pine 140 Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 Hi All, I'm looking at this booster pack which is now available from TI estore. http://www.ti.com/tool/dlp-7970abp Appreciate any advice from the forum. Not have a specific project goal, but since I don't own anything NFC and also apparently this boosterpack can read Felica card (a major transportation card standard where I live), this looks pretty appealing. My wife's phone is NFC capable so some experiments with it is also cool (short experiments only, of course ) Specific questions: 1. From the documentation, the NFC Link software seems to be using serial to communicate. Are the commands / response available publicly so that the firmware can be utilized without the NFC link software? 2. What kind of card is included? Is it kind of "soft" tag, or a hard card? Thanks in advance. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
spirilis 1,265 Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 I got this one via the PotM, I never actually used the BPak but the tag that comes is a soft one... sticker style. It's small, 48 bytes or something, I was able to use my phone to read/write to it with NXP's NFC app for Android. It's funny you started this thread because I was just going to play with the boosterpack last night I wanted to try TivaWare's nfclib, but it looks like nfclib is only designed for P2P applications (not sure if that actually works with a dedicated tag... I don't know enough about NFC and its protocols yet.) At some point I should make a gadget using this, perhaps for the NY MakerFaire so I can showcase it at TI's table or something :-) pine 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Fred 453 Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 I've bought one of the 7970A booster packs and it shipped a few days ago. I'll let you know how I get on when it arrives. I'll mostly be concerned about the read range for embedded glass tags. For reading cards the 7970A is the right device. For interacting with a phone (which normally operates in reader mode) you might be better looking at the dynamic tag side of things like the RF430CL330H. There's a booster pack for this also made by DLP but I can see it in the TI store - only TI's target board. Phones can act as a NFC tag, but I believe you need an app running to actively do this. pine 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Fred 453 Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 My BP just arrived (along with another 100 bubble wrap bags of course). You get two transparent tags. One is a rectangular sticker and the other a thin circular piece of plastic with the IC actually exposed on one side. Quite unusual. They both contain a 256 byte IEC 15693 compatible TI Tag-it HF-I Plus IC.What I find intriguing is that the BP is significantly cheaper that the DLP RFID2 module it contains. The module on the BP lacks the external antenna connector of the standalone RFID2 module andaccording to the datasheet it's also missing an on-board MSP430F5342. It does however have a SBW header, so if it turns out that this BP doesn't have the range for glass tags (and DLP warned me that it might not) then I might do a teardown and perhaps even re-install one. pine 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rei Vilo 695 Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 My BP just arrived (along with another 100 bubble wrap bags of course).I love those bubble wrap bags... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Fred 453 Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 Watch out. I have your address and might send them all to you! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Fred 453 Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 If anyone's interested, the booster pack can just about read the implanted glass tag if it's pressed right against the PCB antenna track. In the centre of the coil doesn't work at all. I have found a cheap eBay reader that has a slightly better range. I wonder whether a smaller antenna might actually work better with the small tag. I mighty try some antenna designs if I get a chance but I guess it isn't basic stuff for a PCB newbie like me. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
zeke 693 Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 I think we need to add a Borg icon right beside Fred's laser cutter icon. bluehash, pine, spirilis and 1 other 4 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
pine 140 Posted June 25, 2014 Author Share Posted June 25, 2014 Thank you all for your input I got this one via the PotM, I never actually used the BPak but the tag that comes is a soft one... sticker style. It's small, 48 bytes or something, I was able to use my phone to read/write to it with NXP's NFC app for Android. It's funny you started this thread because I was just going to play with the boosterpack last night I wanted to try TivaWare's nfclib, but it looks like nfclib is only designed for P2P applications (not sure if that actually works with a dedicated tag... I don't know enough about NFC and its protocols yet.) At some point I should make a gadget using this, perhaps for the NY MakerFaire so I can showcase it at TI's table or something :-) Congras! My BP just arrived (along with another 100 bubble wrap bags of course). You get two transparent tags. One is a rectangular sticker and the other a thin circular piece of plastic with the IC actually exposed on one side. Quite unusual. They both contain a 256 byte IEC 15693 compatible TI Tag-it HF-I Plus IC.What I find intriguing is that the BP is significantly cheaper that the DLP RFID2 module it contains. The module on the BP lacks the external antenna connector of the standalone RFID2 module andaccording to the datasheet it's also missing an on-board MSP430F5342. It does however have a SBW header, so if it turns out that this BP doesn't have the range for glass tags (and DLP warned me that it might not) then I might do a teardown and perhaps even re-install one. Two tags is great! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
spirilis 1,265 Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 I think we need to add a Borg icon right beside Fred's laser cutter icon. Paging @@bluehash to make this happen :-) bluehash and pine 2 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bluehash 1,581 Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 +1, He's a borg now. @@spirilis @@zeke @@Fred Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Fred 453 Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 Awesome! Although you realize this now means that I have to assimilate you all. bluehash 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
zeke 693 Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 HA HA HA HA!!!!!! I was just being cheeky!! @@Fred, Quick! You need to write a blog post about it because you need to get HackADay'd now! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Fred 453 Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 Mathieu Stephan over at Hackaday has also just got one. We are taking over the world! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
zeke 693 Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 Has anyone said 666 to you yet? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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