Hello!

After a little back and forth, I’ve decided on trying my luck with RFID for identifying Chess Pieces on a board.

I’m thinking of using PN532 RFID readers to identify the tags under chess pieces. These PN532’s would be plugged into their own little microcontroller, and then those would be plugged into the Arduino.

This is because these antennas need a lot of I/O pins, I’ll try to connect them in series, or maybe multiplex, but I think having a grid of a few sub-controllers taking care of a few antenna-inputs and just reporting back to the Arduino might be the most efficient.

Question is, what microcontroller would be best to use to handle let’s say 4 or whatever PN532 modules? I haven’t really plugged multiple controllers together before. An Arduino Nano? Seeeduino? Something else entirely? Price is not a huge problem if the microcontroller is superior for this application.



TL;DR:
What microcontroller is recommended for serial communication with Arduino and handling a few RFID readers?

 

An antenna will only have two connections. What are you referring to by “antenna”?

If you are going to try to use many readers you will need something like this I²C mux (multiplexer). It uses one I²C connection to the MCU and gives back 8 selectable ports. This will allow you to use one mux per rank or file and one that each of those connect to so the MCU can select a rank/file and square.

Make sure you shop around very carefully, prices on RFID modules vary considerably and given the number you intend to buy, it may be a big difference.

 

An antenna will only have two connections. What are you referring to by “antenna”?

If you are going to try to use many readers you will need something like this I²C mux (multiplexer). It uses one I²C connection to the MCU and gives back 8 selectable ports. This will allow you to use one mux per rank or file and one that each of those connect to so the MCU can select a rank/file and square.

Make sure you shop around very carefully, prices on RFID modules vary considerably and given the number you intend to buy, it may be a big difference.

Right, sorry, I refer to the reader module as an antenna, even though that’s specifically something else. I’ve looked into multiplexing antennas, the proper meaning of antenna this time, and realized it’s a little complicated as resistances and cable lengths and such all seemingly have an impact on this, and antenna multiplexers are expensive and/or difficult to DIY.

I could multiplex the readers, which I can attempt anyways once I get them, but after having read a fair bit of stuff online I think that just using microcontrollers for a few readers each is relatively easy to set up and scalable.

I can try multiplexing, expanding I/O pins, and connecting in series anyways, but I’d like to have some compatible microcontrollers for this anyways. I’ve read a fair bit about this, and having more knowledge within the digital rather than analog, I think it’s the best shot for me.

 

Right, sorry, I refer to the reader module as an antenna, even though that’s specifically something else. I’ve looked into multiplexing antennas, the proper meaning of antenna this time, and realized it’s a little complicated as resistances and cable lengths and such all seemingly have an impact on this, and antenna multiplexers are expensive and/or difficult to DIY.

I could multiplex the readers, which I can attempt anyways once I get them, but after having read a fair bit of stuff online I think that just using microcontrollers for a few readers each is relatively easy to set up and scalable.

I can try multiplexing, expanding I/O pins, and connecting in series anyways, but I’d like to have some compatible microcontrollers for this anyways. I’ve read a fair bit about this, and having more knowledge within the digital rather than analog, I think it’s the best shot for me.

Certainly not the approach I would take. Best of luck with it.