Troubleshooting • RFID Reader Not Working

EH301 USB Reader Works on Windows 11 but Not Consistently on Raspberry Pi OS (Raspberry Pi 5)

Hi everyone,

I’m using an EH301 USB RFID (FissaiD on Amazon) card reader that works flawlessly on my Windows 11 PC—it reads badge numbers perfectly and outputs them consistently with every tap.

However, when I connect the same reader to a Raspberry Pi 5 running Raspberry Pi OS, the device powers on normally, but card taps don’t reliably produce output. The only exception is when I use the configuration card (a thin RFID card), which the reader sometimes detects and outputs correctly (though this detection is inconsistent).

Another odd behavior I’ve noticed is that the reader sometimes outputs a string of zeros (`0000000000`) even when no card is tapped. This seems to happen completely at random, with no fixed interval.

I have three readers in total, and all behave the same way: fully functional on Windows but unable to read cards reliably on the Pi. On the Pi, card detection is random, and the card has to be held much closer to the reader to get any response.

I initially thought this might be a power issue, but even when the reader is the *only* USB device connected to the Pi, the problem persists.

I also tried tweaking the USB quirks by adding this line to etc/modprobe.d/hid_quirks.conf:
I’ve also noticed the device is detected as a keyboard and HID device. I’m confused why a card that activates the reader on my Windows laptop doesn’t work reliably on the Pi. I suspect it might be a power issue because everything else doesn’t add up—the inconsistent detection, the reduced range, etc.

This quirks setting helped the reader recognize clamshell cards, but unfortunately, ISO cards still don’t register reliably, which are the ones we need most.

Any advice?

Thanks!

Statistics: Posted by rod4417 — Thu Jun 12, 2025 10:26 pm — Replies 0 — Views 7

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