Help selecting RFID tag

[Cydney]

I'm at college doing a project - my project is a cat flap with a unlocking recognition mechanism. It was going to operate through means of an RFID tag within a collar and reader in the cat flap itself, then using a solenoid as the locking mechanism.
I'm struggling to find the right RFID tag and reader though, I'm only a beginner so it seems too complicated for me to understand what one I want. I've been looking on Rapid Electronics. I want a passive tag as it only needs to be recognised within a couple of meters and it needs to be relatively cheap.
Any advice would be extremely helpful!!

 

[(*steve*)]

I've thought of doing this with small 150kHz tags that can be attached to a cat collar. The problems I've found are that the range for a simple reader is only in the order of 10cm *MAX* and if the tag is positioned poorly there is almost no range at all!

Longer range can be achieved with larger antennas and probably more power, and possibly by using different frequencies.

Given that this is homework, that's all I'll tell you

 

[KrisBlueNZ]

You might be able to use the 150 kHz tags if you can figure out how to get the cat to put its head through the antenna (a loop of around 20 cm diameter) on its way towards the cat flap. But these are cats we're talking about...

 

[Frenoy Osburn]

Massimo Banzi's (co-founder of Arduino) Ted talk had something similar for cats with different dietary needs.

It's a nice video overall, I actually was inspired by it when I watched it years ago. If you have 15 minutes, then do watch it.

Anyway here's an article which should link you to some good material

http://hackaday.com/2010/07/17/rfid-cat-feeder-helps-with-the-diet/

And here's the Ted talk:

http://www.ted.com/talks/massimo_banzi_how_arduino_is_open_sourcing_imagination?language=en#

 

[Anon_LG]

Collars can be dangerous to cats, even breakaway ones. Be careful if you are using a collar. I do not want to put you off but if incorrectly used they can harm the cat.