nRF52 as NFC reader

RE: nRF52 as NFC reader

Cristian Alistarh — Sat, 07 Jan 2017 11:49:21 GMT

Dear Jan, Thank you very much for your reply. Apologies for the delay. Yes, I2C is not the best, but it permits me to run nfc_tag_reader example with just a few modifications. I have not had the occasion to test it yet, but I ran another example with the board and it worked. I think your suggestion is great and I will try to include SPI in the next revision (or both). My main goal now is to include other tags for reading and writing, for which I have to write the libraries. Thank you for your wishes and I wish you a very good 2017!

RE: nRF52 as NFC reader

endnode — Wed, 21 Dec 2016 09:15:01 GMT

Hi Cristian, the board looks nice and clean, nice job! I'm wondering if I2C provides enough bandwidth in case you need to do some roundtrips between BLE MCU and PN532, solutions I know usually use faster SPI at 4 or 8 MHz. Also using nRF52840 might be useful because of larger buffer sizes SPIM (TWIM seems to be stuck at 8 bits = 255B which might be limiting in some cases, but I haven't studied PN532 wired protocols in detail). But as far as I know there is no "open hardware BLE equipped NFC reader" so it looks useful! I hope you get funded with your project. Cheers Jan

RE: nRF52 as NFC reader

Cristian Alistarh — Wed, 21 Dec 2016 08:40:01 GMT

Dear Jan,

I have made a device with both nRF52 and PN532 on the same board. I expect to start a Kickstarter campaign soon. You can find a picture here:devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../

Please let me know of you are still interested, or if you found your solution already.

Thanks, Cristian

RE: nRF52 as NFC reader

endnode — Fri, 10 Jun 2016 08:41:20 GMT

Hi Bartek, I'm pure SW developer and my knowledge of HW design is limited so I cannot judge these items from layout/PCB real estate/BOM cost point of view. I'd expect that for reader this isn't such a problem because HF (13.56MHz) contactless (NFC if you want) is such specific discipline that you need real expert to produce at least so-so tuning and then you simply take his recommendation (because saving few cents on BOM or similar is not worth months of learning and discovering completely new vendor/component). At least this is what I've seen during my professional career in smart card business;)

Cheers

RE: nRF52 as NFC reader

Bartek — Fri, 10 Jun 2016 06:17:47 GMT

Can you suggest any particular chip which is cheap and have the smallest amount external parts. I am considering between NXP PN532 and AS3909/AS3910 but maybe you have better option...

RE: nRF52 as NFC reader

michaeld — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 13:35:36 GMT

Thanks!---

RE: nRF52 as NFC reader

endnode — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 13:29:26 GMT

Hi michaeld,

I met NXP, ST Microelectronics and AMS in practice, I know that Infineon and Samsung Semiconductor have them in portfolio as well (no practical experience). If you want something really cheap I suppose EM Microelectronic (Electro Marin) will have something to offer as well. But if you are in this business you already have your sources and if you are not you better find some help or consultancy;)

Cheers Jan

RE: nRF52 as NFC reader

michaeld — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 13:07:05 GMT

Do you have an example of these cheap ICs?

RE: nRF52 as NFC reader

endnode — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 20:53:38 GMT

Little bit more precise answer could be: there is no way how to drive the 13.56 MHz field from nRF52 chip so doing NFC reader does not make sense. On the bright side: there are cheap ICs which will do this job for you so you will only pay by small additional cost + space on PCB and power if you really want this.

Cheers Jan

RE: nRF52 as NFC reader

dafields — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 19:29:56 GMT

no the nRF52 is only a TAG so cannot read other TAGs. A reader is required for that.