A weekend solution to automate RFID tag data collection, eliminating manual data entry and saving hours of work.
The challenge and solution
The Problem: I had dozens of RFID tags that needed to be catalogued for a project. While the IDs were printed on each tag, manually typing them into a spreadsheet was tedious and error-prone.
The Solution: A weekend Arduino project that automatically reads RFID tags and outputs their unique IDs to a CSV format via serial communication. Simply pass each tag over the reader, and it logs the data automatically.
Result: What would have taken hours of manual data entry was completed in minutes, with zero transcription errors.
Hardware components and costs
Arduino C++ code for RFID tag reading and logging
Complete source code for the RFID reader project
Prevents duplicate entries by comparing UIDs against previously scanned tags
Serial output formatted for easy CSV import with tag count and UID
Handles multiple RFID tag types and formats automatically
Immediate serial output shows scan progress and tag count