Review on Wireless 134 2KHz Contactless Controller Antenna by Brandon Show

I managed to get this reader to work using USB FTDI, which can be seen in the first picture. I couldn't get it to work with the ESP8266 for my home automation project. I think the board uses VCC (5 volts) on the uart Tx (serial port - pin 4). The ESP8266 is highly allergic to 5V. Also, I had to place the RFID chip very close (1-2cm) to the antenna AND also perpendicular to the antenna so that the board could read the chip. Otherwise the RFID chip will not be decoded. I can't use this home automation board to open the cat door. It doesn't seem to work with the Wemos D1 mini I'm using and it probably blew the Rx ESP8266 because the Tx seems to be using VCC and not 3.3V. I also tried powering the board directly from a USB charger 1A and it did NOT improve antenna proximity detection. I tried in case the power supply supplied by Wemos limits the reader's power consumption, but that wasn't the problem. Martin Politics, January 2020