Impinj R700 Antenna Hub | Setting Up, Connecting, and Using this RFID Antenna Hub

Posted by Suzanne Smiley on Oct 21, 2022

Video Script

Welcome to this video where we will not only introduce the Impinj R700 Antenna Hub, but also set it up with the Impinj R700 RFID Reader, and read UHF RFID tags. To watch this video on YouTube - click here.

Welcome to this video where we will setup and use the Impinj R700 Antenna Hub. This Antenna Hub enables each antenna port on an R700 RFID reader to connect to up to 8 RFID antennas, which means that one, 4-port RFID reader can connect to up to 32 RFID antennas.

The R700 Antenna Hub is actually more cost-effective and easier to setup than the Impinj Speedway Antenna Hub because it doesn’t require the purchase or use of a GPIO Adapter.

Today we are going to setup our Impinj R700 RAIN RFID Reader with the Impinj R700 Antenna Hub and demonstrate connecting and using the antenna hub with 2 RFID Antennas. In order to get started with this antenna hub, we will need a few items:

With the R700 and one RFID Antenna Hub, you are able to connect to 11 RFID Antennas - 8 via the Antenna Hub, and 3 via the additional RFID reader antenna ports. If you want to connect to more RFID antennas than the 2 we will be connecting to today, simply add additional RFID Antennas and Antenna Cables to your list. However, if you need to connect to more than 11, you will need to add an additional RFID Antenna Hub. In that case you will also need to add one of each of these items.

Before you plug in your reader, we first need to do all of our cable connections.

Hardware Setup

1. First we will connect our antenna hub to our R700 reader via a RP-TNC Male to SMA Male Cable, like this.

2. Now we will connect our two Vulcan RFID S9025PL Antennas using a N-Type Male to SMA Male Cable, like this.

3. Plug in your Impinj R700 RFID Reader and let it get started powering up.

Web UI

Once your reader is ready to go - jump to the Web UI which is http://impinj dash and the last 6 digits of your reader’s Mac Address, located on the side of your Impinj Reader. Type in the user name which is root and the password which is lower case impinj.

When you are in the Web UI, double check that your reader is running on the firmware version 7.3 or later. If not, you can simply download a firmware update via the link on screen now and in the description below.

In the Antenna Hub section, click on “Enable” and then click the “Reboot” button for the changes to take effect. The Web UI will count down from 60 and then reboot the reader and the Web UI which should take a couple minutes.

Once your Web UI comes back up, you can then open the Connections page by clicking the text “Show Connections” and then clicking “Check Connections”. If your antenna hub is connected correctly an image of the antenna hub should appear over the R700 and correlate to the antenna port it is connected to. Once you see that antenna hub image, your antenna hub is connected properly.

ItemTest

Open ItemTest and connect to your reader by clicking on the plus sign next to Data Sources. Input your reader’s hostname or IP address in the Hostname box and then click “Add Data Source”. If you need more information on downloading, setting up, and using ItemTest - check out our video Downloading, Installing, and Using ItemTest.

Our reader has now been added and when we click on the reader’s hostname under Data Sources, we can see that ItemTest is aware that our Antenna Hub is enabled because it has placed 32 antennas in our Antennas box. Instead of enabling all antennas on my antenna hub, I just want to check that the two I am using are working.

It's important to note that the R700 renames your antenna ports when the antenna hub is enabled, for instance, Antenna Port 1 becomes ports 1-8, Antenna Port 2 becomes ports 9-16, and so on.

I’m going to clear the Antennas box and manually type in 1 and 4 separated by a comma, which correlates to the ports on my antenna hub, and click “Save”. Now, on the home screen, go to the top and press the play button to start reading UHF RFID tags.

As you can see our tags are being read and our antenna hub LEDs are blinking on our enabled antenna ports. If you scroll to the right in ItemTest, you can even see which antenna is reading which RFID tag, which can be helpful in certain applications.

Thanks so much for watching this video all about setting up and using the Impinj R700 Antenna Hub. Remember to like this video and subscribe to our channel for more RFID videos just like this one!

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