
Additional Indy Chip Documentation¶
The Indy reader chips have more documentation than the IRI-based reader modules. The main reason for this is that the Indy chip reference design and the IndyMAC firmware interface is much more complicated than the modules and their IRI interface.
Indy Chip Documentation includes:
- IndyMAC firmware documentation
- Host library documentation
- Software tools documentation
- Development kit documentation
Download all of the additional Indy Chip documentation here: https://support.impinj.com/hc/en-us/articles/202759138
Impinj RFID Reference Materials¶
Impinj Support Portal RFID Learning Center¶
Impinj maintains a number of articles about RFID in our “Learning Center” on http://support.impinj.com. Some of these articles are focused on Impinj’s other RFID products, such as tags, fixed readers, gateways, and software, but even these can still be instructive to those learning about RFID.
The learning center contains documentation on:
- Search modes and sessions
- RF cabling and antennas
- RFID terminology, measurements, and units
- Much, much more
Visit Impinj’s RFID Learning Center here: https://support.impinj.com/hc/en-us/sections/200454538
