The upcoming BizTalk 2006 “R2” product enhances the BizTalk family with a new platform for developing solutions that integrate with real-world sensors. RFID enables actual and near real-time visibility into a myriad of processes in the enterprise.

BizTalk RFID offers a new platform for Independent Hardware Vendors to integrate their hardware innovations and expose them to the entire Microsoft developer community. Sensor devices integrate with the BizTalk RFID through a Device Service Provider Interface (DSPI). This is akin to a device driver used to connect a printer, a mouse, etc.

This sample is meant to supplement the BizTalk 2006 R2 developer documentation. Source code is provided to aid developers and hardware designers understand the constructs and implementation of a DSPI.

This provider project is also part of an upcoming book on BizTalk RFID development.

The BizTalk RFID DSPI for DLP Devices offers support for the following products:

• DLP-RFID1 – RFID Reader / Writer
• A USB-powered RFID device for reading from and writing to ISO 15693, ISO 18000-3, and Tag-it™ RFID transponder tags. In additional to reading the unique ID (UID) of each tag, the device can read and write up to 256 bytes (2048 bits) in the user memory area of the tag. Additional functionality includes the locking and killing of tags to prevent further unauthorized updates to the tag user memory or to completely destroy a tag.
• Additional features of the hardware include:
• Compatible with ISO 15693, 18000-3, Tag-it™ HF-I RFID tags
• Permanent unique serial number (UID)
• Read UID/SID of up to 15 Tags simultaneously
• 13.56MHz Reader/Writer
• Built-in Antenna: Up to 4-Inch (10 cm) read range
• Integrated beeper

 Support for the following additional devices will be available in an upcoming upgrade to this sample provider.

• DLP-TH1 – Temperature Humidity Sensor
• DLP-IO8-G – 8 Channel Data Acquisition Board
• DLP-TEMP-G – 3 Channel Data/Temperature Acquisition Board

These sensors are exposed as devices in the BizTalk RFID management console. BizTalk RFID processes can bind to these devices and their exposed sources to receive data for processing.

All of these devices are connected to any available USB port on the host computer where the DSPI runs. The host computer must also run the BizTalk RFID run-time engine.

About DLP Design Devices

DLP Design devices are a family of USB-connected devices that serve the engineer and hobbyist community with building blocks to assemble and prototype real-world solutions.

For further information on these devices, please refer to the DLP Design site: http://www.dlpdesign.com