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  3. My vehicle’s tag is not being detected by the Reader. What could be wrong?

As a first step, please ensure that the Reader is working for other vehicles that have tags and only your vehicle is not being detected. This is to ensure there is no issue in the Reader/Sentry Controller. If the reader is not working for any of the tags, please check and attempt the following to troubleshoot.

  1. Check the Reader and Sentry Controller – both must be connected to power supply and power is switched ON.
  2. Both the Reader and Sentry Controller must be connected to the same network switch. Unless both reader and Sentry controller are on the same LAN, the reader will not be able to detect the tag of the vehicles.
  3. Try restarting both reader and Sentry controller. To restart – switch off the power supply to both reader and Sentry controller. Now, power ON the reader first and wait for 60 seconds. Next, power ON the Sentry controller. Then wait for 120 seconds and then drive a vehicle with valid tag through, to test.
  4. If the reader is still not detecting the tags, please check if the tag is working with other readers (if you have deployed Sentry system at multiple gates) to isolate the problem.

If other tags are being read and only one vehicle’s tag is not being read, following are possible troubleshooting ways:

a) If this particular tag was recently issued and was “never” read by any Reader – then

  1. Check if the RFID tag is in “line of sight” for the reader. If the tag is placed too low or at some corner of windshield, it is quite possible that the reader is not able to “see” the tag. Do note that the tag must be in line of sight without any obstructions for reader to be able to detect it.
  2. Next reason for a tag to not be detected by the Reader is incorrect RFID tag number that was mapped in the portal against the vehicle.  Please log into ApnaComplex portal and check the RFID tag number against your vehicle. The RFID tag number is a 30 or 32 length number (with no spaces anywhere, including beginning and ending of the number). It is an alpha-numeric number and will not contain any special characters. Please ensure that it has been mentioned correctly.
  3. Next, please check the “connectivity status” time on the portal (Go to Gatekeeper->Vehicles –> Vehicle Movement – you can see the “Connectivity status of Sentry with ApnaComplex Cloud” for every Sentry controller that is deployed) – if the synchronization between Sentry Controller and ApnaComplex cloud has not happened after the tag is added – then the RFID reader would not be able to read this tag. If the synchronization has not happened, check if the internet connection is available to the Sentry controller. If needed, just restart the controller and wait for 3-4 minutes for synchronization to happen.

b) If the tag was read in the past, but suddenly stopped working – check if there was any physical damage to the tag (the usual 4-wheeler tags we offer are tamper proof – so if any one attempts to remove the tag – they will get spoiled; And 2-wheeler tags usually get damaged much faster as they are exposed to environment). The  best option is to replace the tag.

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