Anybody playing with NFC?

techguy

Hey All!

Is anybody around here been working with NFC in any capacity? I'd like to develop something around it as part of my college final year project.

I found this USB reader/writer for around $50. Looks like what i'd need to get started but I can't find any info on the SDK for it?

I'm worried that the SDK could be costly.

Any ideas?

Cheers.

srsly78

Nexus S has a reader/writer, and features are exposed in later versions of android sdk. Last I checked there were bits not implemented so couldn't really test it.

However the big feature that android 2.3.7 adds is "google wallet support", which adds some missing security stuff I assume.

ressem

No haven't looked at it but...

it's an early technology so rather than buying the device then hunting for an SDK, you might want to look at what libraries are available first then sourcing a compatible device.

A common NFC chip is meant to be the NXP PN532 and 533 (apparently, allegedly, aimed at general purpose use)
and a compatible library is...
http://www.libnfc.org/documentation/hardware/compatibility

According to that the device you're looking at has

Important note for beginners: currently, the ACR122 device (and variant like touchatag) is the easiest product to buy but it also have the worst support: the device causes many problems with libnfc (and underlayer PC/SC) and somes are not fixable (ie. emulation is bogus)

Of the other devices they list, the device
http://www.scmmicrousa.com/product/contactless-mobile-reader-scl3711.htm

seems more compatible and easily purchasable without posing as a business.

The page at
http://www.adafruit.com/products/364
has links to a tutorial on using the chip with linux and the datasheets.

--

According to the BUILD exhibition that Microsoft had recently
http://channel9.msdn.com/events/BUILD/BUILD2011/HW-269T
http://channel9.msdn.com/events/BUILD/BUILD2011/PLAT-270T

Microsoft windows 8 devices will be working on the NXP PN544 which is optimised for mobile devices, but not commonly available in an adapter form.

techguy

Plenty of reading there, cheers!

Yes, it looks like that reader is the best solution. I'll keep looking, the ADA Fruit solution looks, I'll have to dust off the soldering iron

ressem

Well the adafruit one is for use with Arduino and the like, but on the page, under 'tutorials' they have links like
http://www.microbuilder.eu/Blog/11-02-19/Using_libnfc_with_the_PN532_Linux.aspx

and the 200 page user manual for the 532
http://www.adafruit.com/datasheets/pn532um.pdf