All Identium UHF products are RAIN RFID — the industry term for passive UHF built on the EPC Gen2 (ISO/IEC 18000-63) air-interface standard. Tell us the country of installation and we will confirm the right regional band configuration for your order.
A conventional overhead RFID read point is three purchases and three installs: a reader in a cabinet, antennas cabled out to where the coverage is needed, and a machine somewhere running the middleware that turns raw reads into something your system can use. The ID-EA500 collapses all three into one ceiling panel, 45 mm deep, fed by a single PoE cable.
Download the ID-EA500 datasheet (PDF, 3 pages)
Three systems, one enclosure
| Stage | What is in the panel |
|---|---|
| Read | Impinj E710 reader IC · integrated 12 dBi panel antenna array · EPC Gen2 / ISO/IEC 18000-63 · 865–868 MHz for India, other regional plans configurable |
| Think | Quad-core 64-bit ARM edge controller up to 2.0 GHz · 1 TOPS NPU · 2 GB LPDDR4X · 32 GB eMMC with microSD slot · Linux with ReaderSense Edge pre-installed |
| Deliver | On-board web console, nothing to install · zones, direction, rules and alerts · REST, HTTP POST, WebSocket and MQTT · fleet-managed through ReaderSense MDM |
What it reports — and what it does not
This is the part worth being clear about before anyone specifies it. The ID-EA500 produces zone-level presence and dwell, and direction of travel from RF phase — enough to distinguish approaching from receding and moving from static, which is what in/out counting at a doorway actually requires.
It does not produce x, y coordinates across a floor. A ceiling array is not an RTLS, and a buyer who expects coordinate-level positioning from one will be disappointed. If that is genuinely your requirement, read our comparison of active RFID, BLE and passive UHF for RTLS first — it is a different technology decision, not a different model number.
ReaderSense Edge, on the unit
- Live inventory — every tag in view with RSSI, antenna and last-seen, updated in real time in the on-board console.
- Zone presence — tags placed in zones with hysteresis and hold-times, so items do not flicker between areas at a boundary.
- Direction of travel — phase-based motion, the basis for in/out counting at doors.
- Rules and alerts — trigger relays, stack lights and webhooks on tag events, with an alert log.
- Store and forward — if the network drops, events queue on board (up to 200,000) and are delivered in order when the link returns. Specified for HTTP POST and WebSocket.
- Analytics and reconciliation — dwell, counts and trends, plus expected-versus-found reconciliation, with CSV export.
- Industrial I/O — 4 isolated inputs, 4 outputs (3 relays) and a Modbus RTU master over RS485 for PLCs and gates.
- Roles and audit — admin, operator and viewer roles with a full audit trail of changes made on the unit.
ReaderSense MDM, for the estate
Each reader dials out over an encrypted WebSocket, so there are no inbound ports, no VPN and no firewall changes at site. Issue an enrolment token, power the unit and it appears in the fleet. From one browser: health telemetry (CPU, memory, disk, temperature, reader link, inventory state, tag count, upload queue), a remote console into any unit, and remote software updates with automatic rollback if a unit fails to come back.
Specifications
| Reader IC | Impinj E710 |
| Air protocol | EPCglobal Gen2 / ISO/IEC 18000-63 |
| Frequency | 865–868 MHz (India); other regional plans configurable |
| Antenna | Integrated panel array, 12 dBi |
| RF output | Up to 33 dBm, software-adjustable |
| Read events | Continuous inventory with RSSI, phase and antenna per read |
| Processor | Quad-core 64-bit ARM, up to 2.0 GHz |
| NPU | 1 TOPS |
| Memory / storage | 2 GB LPDDR4X · 32 GB eMMC · microSD slot |
| OS | Linux, ReaderSense Edge pre-installed |
| Ethernet | 1 × 10/100/1000 Mbps, RJ45 |
| Wireless | Optional Wi-Fi 5 (2.4 / 5 GHz) or 4G LTE |
| Serial | RS232 and RS485 |
| Digital I/O | 4 opto-isolated inputs; 4 outputs (3 relays) |
| USB | 2 × USB 2.0 host, 1 × USB-C · UVC camera support |
| Data out | REST API · HTTP POST · WebSocket · MQTT 3.1.1 (TLS) · webhooks · Modbus RTU · CSV export |
| Power | PoE IEEE 802.3af / 802.3at (802.3at recommended); 9–24 V DC input |
| Dimensions | 500 × 500 × 45 mm |
| Mounting | Ceiling suspension, or 4 × M6 rear inserts on a 416 × 300 mm pattern |
| Operating temp. | −25 °C to +65 °C (edge controller) |
| Humidity | 5–95 % RH, non-condensing (edge controller) |
| Licence | Per unit, bound to the device by a signed key |
Full mechanical drawings are in the datasheet.
Where it suits
Overhead coverage of an area rather than a single lane: retail stock on shelf and floor, warehouse bay and aisle zones, dock doors read by direction, library stacks and returns, hospital equipment and linen, and office asset rooms.
Where it is not the right answer: a single narrow lane or boom barrier is usually better served by a gate reader, and a site needing several independently aimed read zones from one device may still want a multi-port fixed reader driving external antennas.
Certification, stated precisely
Identium is BIS certified, and our UHF readers and antennas are WPC-approved for India’s licence-exempt UHF RFID band. Read that as a statement about the company and its reader range rather than about this model: the ID-EA500 datasheet states no approval status of its own, so if you are writing it into a tender, ask us for the position on this specific model in writing. We do not hold CE, FCC, CCC, RoHS, REACH or ISO 9001 certification and do not claim them — if your market requires any of those marks, treat it as a real gap and ask every supplier for the certificate and its scope.
See it on your own ceiling
Coverage depends on mounting height, tag type, what the goods are made of and what else is in the room, so we would rather measure it than estimate it. Identium can run a site trial with the ID-EA500 and ReaderSense on your goods, at your mounting height. Talk to our team to arrange one.
Related reading
- UHF RFID readers: fixed, handheld, gate and desktop — where an overhead array sits in the range.
- Active RFID vs BLE vs passive UHF: choosing an RTLS — if you need coordinates rather than zones.
- ID-EA500: three boxes, one panel — what collapsing reader, antenna and middleware actually removes, and when it does not suit.
- Scoping an RFID project around read range and environment — what to settle before a trial.