nfc News - Page 8 of 12 - CNX Software

October 1, 2014July 28, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

HydraBus is an Open Source Hardware STM32 Devkit with Support for NFC via HydraNFC Shield

Recently, I wrote about the public availability of a MicroPython board based on STMicro STM32F4 Cortex M4 support that can easily be programmed with Python. It turns out there’s another STM32 board called HydraBus, also supporting Micro Python firmware, or another embedded firmware based on ChibiOS, together with an optional HydraNFC shield capable of sniffing, reading/writing or emulating any 13.56MHz NFC tags. HydraBus Specifications: MCU – STMicro TM32F405RG micro-controller @ 168 MHz with 1MB flash, 192KB SRAM, and an FPU. External Storage – Micro SD card slot up to 48MHz (~24MB/s) Expansion Headers – 4 headers with access to 44 I/Os (some already used by micro SD and USB 1 & 2). USB – 2x micro USB connector including 1x OTG port, and 1x device/host port, both with ESD protection. Misc – Reset and user button, user LED, Power – 5V via micro USB port. Dimensions – 60mm x […]

September 1, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Broadcom Introduces WICED Sense Bluetooth Low Energy Development Kit

Broadcom has recently announced a new development board for IoT applications using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) called WICED Sense. The kit consists of a “sense tag” powered by the company’s BCM20737S Bluetooth SIP Module with five micro-electromechanical sensors (MEMS), and Bluetooth 4.1 compatible WICED SMART software stack. The key features of WICED Sense devkit are as follows: Broadcom BCM20737 Bluetooth Smart system in package (SiP) module Five low-power MEMS sensors by ST Micro (part of the module): Gyroscope (L3GD20) Accelerometer (LIS3DSH) eCompass (LSM303D) Pressure sensor (LPS25H) Humidity Temperature sensor (HTS221) Bluetooth Smart connection covers distance of roughly 30 meters. USB – 1x micro USB connector to update applications Encryption, decryption, certificate signing, verification and various algorithms for increased privacy Secure Over-the-air (OTA) download capability to enable firmware updates from central device including smartphone, tablet and computers Misc – iBeacon, NFC, Wireless charging (Rezence A4WP) support. Power – Coin-cell battery The […]

July 11, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

$70 MicroNFCBoard Brings NFC Connectivity to Any Board or Device (Crowdfunding)

AppNearMe MicroNFCBoard is a development platform for Near Field Communication (NFC) comprised of an NFC transceiver, an NXP MCU, and all software stack and tools you need for development. This board also exposes various I/Os that allows you to connect to external hardware or devices, and it can be used with an Arduino, Raspberry Pi, mbed or PC/Mac. Let’s go through the board specifications first: MCU – NXP LPC11U34FHN33/421 Cortex M0 MCU @ 48MHz, with 10KB RAM, 48KB FLASH, 4KB EEPROM NFC Transceiver – NXP PN512. Reader/Writer and card operation modes supporting ISO14443A/Mifare and FeliCa schemes. NFCIP-1 mode Splittable antenna USB – 1x micro USB port for power and programming I/O – 20x through holes with access to serial (UART), I2C, SPI, 4x ADC inputs, IRQ, Boot and Reset, and power pins. (2x pin header that you can solder are provided) Misc – Reset and bootloader enable push-buttons, 2x LEDs. […]

June 22, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

NFC Tags Now Sell for Just 50 Cents

Your smartphone’s NFC capabilities don’t have to be used only for payment or marketing purposes, and NFC tags can allow to create some sort of real-life short cuts to do various things by simply tapping your phone on the tag including: Automatically enable and configure Wi-Fi. This can be convenient if you are friend coming to your home, and they can just tap on the tag to get Wi-Fi access without the need to know the password Home automation – You can control items in your home, i.e. turn on/off your computer, lights, doors, etc… with a tag. Virtual Business Card – You can store your contact details in a tag and share your data with others quickly and easily. More use cases can be found on “18 Creative & Useful Ways To Use NFC Tags With Your Smartphone” post on trendblog, and it can even be used as a […]

