Overview Sometimes also called tag provisioning or tag writing, tag encoding refers to the process of configuring an NFC tag and writing data to it in order to prepare it for use. For advanced tags this can include configuring filesystems and setting authentication keys, but for most uses of NFC tags, this just consists of formatting the tag for NDEF data and writing an initial NDEF message set to it.

Introduction Here at TapTrack, one of the first decisions we have to make when starting any new project is what type of NFC tag we intend to use. With a lot of different tag technologies on the market many having wildly varying capabilities and capacities, this decision is not as simple as one would hope, and it often has a huge impact on what the resulting project will look like.

Using the TapTrack Tappy for easy NFC on Node By putting high-level NFC application logic on the reader itself, the TapTrack Tappy family of NFC Readers provides a simple way to add NFC to any project. Now with a Node Serial Port-compatible SDK, you can be off and running toward a neat NFC application in [...]

Introduction In many applications, it is desirable to protect NFC tags from unauthorized writing, and occasionally from unauthorized reading as well. For instance, if one was using NFC tags to provide a convenient way for customers to learn more about a product, it would be very bad if the tags were overwritten to instead send customers to a phishing site. Therefore, all of the common tag technologies have some sort of anti-tampering provisions.

Today, we regularly spoiled by very cheap, compact memory to the point where 16 gigabytes on a microSD card the size of a postage stamp is not only unremarkable, but has become expected; however, in NFC chips, cost, small die sizes and low power usage are of critical importance. Therefore, there is very little memory on most NFC chips — an NXP MIFARE Ultralight only has 48 bytes of read/write memory.

Introduction A topic that is beginning to come up more and more these days is the difference between an NFC reader chip and an NFC controller chip. This would be something considered by those who require an NFC reader for a custom application where the off the shelf reader is not feasible for some reason. I decided to write a knowledge base article about this very important distinction. The designer must pay close attention when selecting which one is the best option for the project.

What is NFC? Near Field Communication (NFC) is a short-range wireless communication standard similar to BLE or Wi-Fi, but works over short range typically 10cm or less. NFC is a radio frequency (RF) signal initiated by an active NFC device such as a smartphone or reader, and another active or passive device such as an NFC tag to transfer data. All NFC tags consist of an antenna coil and a small chip that is bonded to the antenna.