RFID Interfacing with 8051 Microcontroller

Published February 27, 2018 2

SShashi Kumar
Author

RFID Interfacing with 8051 Microcontroller

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) uses radio frequency to read information stored in a

RFID card or tag. In this project we are going to Interface EM-18 RFID reader with 8051

microcontroller and display RFID card number on 16*2 LCD display. This wireless RF
Identification is used in many systems like RFID Based Attendance System, security

systems, voting machines etc. This project will also serve as a proper interfacing of 16*2 LCD
with 8051 microcontroller.
Components Required:

• 8051 microcontroller

• EM-18 RFID reader

• 16*2 LCD display

• RFID cards/tags

• Potentiometer

• Jumper wires

Circuit Diagram:

8051 Microcontroller:
8051 microcontroller is a 8 bit microcontroller which has 128 bytes of on chip RAM, 4K bytes
of on chip ROM, two timers, one serial port and four 8bit ports. 8052 microcontroller is an

extension of microcontroller. The table below shows the comparison of 8051 family members.

Feature 8051 8052

ROM (in bytes) 4K 8K

RAM (bytes) 128 256

Timers 2 3

I/O pins 32 32

Serial port 1 1
Interrupt sources 6 8

16x2 LCD:
16*2 LCD is a widely used display for embedded applications. Here is the brief explanation about
pins and working of 16*2 LCD display. There are two very important registers inside the LCD.

They are data register and command register. Command register is used to send commands such

as clear display, cursor at home etc., data register is used to send data which is to be displayed on

16*2 LCD. Below table shows the pin description of 16*2 lcd.

Pin Symbol I/O Description

1 Vss - Ground

2 Vdd - +5V power supply

3 Vee - Power supply to control contrast

RS=0 for command register ,

4 RS I
RS=1 for data register

5 RW I R/W=0 for write , R/W=1 for read

6 E I/O Enable

7 D0 I/O 8-bit data bus(LSB)

8 D1 I/O 8-bit data bus

9 D2 I/O 8-bit data bus

10 D3 I/O 8-bit data bus

11 D4 I/O 8-bit data bus

12 D5 I/O 8-bit data bus

13 D6 I/O 8-bit data bus

14 D7 I/O 8-bit data bus(MSB)

15 A - +5V for backlight

16 K - Ground

The below table shows frequently used LCD command codes.

Code(hex) Description

01 Clear display screen

06 Increment cursor (right shift)

0A Display off , cursor on

0C Display on , cursor off

0F Display on , cursor blinking

80 Force the cursor to beginning of 1st line

C0 Force the cursor to beginningof 2nd line

38 2 lines and 5*7 matrix

EM-18 RFID Reader:
EM-18 RFID reader operates at 125 KHz and it comes with an on-chip antenna and it can be

powered with 5V power supply. It provides serial output along with weigand output. The range is

around 8-12cm. serial communication parameters are 9600bps, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit. Its
applications include Authentication, e-toll road pricing, e-ticketing for public transport,

attendance systems etc. Check all the RFID Projects here.

The output provided by EM-18 RFID reader is in 12 digit ASCII format. Out of 12 digits first 10

digits are card number and the last two digits are the XOR result of the card number. Last two

digits are used for error checking.

For example, card number is 0200107D0D62 read from the reader then the card number on the

card will be as below.

02 – preamble

00107D0D = 1080589 in decimal.

62 is XOR value for (02 XOR 00 XOR 10 XOR 7D XOR 0D).

Hence number on the card is 0001080589.

Working and Code explanation:

The complete C program and demonstration Video for this project is given at the end of this

project. The code is split into small meaningful chunks and explained below.

For 16*2 LCD interfacing with 8051 microcontroller, we have to define pins on which 16*2

lcd is connected to 8051 microcontroller. RS pin of 16*2 lcd is connected to P3.7, RW pin of 16*2

lcd is connected to P3.6 and E pin of 16*2 lcd is connected to P3.5. Data pins are connected to

port 1 of 8051 microcontroller.

sbit rs=P3^7;
sbit rw=P3^6;
sbit en=P3^5;

Next we have to define some functions which are used in the program. Delay function is used to

create specified time delay. Cmdwrt function is used to send commands to 16*2 lcd

display. datawrt function is used to send data to 16*2 lcd display. Rxdata function is used to

receive data from serial port.

void delay(unsigned int) ;

void cmdwrt(unsigned char);
void datawrt(unsigned char);
char rxdata(void);

In this part of the code we are going to configure 8051 microcontroller for serial

communication.

TMOD register is loaded with 0x20 for timer 1, mode 2 (auto reload). SCON register is loaded

with 0x50 for 8 data bits, 1 stop bit and receive enabled. TH1 register is loaded with 0xfd for baud

rate of 9600 bits per second. TR1=1 is used to start the timer.