June 12, 2014June 12, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Soap is a Touchscreen Enabled Router Supporting Gigabit Ethernet and Lots of Wireless Standards (Crowdfunding)

Soap is a strange creature, and I’m not convinced there are that many use cases for such hardware, but I find it interesting that the developers decided to pack a Freescale i.MX6 Solo/Dual or Quad SoC powered Android 4.4 tablet and a router supporting five Gigabit Etherner ports, as well as WiFI 802.11ac, Wi-0Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Zigbee, Z-wave, Bluetooth 4.0 (BLE), Insteon RF, X10, 433Mhz, NFC, and infrared into one and only device which they call an “Intelligent Home Management Hub”. It’s also complete with an HDMI output port so that you can use it as a media player. Let’s go through the specifications for the four version this little monster (Soap Solo, Soap Dual, Soap Quad, and Soap 8.4): SoC Soap Solo – Freescale i.MX6 Solo single ARM Cortex A9 @ 1 GHz with Vivante GC880 3D GPU Soap Dual – Freescale i.MX6 Dual dual ARM Cortex A9 @ […]

April 30, 2014April 30, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Dimple NFC Sticker Adds Four Hardware Buttons to Your Android Device (Crowdfunding)

If you’d like to add one button to your Android smartphone, you could use pressy. But what if you wanted or needed more. Dimple may provide a solution if your Android smartphone or tablet supports NFC. It is a thin NFC sticker, about 0.5mm thick, that you can attach to the back of your device to add 4 hardware buttons. The sticker is compatible with devices running Android 4.0 and above, not made out of metal, and with NFC support. This means HTC One M7 and M8 smartphone are not compatible due to their metallic bodies. Using the NFC sticker appears to be extra simple. Once you’ve sticked your Dimple to the back of your device (or your case), simply install Dimple.io app to configure the buttons to do what you want to: launch your favorite apps, take a picture, turn on & off the flash light, call your mum, […]

April 21, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Mediatek MT8639 Wi-Fi Display SoC to Support 802.11ac, NFC

Wi-Fi display technologies such as Miracast and Airplay allow you to conveniently mirror your mobile device on your TV without the needs to connect any cables, and for over about a year we’ve seen Miracast, Airplay, DLNA, and EZcast dongles on the market. In theory, this is all great, but in practice, this is all too often disappointing because of lag, sometimes the video quality is very poor, and sometimes it won’t connect. Mediatek is now working on MT8639 supporting 802.11ac which will hopefully offer a more consistent and enjoyable user experience, if your mobile device also supports 802.11ac. Here are the main features of the chip: ARM Cortex A7 @ 1 GHz Wi-Fi Dual band 2.4Ghz and 5 GHz 802.11 b/g/n/ and 802.11ac Wifi-Direct, Wi-Fi SoftAP, and Wi-Fi Bridge support Optional NFC support Wi-Fi Display – DLNA, Airplay, Miracast, “Windows” mirror Video Output – HDMI 1.4 / MHL 2.0 […]

March 14, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Mediatek Hotknot is a Low Cost Alternative to NFC for Chinese Phones

NFC first started to be found in phones running Android 2.3 in 2010, and most flagship smartphones integrate NFC. But in China, at least, the story is different with about 10 percent of smartphones enabled with NFC, according to Mediatek. That’s partly why the company has designed Hotknot proximity technology, which is in theory capable of anything NFC does, but comes at a lower cost. Contrary to NFC, Hotknot it does not require RF transceiver and antenna, but instead relies on a new type of capacitor touch driver IC designed for touch screens combined with data from a gravity sensor (G-sensor) to ensures the actual contact, and a proximity sensor (P-sensor) to detects the presence of nearby objects. It’s not clear when the first smartphone with the technology will hit the “e-store”, but HaoJung Li, product marketing manager of MediaTek’s wireless communications business unit, told EETimes, that every MediaTek customer, […]