Are inexpensive ID tags and readers available that can be used for this purpose?
—Name withheld
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I am unaware of any product on the market designed for this specific application, but most RFID readers have input and output ports, so it might be possible rig up a system in which a tag would be read as an animal approached a door, and a reader would then send a signal to trigger the solenoid switch to open or close it. Skyetek‘s M2 module, for instance, has I/O ports, as does ThingMagic‘s Mercury 5e reader.
Since I am not an engineer, I am unable to provide advice on how a reader should be set up to trigger a solenoid. Perhaps some engineers among our readership can chime in here.
—Mark Roberti, Editor, RFID Journal