TMOD= 0x20;
SCON=0x50;
TH1=0xfd;
TR1=1;

In this part of the code , we are sending commands to 16*2 lcd. Commands such as clear display ,

increment cursor , force the cursor to beginning of 1st line are sent to 16*2 lcd display one by one

after some some specified time delay.

for(i=0;i<5;i++)
{
cmdwrt (cmd[i]);
delay (1);
}

In this part of the code we are receiving the output of the EM-18 RFID reader through serial

interface of 8051 microcontroller and stored in a variable. Count is used to keep track of number

of bytes received. Once all the 12bytes of data are received, next we have to display it on 16*2 lcd

display. This process is repeated forever in order to read different cards.

while(1)
{
count=0;
cmdwrt(0xC2);
while(count<12)
{
input[count]=rxdata();
count++;
}
for(i=0;i<12;i++)
{
datawrt(input[i]);
delay(1);
}
delay(100);
}

In this part of the code, we are sending commands to 16*2 lcd display. The command is copied

to port 1 of 8051 microcontroller. RS is made low for command write. RW is made low for write

operation. High to low pulse is applied on enable (E) pin to start command write operation.

void cmdwrt (unsigned char x)

{
P1=x;
rs=0;
rw=0;
en=1;
delay(1);
en=0;
}

In this part of the code , we are sending data to 16*2 lcd display. The data is copied to port 1 of

8051 microcontroller. RS is made high for command write . RW is made low for write operation.

High to low pulse is applied on enable(E) pin to start data write operation.

void datawrt (unsigned char y)

{
P1=y;
rs=1;
rw=0;
en=1;
delay(1);
en=0;
}

Also, check our all RFID projects with other microcontrollers.

Code
/*this program is for interfacing RFID reader with 8051 microcontroller and to displa
y card number on 16*2 lcd display*/

#include<reg51.h>

sbit rs=P3^7; //Register Select(RS) pin of 16*2 lcd

sbit rw=P3^6; //Read/Write(RW) pin of 16*2 lcd

sbit en=P3^5; //Enable(E) pin of 16*2 lcd

char count = 0; // count = 0

char input[12]; // character array of size 12

char ch;

void delay(unsigned int) ; //function for creating delay

void cmdwrt(unsigned char); //function for sending commands to 16*2 lcd

display

void datawrt(unsigned char); //function for sending data to 16*2 lcd disp
lay
char rxdata(void); //function for receiving a characte
r through serial port of 8051

microcontroller

void main(void)

unsigned char cmd[]={0x38,0x01,0x06,0x0c,0x80}; //16*2 l

cd initialization commands

unsigned char msg[]={"RFID card Number"};

unsigned char i;

TMOD=0x20; //timer 1 , mode 2 , auto reload

SCON=0x50; //8bit data , 1 stop bit , REN enabled

TH1=0xfd; //timer value for 9600 bits per second(bps)

TR1=1; //start the timer

for(i=0;i<5;i++) //send commands to 16*2 lcd display one comman

d at a time

cmdwrt(cmd[i]); //function call to send commands to 16

*2 lcd display
 delay(1);

for(i=0;i<16;i++) //send data to 16*2 lcd display one ch

aracter at a time

datawrt(msg[i]); //function call to display message on 16

*2 lcd display

delay(1);

while(1)

count=0;

cmdwrt(0xC2);

while(count<12) //repeat for 12 times

input[count]=rxdata(); //receive serial data and

store it.
 count++;

for(i=0;i<12;i++) //send data

to 16*2 lcd display one character at a time

datawrt(input[i]); //function call to disp

lay rfid card number on 16*2 lcd display

delay(1);

delay(100);

void cmdwrt (unsigned char x)

P1=x; //send the command to Port 1 on which 16*2 lcd is connected

 rs=0; //make RS = 0 for command

rw=0; //make RW = 0 for write operation

en=1; //send a HIGH to LOW pulse on Enable(E) pin to start commandwrite operatio
n

delay(1);

en=0;

void datawrt (unsigned char y)

P1=y; //send the data to Port 1 on which 16*2 lcd is connected

rs=1; //make RS = 1 for command

rw=0; //make RW = 0 for write operation

en=1; //send a HIGH to LOW pulse on Enable(E) pin to start datawrite operation

delay(1);

en=0;

}
char rxdata()

while(RI==0); //wait till RI becomes HIGH

RI=0; //make RI low

ch=SBUF; //copy received data

return ch; //return the received data to main function.

void delay(unsigned int z)

unsigned int p,q;

for(p=0;p<z;p++) //repeat for 'z' times

for(q=0;q<1375;q++); //repeat for 1375 times