Agrident ASR550 Reader

The Agrident ASR550 EID reader module is a simple box that when connected to an antenna (which on the farmIT crate is hidden around the door) can detect and read an EID chip and send that information to a display such as the XR3000 weigh head or the EW7. With such a weigh head the EID can be linked to a weight and that data used to record information such as weight gain, or can just be used to create list of animals "Seen".

Connections

The agrident has three connectors, it is quite hard to connect these into the wrong sockets as they have different number of pins.

• The antenna (3-pin plug) connects to the left hand socket
• The battery cable (2-pin plug) is the centre cable and simply needs to be clipped onto your battery, please check the leads are the right way round
• The coms cable connects to the right hand socket and then the com port (2) on the weigh head(XR300, EW7).

Operation

The unit is auto tuning, but you can force a retune by pressing "Tune" button on the front panel. the unit has three lights, the service light (red) is normally off, power light (orange) is always on as long as power is reaching the box, and green Ok light flashes when it reads a tag. A buzzer also sounds when detecting an EID. During tuning the lights will flash then just the power light will appear when finished.

Wave a tag in front of the antenna. The unit should beep and the green light will flash. The antenna should read FDX tags to around 60cm. HDX tags will read a little father at 70cm max. The unit has been tested before shipping to ensure this read range with a "Shearwell" FDX tag set.
During operation please ensure you have no tags in your pockets (including car key fobs with electronic chips or the dogs.) You may also need to ensure that sheep do not wonder around the back of the crate as the reader will read tags from both sides.
Once you are happy it is all working you can start letting the sheep through.
Top Tip:- It is a lot easier to test the unit with a tag that is not in the sheep. only introduce the sheep when you are happy that everything else is working. Remember that the unit reads EID tags not sheep.

 

Diagnostics

1.Check that all leads are connected
2.Check power is on
3.Press the tune button and verify that the service light ends up off. The Ok light(green) should flash 8-10 times at the end of the sequence
4.Wave a tag at the reader. If the read range of the reader is less than 4 cm with a FDX tag it is likely that there is a local electronic interface> HDX tags do not suffer from this problem.

Electronic Interface

If the read range of the HDX tag is less than 4cm it is extremely likely that some electronic interference is affecting the read range. The most likely source of this interference is direct interference via the power supply. We recommend running the reader off a battery. You can run it of a 12v DC power supply but it needs to be a smooth supply capable of delivering at least 1 amp to the reader.(We can supply a suitable device - please contact for details)
The next likely source of interference is other power supplies driving weigh heads or laptops etc. First of all switch them off to verify that they are the source. If this is confirmed (by an improved read range) try moving the power supply at least 2m's away from the reader antenna.

What the lights mean

The ASR550 has 3 on-board LEDs which indicate the reader status. In general the orange LED indicates the reader is switched on and the firmware is running. The green LED indicates a successful tag read and the red LED means there is a fault condition. In addition the LEDs are used for showing other operating conditions:

Yellow(Power)	Green(Read)	Red(Service)	Function
Continuously on	Off	Off	Reader status ok
Continuously on	Flashing	Off	Tag was read
Flashing	Off	Off	Reader is ok and sync. Slave
Flashing	Off	Continuously on	Low input voltage (<11.0v DC)
Continuously on	Flashing	Continuously on	Antenna fault

Condition one, two and three are the indicator working correctly, if the input voltage is below 11.0 volts DC, the reader will shut down the transmitter in order to avoid overheating . The ASR550 will also disable the transmitter if the antenna inductance and/or the antenna impedance are completely wrong. If you are still having trouble with your reader please contact border software Ltd on 01938 820625