How does the Zap machine work?
The Zap is a solar powered, wifi internet enabled RFID reader (now that is a mouthful). Sounds complicated, but it’s not so bad if you look at it piece by piece: On the top is a solar panel. The solar panel converts sunlight into electricity, and keeps the Zap’s battery charged up. In the middle is a control box. The battery is in there, along with a bunch of electronics that makes the whole thing work – think of it like a specialized computer. Also on the outside of the control box is a green light and a speaker. At the bottom is the RFID antenna. The angle of the RFID antenna can be adjusted to create the desired “field of vision” for the system. On some systems, up top is a wifi antenna that lets the Zap talk to the school wifi network and get on the internet to transfer its data to our web site database. So those are the basic parts – here is how it works: First of all, the system pretty much takes care of itself – it watches its battery level, and monitors the network connection,
