ThingMagic M6 Series: Connecting the ThingMagic M6 RFID Reader To Your Computer
Introduction
This is part two of a three part series that walks through unboxing, setting up, and connecting to the ThingMagic M6 RFID Reader. The third video in the series also discusses navigating through the ThingMagic URA Program.
[Audio Transcription Below]
Once you have all of the hardware components set up, you will need to prepare your computer to connect to your reader. You will want to configure your Windows operating system to automatically assign IP addresses. For this demonstration, we will be running a Windows 8 operating system. You will need to have administrator rights to your PC and you will want to disable any Wi-Fi connection that you have set on your computer.
Set Up
Here are the steps to disable your Wi-Fi connection and ensure that your computer is set to obtain IP addresses and DNS server addresses automatically.
- Click “Start” and choose “Control Panel”
- Under the “Network and Internet Section”, Click “View Network Status and Task”
- Click “Change Adapter Settings”
- Right click on the “Wireless Network Connection” option and disable the connection
- To set your computer to automatically assign IP addresses, right click on the “Local Area Connection” and select “Properties”
- Highlight Internet protocol version 4, and elect “Properties”
- Make sure your computer is set to obtain an IP address automatically and obtain DNS server address automatically on the Internet 4 properties window shown in the video.
Once your computer is set to automatically assign IP addresses, you will want to download Bonjour.
Bonjour is a program that helps applications discover shared devices on a local network. For this demonstration, Bonjour will assist in identifying your reader’s IP address.
- Download Bonjour
- Double click the file name “Bonjour” to install the software
- Click “Next” to begin the installer
- Read and accept the terms in the license agreement, and then click “Next” to continue
- Click “Next” again to continue
- Accept the default settings and click “Install”
- Allow the program to finish installing and then click “Finish”
Once you have Bonjour installed, you are ready to install ThingMagic’s Universal Reader Assistant Program, also known as URA. URA is a software program that runs on ThingMagic readers for testing and demonstration purposes.
- Download the ThingMagic Universal Reader Assistant
- Click on the “URABonjourSetup” file
- Agree to the license terms and agreements, and click “Install”
- Click “Yes” to allow URA to make the needed changes to your computer
- Click “Next” and accept the terms of the license agreement for Bonjour. Then, click “Install”
- Click “Close” to complete the installation
Now that the URA program is installed, we are ready to connect to the ThingMagic M6 Reader.
- Click “Start” and open the “Universal Reader Assistant”
- To begin, click the “Connect” tab under the “Settings/Status” tab on the right side of your screen.
- At the top of the “Connect” section you will see two options from which to choose: “Network Reader” and “Serial Reader”
- The ThingMagic M6 Reader is a Network Reader, so select the “Network Reader” option
- If the URA program does not automatically recognize your reader, you will need to use the reader’s host name as a fallback. The reader’s host name will be M6 followed by a dash and then the last 6 characters of the reader’s MAC address. The MAC address is typically located on a label on the side of your reader.
For this example, the MAC address is 0012A42133B7, so the reader’s host name will be M6-2133B7. If are connected directly to your host computer or laptop through Ethernet, then you will need to type “.local” at the end of the host name.
- Once you have input the reader’s host name, click “Connect”
- The URI on the top of the screen, which used to be red< should turn yellow, and the word “Disconnected” to the right of the “READ URI” button should change to “Connected”
Remember: Red means “no connection”, Yellow means the URA has established connection and the reader is “idle”, and Green means the reader is “actively reading”.
Your reader should now be connected to your network and recognized by the URA program. For more information on how to use the URA program to read and write tags, please click the link below.
Conclusion
That concludes our video on connecting the ThingMagic M6 reader to your computer. Thanks for taking the time to walk through these steps with us. For more information on all things RFID, check out our blog or our RFID resources page. And as always, if you have any questions at all, send us an email or give us a call.
For the next video and transcript in the series, checkout ThingMagic M6 Series: How to Use the ThingMagic URA.
To read more about ThingMagic Products, check out the links below!