Pet Microchip scan

[aco4u]

Hey Guys,
So I'm pretty much a total noob how radio frequencies work.
I stumbled on this forum and thought its a good place to ask this.
Is there a way to build a large-distance animal microchip scanner?
I was curious if there was a way to look for microchipped animals via scanning microchips in the area.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I don't think so, as it's essentially an RFID tag, so is powered by an RF transmission from the reader - which only works over a very short range.

 

[rjenkinsgb]

As Nigel says.

The pet tags apparently operate on 134KHz and although its "radio frequency", the function is more like transformer coupling between the coil in the reader and the coil in the tag.

The operating range is pretty much dependant on the size of the reader coil, within reason.

It may be possible to get to a foot or two, with a coil on the reader two or three feet diameter.

Just for context, a conventional "half wavelength" dipole antenna element would be roughly three quarters of a mile long at that low a frequency, vs. about 5ft for FM radio or something like a foot down to eight inches or so for the higher TV frequencies.

edit - typo

 

[aco4u]

I see, got it.
Thanks a lot for your time!

 

[danadak]

Drone based system with GPS ? Not necessarily a conventional tag for animal. Alternate
tag technology.......to be scanned by drone.....optical.....radio.....energy harvesting....
image recognition....scan barcode.....scan QR code....QRP VLF based system....

Water supply based counting system, networked.....


Regards, Dana.