Parking lots and gated communities
A gated community or a private parking lot wants its gate to open for its own cars and for no others. Nobody wants to stop and swipe a card to get in.
How the original system could serve it
A tag fixed to each car would open the gate as the car arrived, with no hands involved. The reader or the host computer would record every entry and exit. That record could bill parking by the day, the week or the month.
The reader could also start a camera or a video recorder whenever a car came in or went out.
The Standard Reader's two relay outputs could drive locks, cameras and lights. Its two contact inputs could sense a door or a button. The compactTag was about the size of a car remote.
What a builder would need
A builder would need a tag for each car and a reader at the gate, wired to the gate's opener. Host software would keep the list of cars allowed in and the log of entries.
The rebuild's first milestone has one reader and three tags, and no gate control. A builder would add the gate's side: a relay the reader can switch, and the software that decides which cars may enter.
Building one today
Nobody has rebuilt the original hardware recently, so nobody knows whether the old files still make a working system. The TigeRFID project's study of the original found firmware for the sealTag only, and the rebuild's sealTag is a new design. A rebuild writes all of its firmware fresh.
The TigeRFID project is rebuilding the system from the ground up, for a complete beginner with free tools. To build your own, start at the TigeRFID repository, whose readme tells where the rebuild stands.
Nothing on this site says a rebuild may transmit on the original radios' frequencies as they are. Radio rules differ by country, and the TigeRFID project checks them before it chooses a rebuild's radios.
If you build one, or try, please report back in the repository's issues. What works and what fails both help the next builder.
Sources:
- the old site's Parking Lot Control page and its featured-application box, as it served them until October 2026;
- the Standard Reader and compactTag pages on this site;
- the TigeRFID project plan on its main branch, for the rebuild's first milestone.