RFID chip & antenna behind UPS shipping labels

[TonyR]

I understand these have been in use for a while but was curious and looked into it and thought others here may be curious as well or may not have noticed at all. The image below is the front and back of one I ripped off a package from Ama$on that UPS delivered..The link at the bottom is a post from a guy in WA state that really got into it in March of 2023.

RFID chip from UPS shipping label - www.photomacrography.net

 

[David L]

Very interesting though I am completely ignorant on these chips and RFID. How does it get it's power? What is it connecting to or is it just used with its antennas to be connect to?

 

[TonyR]

From Google:

RFID labels get power in two main ways: Passive tags harvest energy from the reader's radio waves to activate and transmit data (no battery needed), while Active tags use their own internal battery for longer range and more powerful signals, making them bulkier and costlier. Passive tags are common for items like key cards or clothing, using inductive coupling to power up, whereas active tags track vehicles or large shipments. ​

 

[Mark_M]

The first thing that came to my mind is RF EAS label

Electronic article surveillance - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

This is a small metal antenna with a make-shift capacitor in line.
It works as an LC circuit oscillator. Then a scanner is sending a similar frequency and looking for this particular frequency being resonated on this coil (Commonly 8.2 MHz).
They're used for items in stores and entrance/exit alarm scanner units. You know, when you haven't paid for an item.
Using a checkout scanner emits a small electromagnetic pulse which damages this capacitor and damages the coil assembly so it's unable to resonate at the specific frequency the detectors are looking for.


But the photos on that article shows a lot more than a make-shift (cheap) capacitor. And it would make sense that UPS uses some scanner that can store information rather than make it's presence known to a scanner.

 

[TonyR]

The first thing that came to my mind is RF EAS label

Electronic article surveillance - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

This is a small metal antenna with a make-shift capacitor in line.
It works as an LC circuit oscillator. Then a scanner is sending a similar frequency and looking for this particular frequency being resonated on this coil (Commonly 8.2 MHz).
They're used for items in stores and entrance/exit alarm scanner units. You know, when you haven't paid for an item.
Using a checkout scanner emits a small electromagnetic pulse which damages this capacitor and damages the coil assembly so it's unable to resonate at the specific frequency the detectors are looking for.


But the photos on that article shows a lot more than a make-shift (cheap) capacitor. And it would make sense that UPS uses some scanner that can store information rather than make it's presence known to a scanner.

I recall in the early days of their deployment ((early to mid-90's ?) I could set off the alarm on some of those asset protection towers when entering/existing a store while wearing my Motorola Advisor Gold pager.

Since I cannot upload image => Google Image Result for https://assets.rbl.ms/25587494/origin.jpg

 

[David L]

I recall in the early days of their deployment ((early to mid-90's ?) I could set off the alarm on some of those asset protection towers when entering/existing a store while wearing my Motorola Advisor Gold pager.

Since I cannot upload image => Google Image Result for https://assets.rbl.ms/25587494/origin.jpg

You know the funny thing is, I have seen countless times those go off and people just walk on out, no one stops them, so what are they good for these days?

Even my phone has set off a couple before...

 

[Mark_M]

The EAS alarms take a while to setup.
New IP network units make it far easier to get an environmental RF noise graph and tune the tags, while excluding other frequencies.